Restoring an old Coticule

I have recently decided that I would like to carry out my own razor maintenance and decided to go on the hunt for cheap practice razors, and i found a couple:) I was lucky enough to venture into this shop and also find a Coti.... in total I paid 15Euros for 2 old razors and the Coti!
The Coti is however, well used and has dished in the centre... not too badly but i think enough to compromise anything resembling an edge i am hoping to achieve on this stone.

I scratched the Coti with the thumb nail and it left a white line. I would venture a guess that it was a soft to medium Coti. On the back there is what looks like BBW - but heavily damaged. Not sure I will use this...

Does anyone know the best way to restore this Coti? i am tempted to use a sandpaper on a flat surface and lightly sand the stone down onto it (though i have chest pains at the thought of losing all that old coti... perhaps I can brush it into a pot and use it as slurry... but there will be sand paper debris as well...).

Please feel free to offer up suggestions

I have also added some mandatory pics for you to look through... though not of the razors as I stored the pics on another machine... I will post those when I get a chance as well.
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Lap your coti down on a 350-grit diamond plate--that will give you clean slurry if you really want to keep it. I've always wanted to try coti slurry on a linen strop. The trick is capturing the slurry--I think you could keep most of it by doing your lapping inside a bucket of water, letting it settle, and carefully pouring off the water.

Good luck flattening and honing.

Write a pencil grid on it and proceed as you have described, when the pencil marks are gone the stone is flat. I understand not wanting to lose any of the stone but there will still be several lifetimes worth of good honing on it. If all you want is maintenance, try a barbers hone.

Lap your coticule and you will enjoy a perfect honing!

if you go into most diy shops they will stock machine files.

the red one is around 200grit.

this is an easy way to get it lapped quick

(i would prefer a dmt but there a lot more expensive

The back looks like bbw to me I would lap it both sides there's plenty of life left in that old girl I use wet and dry sand paper of different grits as I go on a flat ceramic tile and the pencil grid enjoy.

Thank you all for the really useful tips! I found amazon uk sells a 4 sided diamond block for around 11 pounds, grit range from 200 - 600.
Have purchased it and will see if I can salvage coticule waste.

Thanks thebigG for comment on BBW... I am a little worried that if I take too much off I could end up with a very thin stone that might break... I am considering very small X strokes to get around damage on stone... Hmmm

Just use wet/dry sandpaper. Do most of your work with a 120 grit and finish with a 220 & 500.
The flaws in the BBW an be sanded down ( smoothed over) or lap it all the way out.
I would forget about trying to save the slurry. It will be contaminated no matter what you use.
Besides, there are much finer abrasive powders you can purchase.

Just my 2¢ :)

I save slurry from my Jnats for other use, an broken in DMT or any good diamond plate won't contaminate it in the first place.
Make sure the diamond plate is broken in (no loose or high diamonds), no dirt on the stone, clean hands and a bucket of clean water.
Lap the stone under water or well wet at least, let the powdered stone collect in the bucket, pour of as much water as you can and let the rest evaporate.

Had a girl over helping me clean once, she cleaned out lots of small plastic containers with "some dirt" in them... Nakayama dirt!

Lots of life left on that stone, lap with a diamond plate on a cookie sheet. That stone will lap quickly, cover with a cloth, let the slurry dry and you can collect it, there won’t be that much powder, though.

If you use sandpaper, even wet & dry, Randy’s right, the powder will be contaminated with the grit from the sandpaper.

100 -120 grit drywall sanding screen on a cement slab is the fastest way to get to flat, finish on a diamond plate. Smooth is more important than perfectly flat.

Once lapped, you can begin to learn the nuisances of the Coticule. There is a lot written on the Coticule and much to learn.

Enjoy

Hmmmm, diamond plates do not wear down? I must have purchased some bad ones.

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

Hmmmm, diamond plates do not wear down? I must have purchased some bad ones.

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They don't?
Mine do but if they are broken in and used with water they don't release any stray diamonds!
That's until they get really old and used up...

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Originally Posted by Lemur

They don't?
Mine do but if they are broken in and used with water they don't release any stray diamonds!
That's until they get really old and used up...

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My point is that the diamond plates do release fragments of the diamond grains thruout their use. I am not saying that the entire diamond grain is released, just a fragment. Thus there will be some that ends up in the slurry.

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

My point is that the diamond plates do release fragments of the diamond grains thruout their use. I am not saying that the entire diamond grain is released, just a fragment. Thus there will be some that ends up in the slurry.

