Quote Originally Posted by bobski View Post
The allure of the natural stones is strong. People get caught up in the romanticism of them. About 18 months ago I went down the coticule path. I'm not criticising coticules generally, but I had no good fortune in them. I bought two 8 x 3 select grades, and another two bouts. After converting half a dozen razors over to their edge I was disappointed badly. The shave wasn't good at all. I'm not arrogant enough to blame the coticule entirely, but I do know how to hone. I sold them at a loss.
Now I've gone back into naturals. I bought the stones above, the Ozuku then the Wakasa. I've gotten great results from both of them, so now I have that confidence to really contemplate getting a few more. If feel, that the noise about them is justified. I remember when I first got edges from the Gok 20 and raved about how sharp they were. They are still the sharpest edges going round! They are acute though, really clinically sharp, one slip and your cut!.
I noticed with my Ozuku that, yeah they were sharp, they did a nice job. Not a Gok 20 edge, but a toned down version, it felt as though I could have closed my eyes and not cut myself. I guess they are more forgiving. That's not a bad thing. Anybody have any conclusions coming off 20k edges?
I never liked the gok edge. I don't think it's more refined, I think it's less.

I found the same thing with coticules as you. You can finish with all of the ones suitable for razors, but they are not as reliable as jnats (jnats are generally different in speed, but only lacking fineness if a seller lies to you and says something like "you can finish a razor with this stone with a little work". Good jnats don't require you to do much other than rub a razor on them, and good doesn't mean expensive, it just means fine with no toxic stuff and not too soft).

In my opinion, natural stone edges stay more consistent and are more amenable to linen (good linen, not some modern coarse untreated incantation) and good leather.

I sold my gok a long time ago. It makes a usable edge, but because of the mechanism of delivery, short of what you could do if you just used graded chromium oxide. You will get better with the jnats than you are with the gok. I never use any powders any longer, just natural stones and seldom honing.

Side comment - I'd bet 100 years ago, people using coticules both had better stones on average (the ones that pike imported, etc) for razors and at the same time, often didn't remove the entire edge when honing, because the edge that's been subjected to a couple of hundred trips to good leather and linen will surpass any edge that's freshly honed. You just have to mind the thickness of the edge itself and work the bevel to keep it from getting fat and dull.