Thread: 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.
Old Coticule Dishing.pdf

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