Thread: Coticule slurry on an Ark.

I have seen a video from SRP member aljuwaidak using coticule slurry on a black Ark.. it was pretty neat to watch. Which inspired me. .

I have been searching for a bevel setting natural stone. I had a washita sitting around for my knives. This stone is quite acceptable to shave off. I have done it more then once. I lapped it and raised a coticule slurry on it. The first was to rough the surface up. The latter was to raise a cutting medium to further speed things up. Since arkansas stones' cutting abilities rely on surface preparation I figure to get it to cut quicker rough the surface .. worked like a charm. It quickly cut a new bevel and was very keen after a few dilutions. Great response to all the sharpness tests and leaves an interesting scratch pattern. Not rough at all.. so I diluted a few more times and wow.. Super sharp edge. Time to finish.

About 100 laps on a coticule with water only and wow. A very good shave. I need to streamline the process a bit to really make the edge sing .

I am going to make a video for further analysis by the experts here.

I am not sure if the process would be viable with a stone like a Dans Soft Ark with coticule slurry then jumping to water on a coticule as my washita is quite a peculiar stone. It can cut quick when i need it too and bring right up to near finish when required . I think someone with a Dans soft or hard Ark need to give this a try .

The biggest advantage I have found of using this method to me is that problems or poor geometry to challenging for a coticule with slurry can easily be tackled by the washita or arkansas..

I'm sure others have done this before so please do share your thoughts if you have already done this.

I'm just trying to find a natural stone to compliment the coticule as a natural bevel setter up to mid way if I want to skip a major dilution procedure.

So guys if you have an old Ark kicking around you may find it useful. Just raise a little slurry.

going to give it a try now, and shave with it later! Why not?

My translucent ark has a dot to discern how side is to use with coti slurry from the burnished side I use to finish razors. I do it to refresh my razors for a quite long time, since my resources (and politics) tendencies are to avoid spending too much or to accumulate things I don't need. Fills the bill with great results.

Report:

So I use oil on my Black, so I grabbed two Cotis, made a coti slurry by rubbing the two together, then adding a little water to get the slurry a bit more fluid, I poured it onto my Black.

Took my stone testing razor (Dovo 4/8) which I had done a really poor finish on last time (couldn't get past two strokes last shave - wow!), and went right to it. It was hard at first to get the liquid to disperse quasi evenly, but after ten or so...

I honed adding a little water when the slurry started to darken. Then more, and more, ultimately running the stone and blade over the tap and then doing some final laps with the stone in the old palm. Probably did a hundred single strokes on the stone total. Maybe a bit more.

I have to admit, I have tried quite a things since I started and felt a little stupid doing this as soon as I started lol, but I said I would so... Went upstairs, took it to the leather (dude - I have too lol), did a piss poor prep, and had at it with very little expectation.


So I don't get as excited as I used to about messing with my blades and shaving anymore. But no word of a lie, my eyes opened a little bit. Dang that was smooth! I mean when I don't prep well, it always feels like I'm chopping at tree trunks and the blade is prone to jump, and though I had that this time too, there was no pulling, it was close and smooth!

It's been a while since I couldn't stop feeling my face because I got such a smooth shave lol. I'll try this again! This was fun - thanks!

I use coti or jnat/thuri slurry on my grey ordovician age hones(bavarian/frankonian) if I'm looking to cut faster. Works on the tan also but those cut so fast it isn't needed.

They are similar to arks being 86% quartz, the grey ones especially, in that surface prep is very important.

I love mixing slurry though. Sometimes I use thuri on my other slates or jnat on my thuringians. When you get bored and have lots of rocks you can find interesting combos that work great.

Now you have me tempted to get hold of a soft Arkansas and a coticule rubbing stone. Maybe some coarse BBW to start, clean that off after bevel set and switch to yellow for finer polishing? Lots of intriguing possibilities here...

Edit: This thread has inspired a stroke of madness. I ordered a small rubbing stone sized piece of BBW and a coticule rubbing stone. Not sure what I plan to pair them with, but I'm thinking my PHIG just might be an OK interim/experimental stone (Until I can obtain a suitable Arkansas) to use as a base for a Jnat style system using bits of Western hones as Nagura type rocks.

Good for you Marshal . I am uploading a video as we speak and will add it to the thread. I'm sure you could use the slurries on any type of hone.

https://youtu.be/tqLSm5KK9Gs

As promised. It's a long one so I apologize but I wanted to catch start to finish. Edge shaved fine just needed a little fine tuning with some extra strokes on the coticule with a hint of slurry diluted to water only and is a great shaver now.

Orignarly I was thinking since the BBW is a coarser grit it would cut a bit quicker. But on further reflection my thoughts aligned more with yours. The yellow cuts faster, so you're better off just using yellow to cut the bevel and dilute from there.

Still, it might be nice to have a little piece lying around for experiments. A thick slurry on a hard stone might surprise us. (Edit: Then again, i also presume youve tried this and found that practice and theory line up, being that you had a BBW rubbing stone on hand for the video.) What I'm wondering though, is how much the base stone is aiding in the cutting action? To my way of thinking most of that cutting was likely done by the coticule slurry. I can work up some black swarf on my medium pocket knife ark, but it takes many more strokes than it did to darken up your coticule slurry.

20 minutes or less to cut a bevel from a blade so dull you could smack your hand with it isn't bad at all though. Can't wait for my package from SRD so I can mess around with this technique.

The Belgian blue slurry will come in useful! I meant for faster cutting use the coticule slurry, then use bbw to dilute down and then jump to coticule. That would be an ideal route. The surface preparation on the Ark plays a pretty important role also. It should be freshly lapped to be cutting at peak performance. I think the coticule slurry aids cutting a lot but without the base stones abrasive you would essentially be doing a coticule "dilucot " and speed declines immensely especially with a slower coticule. I'm just suggesting another cheap all natural method to hone a razor. Just for kicks .

I am interested to see how this will work out for you and any others who are willing to try it.