Thread: coticule sizes for smiles

Originally Posted by Oldengaerde

Idem. With hones I think longer is most always better.

To digress slightly: with smiles (and warps) the width can make a difference in the sense that some (especially beginning?) honers (including myself) feel it is easier to get them evenly sharp on narrower hones.

So size does matter!!

Nonsense! It's how you use it! In all seriousness, thinner is probably easier for the real smilers (thinking old W&Bs, that type of thing).

I went for it and have a combo bout on the way from ZIB, decided to hold off on a narrow stone and just practice on the coti. I think most razors ive honed so far and its not many have been fine with my current set-up of norton and nani, except a few that I sent off to get pro help. thanks all for the info and opinions Ill post a pic when it arrives. lots of props to ZIB for his patience and a good deal on a stone, lapped and champfered and with a slurry stone included great price

I would say, get what you are comfortable with. In an extreme example, some people might love a 3 x 15 inch coticule to hone on, but I like to hand hold hones so I would not. Maybe your stroke is such that you prefer a short hone, and you don't foresee that changing. Maybe it helps prevent you from honing a frown into your blades. Maybe there is some other reason... who knows.

Also, I don't think a narrower hone gives you any advantage when honing a smiling blade or a warped blade, unless your technique is such that you need a narrow hone to do so. I can hone (most) smiling blades, regardless of hone width; I have never yet successfully honed a severely warped blade, regardless of hone width; I know of techniques that would allow someone to hone a warped razor, regardless of hone width (you can use the edge of the hone carefully such that it will not damage the razor).