Thread: coticule help

thanks for the good info fellas! Does lubrication of different types sort of hold the edge away from the stone so that it's touching it lightly thus giving it a finer effect?

I have to use lather to tame the garnets, then they work for me, but I see you already tried that.
I have some old harder Coticules, resembling a La Veinette or La Dressante vein, I honed one up yesterday going from the BBW with lather to the Coti with lather.
Test shaved without stropped and it was very good. Oil didn't give me a satisfactory result though. It was a Swedish steel razor though, that's some damn fine steel.
But I really don't like to finish on water on my Coticules.

Originally Posted by tintin

thanks for the good info fellas! Does lubrication of different types sort of hold the edge away from the stone so that it's touching it lightly thus giving it a finer effect?

I think the garnets in the Coti and BBW are special and don't really clog easily or round off/wear down as with other stones. That advantage is that these stones keep cutting very well all the time.

I like the Coticule effect on my skin, but I have to modify the interaction with the Coti's garnets and the steel from my razors to achieve a smoother edge. Oil or lather would help, lather is what I prefer and works best for me. Very slick lather.

And one major tip I once received. Hone while holding the stone in hand, find the center of the stone and balance that middle just short on your fingertips so it JUST stays on your hands. IF you were to apply too much pressure on the razor, the stone would tip over and fall, ergo you keep just enough and the right amount of pressure to keep the razor flat on the stone. That has done wonders for me.

Just to reinforce the depth of information available on SRP, I provide the following link to an article from, I think, our previous contributor.

https://sharprazorpalace.com/honing/...ience-bbw.html

I find hand soap to work very well at squeezing out extra sharpness out of the coticule. Going back and forth from stropping to finishing on the stone also helps zero in on that edge you are seeking. My metric being how well it performs on the HHT.

Maybe I should try lapping the BBW side as see what that does. It doesn't look like it's been used or lapped.

Make sure it actually is BBW. Many coticules (most) have a slate glued backing to support the coti side, which is much softer than BBW and could crack without support.

this one has a slight purple ish color. Is that a BBW?

Originally Posted by tintin

thanks for the good info fellas! Does lubrication of different types sort of hold the edge away from the stone so that it's touching it lightly thus giving it a finer effect?

Just use water only. You do not need to have water running.
If the shave is ok then maybe try oil on it. I use ALL mine with water