Thread: Advice on purchasing a coticule

Well if you really hate it that much, and want to sell it at a rock bottom price

Originally Posted by kaptain_zero

dinnermint makes an excellent point that I too have followed.

I NEVER use a diamond plate for raising slurry on a coticule, only another piece of coticule as a slurry stone. Why? Coticules are made from larger garnet crystals (think glass) and sharp shards of diamond will easily fragment those garnets, leaving sharp pieces in the slurry or sticking out of the substrate. Gently using a cotigura (small coticule hone meant for raising a slurry) will be more likely to release the garnets from the substrate without harm and it is their round soccer ball shape that makes them work so well. I have no proof of course, but it seems to work for me, so that's my theory.

I do use a diamond plate to initially flatten a coticule (I did it once, maybe 15 years ago) and after that I have cleaned the surface with a cotigura and only use that for cleaning, raising a slurry or refreshing the surface. My coticule is rather hard and does not seem to auto slurry like many of them do, so it has not dished on me. But even if it did, it would have a long way to go based on the old hones we occasionally find that were used until they looked like a saddle.

Regards

Christian

It would seem to me if you used diamond on a coticule the hardness of diamond is so much greater than the matrix and the garnets the diamond would quickly pulverize the garnets and force them to be released at a much greater rate. The softer the slurry stone the fewer garnets released and the more likelihood the garnets would retain their xtline shape.

Just a guess.

I love my three coticule. Each is a select grade. I do have my preference though. My advice is not so much on the purchase of one but the learning to use it. Read and watch videos all you can. I recommend the follow four part series by drmatt357 from YouTube in your research. The embedded video is part four, which I regard as the most informative. You can find the first three parts yourself.

https://youtu.be/to5Z-EFGDBY

Dieseld - seriously considered it a time or two. But even at a discount I wouldn't wish this curse on another if this rock is as bad a razor hone as I think it is. And if it isn't then I want to figure out what I'm doing wrong with it.

Might still be an excellent knife/tool hone. It cuts steel quick and polishes decent. Just doesn't make a comfortable shaving edge.

Was kinda messing with ya, but..........


I'm a gluton for punishment

Marshal, check out this video. He goes into problem coticule stones

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to5Z-EFGDBY

oops same one Laonhaultanker posted.


But this guy is good explaining the stones and how he gets the best edge

Yep, I've seen that video. Cliff's notes:

Circles are bad (unless you do enough normal X's to get rid of errant stria going the length of the blade)
Honing under running water is good for a soft stone that auto slurries excessively.

I actually don't think my hone falls into that second category, I don't really see the blade kicking up a lot of yellow particulate matter when honing. I'm leaning toward it just having slightly larger garnets than one might want in a finisher. Either that or a lot of garnets I shattered with a diamond flattening stone making a scratchy bevel.

I'll keep playing with it on the off chance it's user error and not the rock. Might just be waiting on an epiphany or 'Aha!' moment for everything to come together. I suppose there's a reason some guys spend months fiddling with these things before it all comes together.

Circles are inherently difficult for me as well. Mainly because the pressure seems to be heavier than my x stroke with my heavy pressure, this requires an asinine amount of time to remove the scratches.

I typically try to do feather light circles followed by "medium" preasure x strokes.

I don't even use circles, I've found half strokes just as effective at moving metal without the side effect of wayward scratches. But this is getting away from the OP's topic somewhat.

I have loose plans to get another in the future, but I will most likely get one from a user/collector that simply wants to trade a good coticule off. Ardennes would be my second choice, and Mr. Shechter (sp?) or Lynn Abrams @ SRD pretty much tied for third. Which brings a rather wild thought to mind. If Lynn were willing to do it, purchasing a razor and coticule from him with the provision that the razor be honed on the coticule they send would easily make them my first choice. Then you know for sure your coticule is good, and you have an edge honed by the hands of someone with some odd 50k razors and counting under their belt to compare your work to.

It really lets you see a lot more magnified that far. Helps give a lot more info to learne from. I only can go to 150x might look into some stronger magnification. Guessing that should help speed up the learning process with being able to see what each stone does in that much detail.