Thread: Finishing on a Coticule

Frankenstein, thanks for starting this thread. The variety of descriptions of coticule use is very interesting and informative.

Originally Posted by Leatherstockiings

Frankenstein, thanks for starting this thread. The variety of descriptions of coticule use is very interesting and informative.

It's my pleasure.

One of the reasons I started it is cause I have about 8 of them. I know one of them is fantastic and 20 or so laps after a nani 12 gives the edge we all hope for. But the others, I'm not so sure about.

I recently did a test with my trusty Bengall hollow 6/8 and finished on a different one each day and they all felt much the same. But I'm a wedge shaver, and the results I get on wedges are not really that good (except for that one stone). So I guess I was just looking to see what others were doing.
I did just score what might be a fantastic stone recently. So I look forward to trying out different members' routines. It would be really great if this thread turned into the 'janorton' one, lol.

Cheers,

Originally Posted by Frankenstein

It's my pleasure.

One of the reasons I started it is cause I have about 8 of them. I know one of them is fantastic and 20 or so laps after a nani 12 gives the edge we all hope for. But the others, I'm not so sure about.

I recently did a test with my trusty Bengall hollow 6/8 and finished on a different one each day and they all felt much the same. But I'm a wedge shaver, and the results I get on wedges are not really that good (except for that one stone). So I guess I was just looking to see what others were doing.
I did just score what might be a fantastic stone recently. So I look forward to trying out different members' routines. It would be really great if this thread turned into the 'janorton' one, lol.

Cheers,

Don't forget to post some pics of your Coticules. I love seeing the varieties of stones that are out there. So many beautiful pieces of stone.

Actually I'm really looking forward to it. It's taken a long time to get all these cotis together, and while most of them are nothing to boast of, i'm proud of them. Even if I don't use them, lol.

Originally Posted by thebigspendur

A lot depends on the quality of your particular coticule. They vary tremendously especially over the time they were mined.

Tremendously? Surely a hyperbolic statement, I hope. And I do not find them to vary much according to when they were mined. They vary in speed on gradations of slurry (I have found), but I do not feel mining period has anything to do with it. It is the same rock coming out of the ground now as "back in the days". They did not mine "the best of the best we can find"; they mined "the layer we can reach", as is still done now.

And I finish on a coticule after honing on that same coticule; I never understood the point of a coticule progression, unless you have an extremely slow stone on slurry which makes getting a good bevel a very time consuming chore. But then I would probably just use another one for the full honing. I have NEVER found a bad/substandard finisher among coticules, so changing between coticules for the final finish is completely foreign to me, and would not even come to my mind.

If there is damage to the edge or if I polished the razor I will use a coarser stone, either a Cretan on heavy slurry or a 1x5" diamond hone that I literally found on the street and works well - no idea about grit, but I guesstimate it to be 600 grit-ish or less. From there straight to the coticule on milky slurry (never thick, that will just wear the steel without getting the edge sharp).

For finishing I prefer clear water, 30-50 X-strokes (even though I have done up to 150 or, just because it was so zen and I was not keeping strict count), but I have finished on the lightest slurry as well and that was fine too. A bit of a nuance in sharpness, which I doubt I would notice in a blind test.

And I use coticules on all razors, with no issues whatsoever; from 1820's wedge-y stubtails to 1980's (I think) Friodurs and Heljestrands. Sharp and smooth. If there are any time issues, I found it had to do with the geometry of the razor rather than the speed of the hone (usually on heavy grind Sheffields).

I absolutely agree. They are very versatile stones. And I have also been able to finish on pretty much all coticules I've tried. I have had one out of around 20 I couldn't make work. And that was the second or third I used.

I suspect that I could make it work now if I tried. It was a big old one I got from France. Very hard so I think I probably just never broke in the surface.

I do coticule progressions. Mostly because I'm lazy but also because I like to use different stones.

I start on a softer one that auto slurries. The softer ones usually work fastest because they release more garnets. And I'll do a dilution on that. When I reach trace slurry I'll switch to a harder one. I can and have used the softer ones under running water to eliminate the slurry dulling.
It's just easier to switch to one that doesn't auto slurry.

And the harder ones gets finer when they are broken in. So they can finish finer and easier than softer ones.

Some more coti pictures.

I call this one big pink ...........

Nice one. That's a huge piece