Thread: Coticule and Escher....What Grit?

Quick questions for the honemiesters! I have a little over a years worth of experience honing my razors on a norton, but never took the plunge to purchase a polishing stone. The norton's always worked decently well...but I want to up the quality of my edge. Given this I am a newb to using and understanding the Coticule and Escher. Just wanted to get a sense from you guys which one you would recommend and what grit is appropriate...

If this has been discussed before....my apologies

Thanks


JR

JR,
Talk about opening a can of worms!!! You've asked the straight razor equivalent of "Which one of your kids do you love best?".

This is MY OPINION only, so take it for what it's worth. I have owned both and now only own one. I'll not say which because I truely believe it does not matter. FOR ME (YMMV) both the coticule and escher produce comparable edges, and yes, the edge produced is remarkably better than if you stop with an 8K Norton. Chose one, buy it, use it, love it. If you've got the sickness as bad as most you'll probably own both at some point in the future. Me, I'm trying to stay (somewhat) minimalist...yeah, enough comments from the peanut gallery. So, because I did not find a real need for both, I sold one.

I'll now don my asbestos underwear...flame on!

Just another data point,
Ed

I dpn't have an escher yet so I cannot compare, but a coticule is liked by a lot of honemeisters and forgers.

But another argument that may or may not be important: you can actually buy a coticule from howard for a reasonable price.
Buying an escher will set you back a couple of hundreds unless you manage to find one at a flea market.

Ed/Bruno - Thanks for the advice. I'll prob start with the coticule to keep costs to a minimum. I just wanted to make sure that the escher wasn't a significant step up in the quality of the edge it delivers.

Ed- You can love all your children the same, but some love comes with a loss of hair and a headache!

JR

Notice that Ed carefully avoided telling us which of his children he decided to sell...

I haven't purchased an esher, probably never will, but I love my coticule. I got a tiny 4"x1.2" coticule from Howard. Even though I haven't had much practice with it yet, I can detect a major difference between an edge done with the 8K and chromium oxide paste vs. one finished on the coticule before going to chromium oxide. I was shocked, actually. I could have picked out the 8K edge in a blind shave-test.

Mine was only about $40; the $18 rubbing stone is nearly as big as it. I love small hones that fit in your hand.

Josh

Thanks Josh - I currently go from the 8k to a 3/1/0.5 pasted paddle strop. Sounds like adding the coticule in the mix should really take the blade to that next level. Do you recommend going from coticule to the 0.5 paste?

If you're going to a 1 micron abrasive before going to the .5 micron then you're getting the benefits already, or at least most of the benefits.

The 3 micron abrasive is the same grit as the 8k Norton. It's redundant when doing a full honing - save it for refreshes.

Again, I haven't been using my coticule for very long, but I have noticed a difference when I use it before going to a pasted paddle. The edges I mentioned earlier were finished with 1 micron diamond and .5 micron chromium oxide on a balsa strop.

In theory, I agree with mparker, since 1 micron is in the 12K to 15K range, if I recall correctly. I'm thinking that maybe the coticule does more smoothing than the 1 micron diamond paste does.

My face is very picky, though, and most guys probably wouldn't notice a difference. Or it might have been a bad hone job on the Norton razor--lots of possible variables.

Good luck,
Josh

4K / 8K, coticule, 15K Shapton, hanging strop. Mighty fine indeed. Never tried the chromium oxide.

Monte

A light touch on the 15k Shapton will frequently get you an edge that's comparable to what you'll get from chrome oxide. And according to Chris Moss the 30k Shapton will get you an edge that's comparable to a Feather. There's no way I can justify the prices for an Escher given that a 30k Shapton glassstone is in the ballpark.