Thread: Coticule finish, sans slurry

After a long and tedious chase to locate and purchase a coticule that I feel can finish a razor as well as any high end jnat, I finally found the one.
I used the stone with great delight, and produced edges that are supremely smooth, compared to the synthetic edges I am so used to. You can imagine my Cheshire lIke grin, as I shaved a full 3 passes with ultimate comfort.
After a while, I decided to look at the tube to see if there are any methods of finishing with a coti that would increase the keenness and still hold onto the smooth buttery feeling that we all love so much.
What I found was a method from a tuber named drmatt357. A finishing technique that uses no slurry, only honing under running water.
I went to the sink, and began the course. After only a couple of minutes I started to get a very sticky, squeegy like feeling on the stone. This, drmatt357 said, is what I'm looking for. Once I achieved this feeling on the hone, I did just a few more passes with little to no pressure at all, and went to the strop to align and clean it all up.
What I saw under the scope was nothing short of amazing. A bevel that is so highly reflective that if appears to be black, with little to no scratch pattern to speak of, and a dead even and fine straight cutting edge.

Now to the shave den....3 passes later, I have the smoothest and most irritation free bbs shave I've ever achieved from my own honing job. It's seriously amazing! I highly recommend that anyone who uses a coti to finish, check out drmatt357 on the tube, and try this slurry free method of finish. You won't be disappointed in the least!

Thanks for the info. I've never tried it under running water, but I've finished on coticules sans slurry for 8 years, and still do.

Thanks for the drmatt info. I will definitely try this method. I have long been a fan of the unicot method with great success.

Mhh ok nothing new but yes it works, why shouldnt it ? You can do this with Thuris, Jnats and many other stones, surely with coticules...i prefer to do so with thuris and Jnats sometimes....

For us old hands it's nothing new but for the uninitiated honers new the sport, it tends to be interesting and valuable info.

Isn't our primary purpose to help those in need? There are pleas for assistance on a daily basis coming from new guys........ ©[:- ))))))

Personally I have always preferred to use only water on my coticules when razor honing. Slurry honing - at least with my particular stones - convexes the edge enough that it takes a lot of work to get back to the edge through dilution back to straight water again. Sometimes I will do unicot with a razor and use slurry though. All of my coticules are ridiculously quick with slurry, but much slower and finer on straight water once they're "broken-in," or burnished up a bit.

My bad, I didn't mean to imply that you don't know everything already. This was actually meant for those that are die hard slurry honers, not honing royalty like yourself sir. I should probably take this article down since it's such obvious information huh? I mean it's pretty basic stuff, right?

?? Get up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?

Looks like a bit of "Drama"....

Great you share your findings here and great that that you refer to Dr. Matts Videos which are really excellent...

Actually depeding from this you should be able to accept that for some people this is no news....

well great you did it...many others did before....many new honers will do in future....

Not to disrespect anyone here, or their ideas, but finishing under running water is nothing new. It was discussed on the old coticule.be, and if memory serves, no one laid claim to being the discoverer, or calling it "his" method. I'm sure the technique has been used for a long time.
I guess my skin is more sensitive than some, because with my better coticules, I still finish on faint slurry.