my personal experience with coticules is that they are so highly over rated as a finishing stone its down right disheartening. There are some stones out there i suppose that do a superb job, but of the 6 or so ive tried, and the razors ive sent out for professional honing on a coti, ive never been impressed. Theres a mystical code that needs to be discovered and cracked, and its different for every stone. the shaves are smooth but on my facial hair its tug central. My advice is sell it and get a known quality jnat. they are superior in every way to any coticule. check japanese-whetstones.com.