Coticule sharpness and why not every coticule is a razor finisher.

[s0litarys0ldier]

I recently came to a revelation while playing around with my Stone Collection. There is a certain level of sharpness that a Belgian Stone can achieve and when compared to premium synthetic systems such as in my case the shapton glass. The Edge is not as Keen. What I mean by that is The Edge maxes out at a less Keen level just due to the variance in the whetstone's surface and composition. Sure the shaves are awesome but not as effortless as you can achieve with a Japanese water stone. This is especially noticeable when going against the grain for me. I have owned my fair share of the sweet yellow stones. And now I am down to only two. One that I use for sharpening and one for finishing. The effortlessness of the shave combined with the renowned smoothness it's really for me the epitome of how a Belgian Stone should leave the edge. I'm not discrediting the use of a Coti because I think they are wonderful stones and my favorite type I am just wanted to share a few Thoughts with you all.

Few years ago in 2009 it came out that you could do with one stone honing method on a Belgian Stone and everyone was led to believe that any Coti could be used as a razor finisher. I find this to be quite misleading as in the old days these stones were graded according to their fineness and only the finest were selected for use on straight razors. With the decline in popularity of straight razor shaving in the 20th century so declined the need to grade these stones like they used to be. Sure you might be able to shave off of whatever Stone you get. Though it may not be optimally finished and this is what keeps people searching for that one. The 1 that agrees with their beard and skin type that will make the razor's Edge what they want. That is the elusive search that we are all after that use these stones.

A while back I remember watching videos on YouTube by Sham. He alluded to this that not every stone was a razor finisher and at the time I didn't know how to take it. I was so brainwashed by what was put on coticule.be that I didn't believe him. What do you mean? Of course every stone can finish a razor to what I have come to expect. This led to a lot of frustration. It does take time to learn a stone I am not saying it doesn't but what I'm saying is when you take in a stone as far as you can and it's still not pleasing you at a certain point you've got to step back and realize that maybe it isn't you. These little tricks we're all came up with for one single reason to try and makeup for a Stone that will not finish the edge to where they want it.

I apologize in advance for the rant but I've been pondering it for a while and sure it's fun to try different stones but the real quest to find one that works for you and not everyone has the same ideals when it comes to what and Edge should be. What works for one may not work for another and so on and so forth.

When done right a fine enough coticule will leave the edge absolutely stunning and will give you one of the finest shaves of your life. If your coticule isn't leaving your edge where you want it don't despair there is more then one way to boost the keenness and get the edge to where you like it. I will not discuss that here. I just want to open discussion about the topic.