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to BBW or not to BBW
I need advise from expert honers. I hone with manmade waterstones, I want to start honing with natural stones. Should I purchase a BBW and a coticule or just a coticule as the all inclusive stone? Beveling, sharpening and polishing according to the slurry on the coticule. Please advise and where to get them. Thanks, Juan,
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IME you can do fine with the coticule by itself. (along with a slurry stone) OTOH, a natural coticule/bbw is one of my favorite things for beauty and rarity. I do like to use both because I have them but the coti is cool if you don't have the blue. If you are outside of the USA I would contact Ardennes Coticule. If you are on this side of the pond SRD and other vendors have the stones.
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+1, I'd just go for the coticule. I have a Coti/BBW combo and I think I've used the BBW side all of twice!
Theres nothing wrong with it but I find I can get just as good an edge with just the coticule side.
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Not to disagree with two very knowledgeable mods, but I rather like my BBW. I can actually get a great shave right off of it.
My thoughts follow that cotis are more money and rarer than the BBW. Even though I will never wear down a coti in my life time I feel that I would rather wear down a readily available stone that costs half the price when it comes to the first steps then just finish on the coti.
Besides, as I mentioned before, I lucked out and got a great BBW that gives a shaveable edge right off of it. (Thanks Rich!)
-G
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I like both the Coti and the BBW. And while you can use a Coti to do everything from bevel setting to finishing, learning to do so, and finding a stone you enjoy, can be a less-then-pleasurable experience.
The simple route is to use the BBW with slurry to sharpen, and then the coti finish/polish. I own a coti, a bbw and a combo and use them all, depending on my mood and the razor I'm working on. I'm a big fan of my bbw and always use it after my bevel is set.
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I've not got my head around the BBW. I don't seem to get anywhere I can't (quicker) on the coticule. As you can see from other replies, YMMV.
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Agreed anything you can do with the bbw you can do with the coti.
I have a coti combo stone and have been mostly using the coti side. Lately tho I have used the bbw more and I like it.
It polishes the blade up nicely for me before I finish on the coti.
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Ive been learning to use the Dilucot method with my BBW and finishing with the Coti. The shaves have been very nice. If I had the option to buy a combo vs just the coti, I would definitely buy the combo.
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I use my BBW between bevel setting and finishing on the coti. I get the most out of it when I use it with a fairly heavy slurry. After the BBW thought i always go to the coti to finish.
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decided
Since BBW are not that expensive, both the BBW and coti are worth purchasing. MarkinLondon gives us a formula to use these stones, my next question is how many stroke or laps per stone. I am familiar with manmade waterstones and their cutting characteristics or number of laps to do the job. I just need to know the average laps per stone of the BBW and coti? Thanks, Juan.