Thread: coticule help

Originally Posted by tintin

Yeah, I agree. Just thought I'd give it another try. I mean, it was only $3.00 and surely shavers of old didn't "learn the stone". You know it wasn't a hobby to them. Maybe they just settled for good enough and pasted the crap out of them?

Maybe they used the Swaty afterwards!

Originally Posted by rolodave

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You dislike Coti's and natural hones but like Tabac. Just tryingt to give you a hard time......

Originally Posted by tintin

Yeah, I agree. Just thought I'd give it another try. I mean, it was only $3.00 and surely shavers of old didn't "learn the stone". You know it wasn't a hobby to them. Maybe they just settled for good enough and pasted the crap out of them?

Many of them probably didn't have the option of buying 100 hones and finding wich one worked best for them and their blade. Therefore they would have to settle for the best they could get and learn the hone as they went.

See, I love all the mystery of the stone and the navigation to mastery. Seeing a rock in the bed in front of Red Lobster and saying, "Hmmm. I'll bet I could hone a razor on that," I mean...it's an adventure everywhere I go!!!

Me when I have mastered the natural stone.

Originally Posted by OCDshaver

This thread is the reason I went the synthetic route and have never looked back.

I understand that,
I bought the Naniwa pro 1K, 3K and 5K and it has made my life much easier.
They're a treat to hone on tbh.
I use my 1K and 3K most, I don't use my 5K much. I then go to naturals. But that bevel set is so crucial and I really don't enjoy wearing out my Coticules just for that.

For the longest time I could only use the Escher as a finisher as it was the only finish I liked.
I used my BBWs and Cotis as in between stones, but now recently after finishing on my Coticules with fine machine oil / mineral oil, I get a shave that easily us up to par with my Eschers. Noting that all my Escher are flawless finishers, super smooth and super sharp, leaving you with nothing more to be desired.

I don't like petroleum based oils much, so I will try out some more "natural" alternatives to the mineral oil. 100% Neatsfoot oil comes to mind, I ordered some to revive some old horn scales, but I'll give a try honing with it, too.

Try glycerine in water. It’s water soluble and cleans off the coticule very easily leaving no residue at all. You have to experiment a bit with the ratio of glycerine to water to find the concentration that works best for you.

I also use glycerine to do the finish strokes on my Vermio and la Lune stones. Still figuring those out.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Try glycerine in water. It’s water soluble and cleans off the coticule very easily leaving no residue at all. You have to experiment a bit with the ratio of glycerine to water to find the concentration that works best for you.

I also use glycerine to do the finish strokes on my Vermio and la Lune stones. Still figuring those out.

Good suggestion, will certainly try it out very soon!

The Smith's Honing Solution is my go to for most of my oilstones, especially the Arks. It too is water soluble and thins nicely with a spritz of water. I got on this full Ark progression craze a while back and that stuff was a game changer as it floats the swarf better (on an Ark at least) than anything else I have ever used.

I love that ark progression and the way I do it it actually goes faster than you'd think. That's my favorite edge.

Many thanks, glycerine was maybe not my favorite.
I went to olive oil again, but first let it saturate the stone a bit, I think it did pretty well, haven't shaved off of it though, but felt really pleasant to hone on.

Check out this video, it's an oldie, but on "second grade" Coticules, they used to melt resin in the stones and then polish them up.
There seems to have been a lot of surface prep in the older days.
They get worked on by a few different stones and "glazed", very interesting.

https://youtu.be/OEOEggYgskU?t=1252

No idea which resin it is.

On the topic of taking care of your Coticule / BBW surface. I do believe dressing your honing surface can be crucial for these stones.
I remember on the old Coticule forum, people that freshly lapped their Coti with a BBW slurry stone, got much better results afterwards.
So if you used a diamond stone to lap your Coticule, I would suggest to rub it well and prep your surface with a Coti or BBW stone. And see if that makes a difference.