Thread: Any body have any experience with Coticule?

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

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I did not learn to hone with the few coticules I bought from those guys, @ $20.00 per copy, because having been shown to use no more than 5 x strokes, weight of the blade, "or you'll lose the edge", I didn't push the envelope further at the time.

Just to clarify, to avoid any misunderstanding, the barber who told me that was a 70 year old veteran of 50 years of pro barbering. He also told me, "You can overstrop a razor." Well coming to SRP and learning the ropes from the esteemed gentlemen who've shared their knowledge, I found that the old fellow gave me poor advice. SRP members have preved that you cannot 'overstrop' a razor, if you strop correctly, and had I pushed the envelope, and went beyond the 5 weight of the blade strokes, I might have successfully honed my razors back in the 1980s.

In the old fellow's defense, I must add that he was probably referring to touching up a shave ready edge, not bringing an antique store find to shave ready. He gave me a 5 minute demonstration when I bought a coticule from him. Most of those old guys had long since stopped doing shaves by the 1980s, so he was probably cautious as to advising me to go beyond 5 strokes seeing I was a neophyte honer.

Now I might do 150-200 strokes on a sharp razor to get it where I want it on a good coticule. Maybe a lot less, maybe more. Depends on the razor and the coticule.