Thread: How often do you lap your coticule?

Yup, I think most Barber's back in "the day" hardly, if ever lapped a hone. I could be wrong. There were no DMT's, and I'm not sure when wet/dry sandpaper was first introduced.

Originally Posted by Slartibartfast

I say it probably overkill... Are you using it with slurry?

Yes, thinning as I go until water for polishing (ie, skipping the BBW)
-Chief

Thanks for the inputs on this-- I asked 'cause I didn't want to erode the stone... I'd like it to be here for awhile...

-Chief

I've never had to lap mine. I'm sure at some time I will but that's probably a long ways down the road:-)

If you never use slurry on a Coticule, it will take 100's of razors before it need re-flattening.

If you regularly raise slurry, I have 2 advices:

1. Spend a bit of extra attention while rubbing the ends of the hone for raising slurry.

2. Don't use the hone in the same direction for each use. It develops more evenly if you flip it in between razors.

I have re-flattened my main work horse once. In my experience, they need to be flat within reason, but not within OCD-precision.

I give it a light lapping everytime i use it. What i mean by light is i take my dmt 1200 and lap it under running water for a few seconds. It keeps it flat and prevents havibng to really lap it flat. It seems like good upkeep to me. I also do this for the purpose of raising a slurry.

Be careful w/ that D8E--some guys have reported the diamonds (at that grit) coming off the stone doing that. Also it loads fast. The best way to raise a slurry is with a slurry stone (they're only $15-20). For lapping, either a DMt-C (325) or wet/dry sandpaper @ about that grit on a flat surface should do the trick. Use the pencil grid method.

Even then, I wouldn't worry about flatness too much--check it every month or so (if you've been doing lots of razors using slurry) w/ a ruler like Zib suggested. If it ain't dished, don't lap it! If all you're doing is touchups on water, it will be months before you'd need to do anything. Coticules seem to be pretty forgiving of less than perfect flatness. If it's in the ballpark, it should work fine.

I have mine about 3 years and I only recently lapped it for the first time. Its true that most old time barbers rarely lapped their hones and many are not flat so how did they do it without ruining their razors?

The fact is if the hone isn't flat anymore and the dishing is STRICTLY the long way on the hone it can still be used very effectively but if its off the short way it will really mess up your razors bad.

I used to have a Norton 4K/8K combo where the 4K side was really worn and really dished. I had already replaced it with a single 4K so I didn't care anymore about lapping it. I tried using it with some test razors and it still worked fine.

I have taken to using a pencil and running the plate over the stone a couple of times only and looking what is left. I will then decide to lap or not. If the pencil mark is in a couple of place then I will lap it. I learned something very useful and that is the middle of the stone is what goes down first for me. I use to think that I would see more edge wear than anything else so I would make slurry out of the middle. Now I use the sides. I do a lot of Rolling X's so that is probably why the middle goes first.


Take Care,
Richard

Originally Posted by importcarguy

I give it a light lapping everytime i use it. What i mean by light is i take my dmt 1200 and lap it under running water for a few seconds. It keeps it flat and prevents havibng to really lap it flat. It seems like good upkeep to me. I also do this for the purpose of raising a slurry.

This is exactly what I had been doing... using a 1200. I also was wondering if this might help with effectiveness of coticule+water polish as fresh garnets might be exposed on the surface?

-Chief