Thread: Tam O Shanter vs Coticule

Dylan,

For me, I like the idea of a slow medium hone because it seems to leave a finer polish. (Slower to me = shallower grooves, which means a more even edge.)

My beard likes a very smooth edge, so I try to use my Belgian blue to get out all of the lower-grit scratches. The Belgian blue leaves a nice, polished edge. Then I try to polish out all the blue scratches on my coticule.

I have no idea, really, if this is what I'm actually doing, but it's my goal. My best shaving razors always look really polished under magnification, so I've tried to emulate that.

The 4K Norton leaves a nice, sharp edge with very pronounced scratches. The Belgian leaves a much finer polish.

That's just how I visualize what's going on; I may be way off, though.

Josh

One of the reasons I really like the Tam is that the jump from 4K to 8K is rather large. The second reason is as Josh mentions, a softening of the texture on the bevel, the Norton 4K is very effective for me but the scratch pattern has sharp ridge lines that I want to soften and the Norton 8K does not do that as well as the Tam. BTW, I normally use 50 laps on the Tam with slurry.

The Tams characteristic as being good for microchipping blades was proven again just yesterday. I was honing a 6/8 Puma that was not behaving well and the Tam took care of that problem. What I think is happening is that for some brittle steels the jump from 4K Norton to 8K Norton is simply to much.

I think so much of the Tams that I have two from Simon Coul and a bunch of other pieces that I picked up elswhere.
Of course it is also a natural stone and one that will soon not be available anymore since the mine has been closed.

Just my two cents,

Originally Posted by JoshEarl

My beard likes a very smooth edge, so I try to use my Belgian blue to get out all of the lower-grit scratches. The Belgian blue leaves a nice, polished edge. Then I try to polish out all the blue scratches on my coticule.

Originally Posted by randydance062449

... the scratch pattern has sharp ridge lines that I want to soften and the Norton 8K does not do that as well as the Tam....

Randy, Josh, this is great. I've always liked the Tam and the Belgian blue even more (it's like honing on velvet) but I've never understood what the hell I was doing and why.

I bought the Tam because Randy, Michael, and Joe use it. I was at the point in my honing learning curve – a very slow one, as I've admitted on several occasions – where in wondering why the razors Joe had honed for me were so great, and mine so mediocre, I concluded that it must be an issue of equipment, rather than talent.