Thread: Finishing hone

Also in Europe, folks like to use a pasted strop afterwards, if finishing with a coticule as to stones. At least that's been my experience in observing things in France.

I found that for myself the Naniwa 12K hone can sometimes give a sharp but harsh feeling edge. I now as a matter of routine strop on a crox sprayed felt hanging strop after the 12K Naniwa. This seem to eliminate any harshness and gives me a smooth comfortable shave. Sounds like it might have a similar effect as using a coticule with water after a synthetic honing progression.

Bob

Originally Posted by Pithor

I think there are plenty of people who finish on a coticule, I do pretty much exclusively.

Bear in mind that this forum is not the be all and end all in wet shaving, as it is rather USA centric. Nothing wrong with that per se, but for instance, as far as I know, in Europe the coticule is still relatively popular.

I also often wonder how people on the forum that find coticules lacking use them. For instance, if you are to go through a synthetic progression, say up to 12k and then finish on a coticule, but find the finish lacking in comparison to an exclusively synthetic edge, it's quite likely that something went wrong previous to the coticule; most coticules really do not do all that much on water only, apart from smoothing out an edge.

Best regards,

Pieter

I have only a few occasions to discuss directly with people who finish on coticules, and one of the things that I think prove your point, is how many of them will go to the coticle after a 10 or 12k stone, but start with slurry. I know from my OWN experience, I am not so good using them with slurry, but with straight water as a final finish, I do just fine. I suspect many people are in the same boat as me, and simply lack the experience to get the full potential, and likely screw up by undoing what they already have accomplished on synthetics

Originally Posted by Magpie

I have only a few occasions to discuss directly with people who finish on coticules, and one of the things that I think prove your point, is how many of them will go to the coticle after a 10 or 12k stone, but start with slurry. I know from my OWN experience, I am not so good using them with slurry, but with straight water as a final finish, I do just fine. I suspect many people are in the same boat as me, and simply lack the experience to get the full potential, and likely screw up by undoing what they already have accomplished on synthetics

My point exactly. Slurry after 10/12k (maybe even 8k) doesn't make much sense to me, as the sharpening (final honing, even) would be pretty much done and slurry would undo a large part of that.

It's still mostly conjecture on my part to be honest though, as most people don't tend to write how they finish on a coticule when they mention that they do.

I've been meaning to post something longer about how I finish on my coti's, as all my edges are either coti or escher finish.

I've found with mine (6 of them) finish best on water only laps that are light but not feather light. The largest difference is surface prep. One's good with a light rubbing with the slurry stone, one needs a 2k sandpaper finish and 1 needs 100's of laps with steel. The last is very coarse and I bevel set with it.

Many have mentioned that coti's aren't keen enough and I thought so too, but developing my stropping technique and increasing the laps helps greatly. The edges continue to improve through ~10 shaves and my most used razor probably has 60+ shaves with no refreshing

I do have a naniwa 12k and will sell it, it's just too harsh... Same thing with pastes/sprays I have used.

Not all 8k stones are the same..which one do you use?

All of my stones are naniwa superstones, sorry I should've mentioned that

Originally Posted by dinnermint

I've been meaning to post something longer about how I finish on my coti's, as all my edges are either coti or escher finish.

I've found with mine (6 of them) finish best on water only laps that are light but not feather light. The largest difference is surface prep. One's good with a light rubbing with the slurry stone, one needs a 2k sandpaper finish and 1 needs 100's of laps with steel. The last is very coarse and I bevel set with it.

Many have mentioned that coti's aren't keen enough and I thought so too, but developing my stropping technique and increasing the laps helps greatly. The edges continue to improve through ~10 shaves and my most used razor probably has 60+ shaves with no refreshing

I do have a naniwa 12k and will sell it, it's just too harsh... Same thing with pastes/sprays I have used.

Try a coticule, those stones are the complete opposite of harsh.

In the very beginning of that post I said I only finish on my coticules or my escher. The spirit of the post was to elaborate on my philosophy on where I get great edges, not a "I need hone help" post.

To elaborate further:
I take all of my edges through to an 8k naniwa super stone finish. Then jump to a coti or escher. I find that these two give me exceptionally smooth and keen edges, as long as my stropping is good.

On slurrying:
The escher is the only thing I use slurry on, and even then it isn't necessary. I do it because I have a slurry stone and it's neat. I haven't witnessed that much of a reduction in honing time to get a solid edge using slurry. In some cases, my la grise coti in particular, slurry will not only degrade the edge but significantly damage the edge.

My earlier post was more to describe how I obtain success with coti's and that relies more on the finish of the surface of hone than how I use the hone to finish. It was particularly difficult for me to learn to use my first couple coticules, as I fell into the different method for using a coti.

Originally Posted by dinnermint

On slurrying:
The escher is the only thing I use slurry on, and even then it isn't necessary. I do it because I have a slurry stone and it's neat. I haven't witnessed that much of a reduction in honing time to get a solid edge using slurry. In some cases, my la grise coti in particular, slurry will not only degrade the edge but significantly damage the edge.

I've incorporated slurry since I began honing and use it on the Chosera 1k, the Naniwa SS 3-5-8k, and my b/g Escher when used as the finisher. Glen's Naniwa YT honing videos show his proven method I'm following, and the results have been very predictable and effective. In terms of finishing hone, I'm only using slurry with the Escher, my only natural.

As for the SG20k, I've gotten a lot more time on the hone and some good advice from Jamie that have dramatically improved my results for this incredibly fine hone. In a matter of weeks, the SG20k has quickly become my go-to finishing hone. For my Solingen blades, I will occasionally finish with the Escher.