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Hmm, you're probably right it can happen but I have never had any problem with it.
I use the slurry for final polishing and it's "clean" from any gritty things, I'm sure I just got jinxed and next time I'll get a scratch from hell on my blade!

Ahh, and there is a big difference for mono crystalline and poly diamonds to, the poly type break of pieces... that could be it!

Oh bugger,
I just assumed one diamond plate was as good as another and bought the following today.
I liked the 4 grits thinking it would get the job done quickly and then I could smoothen surface with 600grit.



http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B005...pi=SL500_SX125

From what I am reading it sounds like I should have bought something made of sturdier stuff.

I will take your advice and smoothen the BBW as well - seems a shame to have it be not use it.

I have been reading loads of posts on the coticule here and I am really looking forward to getting into it.

Thanks for feedback all!

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Originally Posted by Lemur

I save slurry from my Jnats for other use,
Had a girl over helping me clean once, she cleaned out lots of small plastic containers with "some dirt" in them... Nakayama dirt!

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OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooo

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Originally Posted by Euclid440

Once lapped, you can begin to learn the nuisances of the Coticule. There is a lot written on the Coticule and much to learn.

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I hope you meant "nuances." But Lenahaad, be forewarned, not every coticule is a great coticule. Some aren't even very good. But if yours was dished, then someone really liked it and it's probably a good one.

About your four-sided diamond block--check each side with a straight edge before you touch it to any hone. I bought a lower-price plate once and discovered it was quite far from flat. I'd have ruined hones, or at least lost a lot of them before getting them flat again, if I had used it without checking. The DMT plates are reliably flat, as are the more expensive Atoma and some others. DMTs are probably the least expensive reliably flat ones. (DMT = "Diamond Machining Technology"). Beware lapping at 600 grit; the diamonds that small are more likely to get sheared off their plate by lapping. Do the heavy work at 350 or coarser, then just put a light polish on with the 600 if you want to.

Best wishes.

Spell Checker victim, though as you said… they can be. And then there is the collecting…problem.

Be careful with inexpensive diamond plates, you can use them to hog off material or bevel edges, but they can have diamond clumps on them. Run them on some hard steel first to knock off any high spots and prevent gouging, an ax or shovel tip.

Finish on a good diamond plate like a DMT or wet & dry sand paper. That stone is not that bad and I would not risk it. Sanding screen and Wet & Dry is the most economical answer.

I have seen 2 of the DMT plates that were not flat. Be sure to check them.

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Originally Posted by randydance062449

I have seen 2 of the DMT plates that were not flat. Be sure to check them.

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Wow, thus begins the slide toward darkness! I wonder if they succombed to the siren song of offshored production.

<sad tale> Checkpoint levels did that, and are now out of business. A pipefitter at my last job told me that a lot of jobsites don't allow Checkpoints because the quality slid so far toward the end. I had one of the last ones made in the U.S. and I could tell that quality control had slid, and a newer one from Taiwan wasn't much better. Alas. </sad tale>

Great advice all! Can't thank you enough! Now I just need to wait for equipment to turn up and I will let you know how it all goes... With some pics hopefully!

Sorry for the delay in reply.
I have received the cheap diamond plate and as you guys warned me it has high spots and clusters making grinding impossible.
So I am on the look out for something that I can rub it on to get rid of the high spots.
I am also on the look out for wet/dry sandpaper.
Thanks for all the advice! I would have started to ruin my stone otherwise!

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Originally Posted by Lenahaad

Sorry for the delay in reply.
I have received the cheap diamond plate and as you guys warned me it has high spots and clusters making grinding impossible.
So I am on the look out for something that I can rub it on to get rid of the high spots.
I am also on the look out for wet/dry sandpaper.
Thanks for all the advice! I would have started to ruin my stone otherwise!

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Give it a good rubbing with a piece of steel, mostly anything will do but if you've got something that needs sharpening anyway... like lawn mover sheers.
You can use it dry with steel but they do like some water/oil, when lapping use plenty of water and remember to camfer the stone.

Success! Coticule now restored! I had a go at the BBW but it kept fragmenting so I decided to smooth over instead.
I gave up with diamond plate... Just kept scratching the surface. Ended up with the wet/dry sandpaper - also meant I could not keep the slurry.

I look forward to giving It a go on my George Butler... But first I am sending my new Wacker to Invisible edge to understand sharp. Reason being i am very new to this so despite being very tempted to do my own Wacker, I just think it would be more prudent to get an understanding of what level of sharp I need to reach, and not buggering up my first true straight.

Thanks for support all! I will continue on new topic with what I should do with the George's tiny chip.

Thank you all for your great support!

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