Thread: The surprising ease of Coticule (Dilucot)

Well, yesterday was the Sunday shave, and I may have found the nicest touchup ever.

First, raise the lightest slurry on the BBW with two or three swipes of the slurry stone. It should look mostly like water, or what your slurry looks like by the end of the Dilucot procedure.

Then two sets of 15 half-strokes, the second one diluted by a fingerload of water. After that some X-strokes on the Coticule side with water. I did 2 x 30. Linen, strop, shave.

Like a hot knife through butter.

It really isn't rocket science, is it?

As for touch ups: if you touched up the same razor as in the first post, just the coticule with water would probably have been enough. But no harm in a bit of slurry, of course, and it's good to see you found a way that works.

Such touch ups involving a very light slurry (be they on the Belgian blue or coticule side) are also a great way to add a bit of keenness if you feel your previously finished final edge may have lacked a bit. It's one of those things I do regularly to squeeze a bit of extra keenness out of the stone.

By the way, what you're experiencing with the Belgian blue adding sharpness is the fact that the blue stone has a much lower degree of slurry dulling than the yellow side, something which is "fixed" by the yellow side during the (near) water stage and stropping on linen. The coticule sharpens faster, which is why a lot of people prefer using that exclusively, as the end results are the same smooth and keen edge. I'm not criticising the use of the blue side though, in the end it works just as well.

When I started out, I used to hone pretty much the way you do: yellow bevel set, some diluting, switch to the blue side on slurry, some diluting and finish on the yellow side with water only. It worked fine, even though there was really no point doing dilutions on both the yellow and blue, as I was basically doing the same thing twice. However, as time went by and I got more confident with my dilution on the yellow side exclusively, I found that it was less of a hassle than switching back and forth between the yellow and blue and it saved me time to boot.

That said, I do enjoy using the Belgian blues every now and then because, well, they are a joy to use.



And now, for your entertainment:

'The Belgian Blues' by 'Big Blade' Johnson:

I woke up this morning (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
And went for my shave (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
But to my horror noticed (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
That I had a pullin' blade (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)

So grabbed my ol' little yellow 'n blue (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
My trusty gal (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
And went for some strokes back n forth (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
To hone up a smile (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)

But as I went for my strop (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
She just slipped and dropped (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
A million pieces in my sink (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
Such an aweful shame (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)

Thank God my razor (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
Was still okay (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
But the smoothness (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
Got me carried away (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)

When I went for the rinse (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
I heard an awful clang (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
And when I looked down (duh-duh-duh duh-duh)
I dinged a big chip in that thing!

So I haven't shaved
Since that godawful day
When my sink and tap
They set me a trap

And gave me
Them Belgian blues
And took my sharp edge away!

Originally Posted by Pithor

That said, I do enjoy using the Belgian blues every now and then because, well, they are a joy to use.

Agreed.
I've come to love BBWs for honing and even for finishing my razors on, my skin seems to love the BBW edge. (I know there was study about the aptness of the BBW on straight razor honing and it's 'skin-effects', the BBW seemed to do very well)

It's a pleasure to hone on these stones as it feels really nice using them. I greatly enjoy mine.

For me, BBW with progressively diluted slurry followed by the same on the coticule seems to get very keen and very smooth. I follow with CH12K and Shapton Glass 16K.