Thread: Less fine finish better shave? (Coticule)

Been mainly using the hard, slow, wide and short vintage combo which leaves a hazy edge (no visible scratch marks). Needs three passes and leaves a little razor burn. Does however pass hht. Used the narrow, soft, fast ardennes coti today, leaves visible scratch marks, doesn't pass hht and bbs in two passes. Using a 60× loupe to see scratch pattern. I can't explain this. Had almost given up on this hone because whenever I use it I can see swarf by the edges which I thought was me failing to keep the razor centred well enough. Am going to keep using this hone some more to be sure it's not a fluke. Am curious if any other coti users experience the same?

Not sure if this should be in the hones or honing thread.

I use the coticule on all of my razors for finishing. My test for sharpness is to tree top arm hair, strop it, and then lather up. Like you, I could get by with a two pass shave but I enjoy shaving with my straights so I do three anyway. I notice swarf along the edges of the stone too but I don't worry about it. My stone is lapped and as long as the blade pushes water evenly on the hone stroke I'm fine. I have looked at my spines and my edges with a loupe and they are even from one end to the other. The coticule honed edge gives wonderful shaves.

This is tough to get used to, but the finish under a loupe or scope sometimes gives you hardly any information about how the shave will be. The same goes for HHT. On occasion, a razor that looks like it has a ragged nasty bevel and even some that just push a hair in the HHT will shave like a champ. It has to do with what is happening at the extreme end of the apex and not what's happening on the bevel. Sometimes, on certain stones, this will be different due to the very edge convexing a tiny bit, and the apex/edge will be much keener than the bevel would make one think. It isn't super common, but it does happen.

Originally Posted by eKretz

This is tough to get used to, but the finish under a loupe or scope sometimes gives you hardly any information about how the shave will be. The same goes for HHT. On occasion, a razor that looks like it has a ragged nasty bevel and even some that just push a hair in the HHT will shave like a champ. It has to do with what is happening at the extreme end of the apex and not what's happening on the bevel. Sometimes, on certain stones, this will be different due to the very edge convexing a tiny bit, and the apex/edge will be much keener than the bevel would make one think. It isn't super common, but it does happen.

^^^This. Using a loupe and doing a HHT is completely unnecessary. The only thing I go by is how it shaves my arm and leg hair.