Thread: Coticule vs BBW

Originally Posted by DZEC

Did you finish with edge leading strokes on the BBW as in the experiment?

I finished with regular edge leading strokes, I forgot about the stropping stroke to finish.

Very good results nonetheless!

Interesting thread, pretty much the same information and conclusions that have been made before and opens the pandora’s box that is, “The French Hones” and their ability to finish an edge. Coticul.be is the source for Coticule information.

It is but another rabbit hole. Sadly, the sources for the real information are lost daily. But the stones are still here and there for those wishing to look.

The BBW of natural backed Coticules can vary wildly, they are after all naturals. Naturals are mystery and an entertaining pursuit.

Here are a couple of threads to start you down the hole. (French hones), (Loraine, Salm, Goldfisch). Fun stuff.

I have been testing some coti's and all have the maroon variety so it will be cool to test those. One thing I can add is I noticed that the bbw side can give a nice kasumi finish on super aogami steel.

Nice collection. Five of those look quite large.

I have a Robeson Shuredge that’s been giving me some issues.

Dulled the edge on glass and then did 60 half-strokes with thick slurry on the coticule with 1 layer of electrical tape to rebuild the bevel.

Then went to the BBW:
- 50 half-strokes with thick slurry
- 50 X-strokes on thinner slurry
- 50 spine leading light X-strokes on very thin slurry

The edge was OK - shaved arm hairs easily and passed TPT. I have never had any success with HTT, so didn’t even try that.

I felt the edge could be much better, so I abandoned the experimental protocol and finished with 50 very light X-strokes on the coticule under running water. The edge definitely got better.

Did a shave test. Comfortable. Did not feel overly keen, but I got a BBS after 1 pass and only a few 2nd pass touch ups.

So I guess I took the edge from bevel set to finished using that one stone and got a comfortable and close shave. Can’t ask for more than that.

I took a full hollow ground 5/8 razor through the exact procedure as outlined on coticule.be tonight. It seemed very promising. I shaved with it and the overall result was a very close shave but it had the usual keenness I experience with coticule edges. It didn’t tug on the hair but there was a noticeable resistance. It was a comfortable shave but afterwards there was a slight burn from the AS and my face felt itchy in spots indicating minor irritation.

My thuringian edges are so much better all around but I will say this. The BBW edge was pretty easy to get and it wasn’t a bad shave. I will give it another go in a few days.

I have one BBW from Ardennes that produces a decent shaving edge for me. It has diagonal inclusion streaking and feels smoother than others I have received. My guess is that it was cut differently than most BBWs.

Crappy picture as attached, so my apologies, but it's the one shown on the left, whereas the one on the right is more typical of current production.

Originally Posted by Brontosaurus

I have one BBW from Ardennes that produces a decent shaving edge for me. It has diagonal inclusion streaking and feels smoother than others I have received. My guess is that it was cut differently than most BBWs.

Crappy picture as attached, so my apologies, but it's the one shown on the left, whereas the one on the right is more typical of current production.

Nice looking stone. I’m picking up a reddish coloration in both stones. Is that a true representation of the actual colour? The BBW side of mine is more bluish grey.

Here's an attempt at a surface picture of my La Grise's BBW side, gray - purple tints

https://i.imgur.com/SJFgSQI.jpg

Originally Posted by Steel

I have been revisiting coticules recently with less than satisfactory results. I am interested in doing this and have been wondering, as the OP has, if there is less variation in the BBW stones. I’ll give it a shot multiple times in the next few weeks and post some results and thoughts here. Fun thread.

As far as I was able to test, they vary. The best one I ever found was a very hard and dense layer and it gave a truly shaving edge, that most cotis don't even deliver. But that is it. Just that one piece from a pile of stones over the years. Most are middle performance, some are extremely soft, difficult to hone on. Those in the middle vary as well, but users just don't really care by how much. I have a very soft spot for naturals and I try anything. That's the only reason I know this. The "other side" was never considered razor worthy to try by most people I know using coticules.