Thread: First Hone Purchase: The Ebay Guessing Game

Alrighty, here are the pics. I got a vintage natural combination coti today as well, so I'll through in some pics of that as well.

The top and bottom look to be slightly different colors, the bottom appears (to me) slightly more greenish.









And here's the coti- the remnants of it's original stamp are still visible. I can't make out the words, but it looks like it might have had a crown or paw in the center.





Anyway, I can't wait to start honing. The coti seems pretty hard, it's a lot harder than the slurry stone I got from the superior shave, and after 125 laps with water on it I saw no signs of natural slurry release.

Just a quick update, and sorry for all the posts. The thuri honed up a lot faster than I was expecting.

Great stones, both of them. The Thuri seem to be one with a colour change from more bluish green to more (yellow) green - like for example the most Barbers deligth stones have. Also it looks like it has some yellowish streaks on the back side. These Thuringians are some of the best ones you can get according to my experience.
Looking forward to hear of your honing experiences!

Let us know how well the actual honing goes.

Originally Posted by sffone

Let us know how well the actual honing goes.

Well, I've spent a good chunk of time on the stone, and I'm happy to say that my results are my best yet. Even better than my earlier goes with lapping film (erm, experience may be the main cause of this). Anyway, I can finally sharpen my razors to shave ready (mildly shave ready, lots of room left for improvement), and let me just say- shaving with a sharp knife is so much more pleasant than the alternative. It's also highlighted a number of shaving errors I was making before hand.

But enough about shaving, the stones are what's fun.

I do believe that the coticule is on the hard side of the coti spectrum, as it has absolutely no tendency to slurry on it's own. This isn't a bad thing though, I've been using it with a much softer slurry stone from The Superior Shave, and I hope this will prolong my cotis life. At some point I'll slurry it up with a plate and see how that goes.

Anyway, as I've been using it, it functions as it should. With slurry it cuts fairly quickish (or so I assume, my dubl duck makes gray slurry pretty quick, but my henckels and mozart change the color far more slowly), and seems to polish nicely on pure water. I've been getting an inconsistant (heavily hair dependent and somewhat regional on the edge) HHT 1-3 after 90+ strokes on pure water. I assume that I'm not spending enough time with a light slurry.

On water the coti has a slick, gentle feel. The overall impression is that of soft. With slurry it takes on a gritty texture. I'm still learning to feel for the changes that let me know the razor is ready to move onto the next dilution.

As for the thuri, I've only smoothed up the dark blue side. I haven't tried the other, lighter, greener one and am somewhat reluctant to lap it as I'd need to remove another mm or so from the bottom. It wouldn't take long, but I hate to throw away purty stone. Anywho, after the coti my razors like 90-150 laps on the thuri. Improvement is fairly steady throughout this period, and I walk away with an edge HHT1-4 (depending on hair, but much more consistant than before) from bevel to tip (I'm sure the smaller width helps me reduce regional variation), that is much more likely to fall in HHT 3-4 than before. The edge may continue to improve with more laps, but I tend to lose count.....

This stone has a silky, luxurious feel while honing, as the blade just glides across. It's quite pleasant to use.

My edges have not been lasting very long, typically one shave if that. But I suspect this is due to improper shaving technique developed with dull razors, that is, a very very wide, almost perpendicular blade angle during the shave. I'm pretty sure this is tearing my edges to bits.

Overall I am very pleased with my honing progress, and am very much in love with these stones. I would like to improve sharpness some more. The razors don't pull, but they do take a little more push than I'd like.

For me, the quest for the perfect edge is never ending. I've not yet tried using film, so I think I'll have to give it a try.