Interested in coticule

I want to begin honing razors and coticules have intrigued me the most. I’ve read a ton on different honing stones, both natural and manmade, but I’ve had trouble keeping track of which are good at what, so hopefully you guys can help me answer these questions about coticules:

1. What materials would be required to create a bevel, sharpen and finish a blade using natural stones?

2. Using different levels of slurry, how much of this can be done with a coticule, assuming I don’t mind it taking two or three times as long as it would on other hones? My main concern is being able to sharpen a razor that already has a bevel, but is beginning to drag a bit. I have a handful of old razors that are not shave ready and one that is. I’ll probably send off two to be honed and would like to use a coticule to maintain them. Later on I’ll invest money to purchase whatever is next in order to create a bevel on the other ones and then hone them. I just have limited funds right now and would like to buy one good coticule and buy additional items later.

3. Do coticules come with slurry stones or do I have to purchase one separately?

Thanks!

You can do it all on a coti, with allowance for time. The coti with slurry can be a fast cutter and as the slurry is diluted they are fine finishers. Some come with slurry stones, most do not. You can buy slurry stones cheap or use a diamond card to build a slurry.
Slurry stones:Coticule Combo Slurry Stones - Straight Razor Place Classifieds
Coti's: Search - Straight Razor Place Classifieds

Yes you can do most of your sharpening on coti. However I would suggest to have something for bevel setting otherwise even with slurry you would struggle to get it done.

Do yourself a favor and use the coticule along with something else until you feel more adequate with the stones.

I'd recommend a Norton 4/8 and a coticule select. The norton is a lot easier to learn how to hone on and I think you'll love the stone, it's perfect for razors and easy.

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Originally Posted by Disburden

Do yourself a favorite and use the coticule along with something else until you feel more adequate with the stones.

I'd recommend a Norton 4/8 and a coticule select. The norton is a lot easier to learn how to hone on and I think you'll love the stone, it's perfect for razors and easy.

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Totally agree. The coti is no easy hone to learn on, and it is even harder if you don't use anything else.

Thanks for the replies. Just for clarification, if I get the 4/8 stone, what would I do with the coticule? Are you saying use the 4/8 until I get the hang of it? I just want to make sure because I don't want to buy anything I don't need to right now, so if the 4/8 is it then that's what I'll get. But won't I need a 1k to set bevels?

Thanks

I'd say you'd be well covered with a DMT 6" 600/1200 (f/EF) combo ($40) and a coticule.

That DMT will cover chips and damage and setting bevels quickly. A coticule should be able to easily pick up from there.

That's just my input, I'm not an authority.

If you want a natural hone that would do a specific task you either have to buy it from somebody who has tested it and can confirm it does that task well, or buy from somebody that would take it back if it turns out not what you want, or buy enough of them and find the one that works well, resell the rest.
With man made hones you'd be getting the exact same thing that everybody else has, provided the quality control is good.

You can create bevel, sharpen, and finish a blade with a coticule, it all depends on what is the state of the edge before creating the bevel and how fast the coticule cuts. You'll definitely need slurry for bevel work, some coticules would release it just by honing, most will need additional abrasive to do so (diamond hone or a piece of coticule).

The average coticule isn't any faster than the 4k norton, so coticule and norton 4k/8k are comparable in function, just different. Most people would get good results faster with the norton.

I think that's about it, which way you take depends entirely on you. Neither is going to magically produce good results, you'll still have to figure out how to use them properly.

Are you in any pressing need of a shave ready edge? Or are you just interested in learning how to hone.

As said above, it will take time and experimenting before you're getting satisfactory results from a coticule. If you don't have a shave-ready razor, and you need one right away, I wouldnt expect that soon.

Just for the joy of honing, a coticule - any coticule will probably bring the most satisfaction, if not immediate results.

I have one shave-ready razor and will probably send one or two off for professional honing.

I would like to practice honing on my remaining ebay razors, but I'm in no hurry to have a shave-ready edge on them. To be honest I'm still working on just shaving with a straight razor as I only have one week under my belt with it.

I have select coticule with slurry stone and I get a very smooth comfortable shave using just the coti. On the worse conditioned ebay razors, it was much faster to set the bevel on my Norton 1k then complete the job on the coti.

I used Unicot until I learned the feel of the stone and migrated to Dilucot, although I distribute the pressure applied rather than just press on the middle of the blade.

A few practice razors is all I used to begin with.

Good luck and have fun with it... I know I am.

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Originally Posted by dnullify

I'd say you'd be well covered with a DMT 6" 600/1200 (f/EF) combo ($40) and a coticule.

That DMT will cover chips and damage and setting bevels quickly. A coticule should be able to easily pick up from there.

That's just my input, I'm not an authority.

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I would tend to disagree on the DMT's for setting bevels on most razors (hollow grinds) they cut a bit deep and waste steel.. Most any 1k stone is less then $40 and they leave a much more face friendly edge...

I am not saying they won't work, they work too well is the problem, for restoration work and lapping water stones they are the best workhorse on the bench.

I have been honing for only about six months and started withe the Norton set up and would do the same if I had it to do over again. I have since aquired a few coticules (HAD is a treacherous beast) which are alot of fun but I am putting them on the back burner for now till I master the Nortons. What I am saying in a round about way is whatever way you choose to go, stick with it until you master it before you branch out into other systems. I've learned that bouncing around just slows the learning curve.

most coticules some with a slurry stone. as for starting you can manage with a coticule only(if you don't want to hone out big chips etc). a coticule doesn't have to be expensive or large eg I have a 30*120mm stone that works wonders

kind regards
Stijn