Thread: Crushed Coticule Slurry

Originally Posted by Disburden

Alex also mentioned in one of his posts that he rubs a slurry stone on a dry coticule and then hones on the dry slurry, like CroX on Balsa. he then rubs the slurry stone on the hone against to mash up the slurry more and repeats.

I haven't tried this yet, but I am curious, since I like to play in the slurry.

I am also curious about the dry coti slurry and would like to hear more.

It is a shame the original poster is not around anymore who came up with the idea. I would just like to dedicate a thread to figuring out and making some sort of repeatable process. Could one of you guys post the links here?

light colored hones (coticule, SS12k, spyderco UF, carborundum 101 & etc.) when viewed under lighted magnification like my current favorite Carson microbrite plus 60-120x LED lighted reveal an interesting landscape after dry honing.

The lapped 'flat' surface is composed of hills and valleys and the Carson delivers a nice 3D view at this magnification. After dry honing, the hilltops are easily identified by black metal and it is shocking how big the valley spaces are in between. Obviously, the edge rides over the hilltops never touching the valley. Any peak sticking up higher than the others is ready to knock out a chip on an edge leading pass.

So then, wet and dry slurry must fill the valleys for more cutting surface area- just as honers report faster cutting with slurry. Water and oil fill the valley as well, but with cutting speed rate slower proportional to the lubricant refreshing rate. Running water = less or no particles in the valley.

With both wet and dry coti slurry I have been experimenting as follows.
1) after building the slurry, let the first passes (<10) be spine leading to wipe off the excess slurry, ideally leaving it in the valleys. Think spreading icing on a cake. This hopefully minimizes the number of edge chipping slurry boulders with their feet firmly planted in a valley and head sticking up above their neighbors.
2) clean the razor then do your edge leading routine as normal, diluting by dribbling or wiping (dry) in the usual manner.

This technique may be more suitable for dry slurry-that is my current interest. Wet slurry is more challenging, with barely any water at all, just damp, drying out quickly and when refreshing you would have to do the spine leading passes again...

One interesting initial observation - the bevel of a dry slurried razor is shiny polished like from SS12k, not frosted like usual coti. This from only one razor and coti though, so this may not be the case with others.

Just tried dry slurry on my very fast pinkish LPB and got easy hht 4 with my super thin hair. Way better than expected, will test shave it today along with an edge from a found in the wild hone that is extremely fine grained.

Originally Posted by DireStraights

Just tried dry slurry on my very fast pinkish LPB and got easy hht 4 with my super thin hair. Way better than expected, will test shave it today along with an edge from a found in the wild hone that is extremely fine grained.

And you are doing this as a finishing technique correct?

Originally Posted by Disburden

And you are doing this as a finishing technique correct?

Yes. I took an already shave ready blade and did quite a few laps. Like 40 or more even. Towards the end I brushed some of the dust off and did a few spine leading strokes. I figure if I get a good shave off this really fast coti any of mine should work.

It left a nice polished bevel and the hht results are keen for this stone, so expecting a nice shave this afternoon.

Thanks.

Lets see how the shave is. Can you post the result?

Originally Posted by DireStraights

Yes. I took an already shave ready blade and did quite a few laps. Like 40 or more even. Towards the end I brushed some of the dust off and did a few spine leading strokes. I figure if I get a good shave off this really fast coti any of mine should work.

It left a nice polished bevel and the hht results are keen for this stone, so expecting a nice shave this afternoon.