Thread: 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,

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.

+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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Being natural stones there is too much variation to give any definites on the strokes. I am no expert at all, but how I went about learning both the BBW and coti was to hone on my naniwas to the approximate level of the stone then work with it until I felt the edge was ready for the next level.

-G

Originally Posted by juannaredo

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.

This is where I think it gets tricky.. being a natural, you'll need to learn your stone (actually true w/synthetics also IMHO). I would have to suggest that you experiment and adjust.

Good luck

Dave

I agree with many of the people above. I like the BBW for slurry and the coticule for water. I could use the coticule with slurry too, and throw out the BBW, but why wear away the expensive yellow when I can wear away the inexpensive blue? At least, that's my mind. (Slurry is fun!)

My favorite set-up is my Naniwa SS 1K (Big Brick) and my BBW/coticule natural combo (8x2). Smooth shaves.


Me