Thread: Could you take a look on my honing tecnique

Good morning Gents

I am attaching for your consideration a short video of my honing technique so you can tell me what is wrong and how can be improve, I must say this is my second attempt and the video show just the last passes with clean water over a small coticule using dilucote process.
I know is too much to ask for a first timer but I am using the resource that I have at hand.
The razor is a Rudolf Schmitd Bambola 205 and the hone is a Belgium coticule/BBW after many passes over a heavy slurry I started to add water thirty passes each time, diluting and more thirty passes until clean water and no pressure on the blade.
I achieved a decent edge enough to cut arm hair effortlessly, I do not have any experience (not even seen one in person) with a shave ready razor to compare with all I have is the humongous amount of information provided by this community and some imagination to try to implement it.
Please let me know what do you see and think


https://youtu.be/0_HEz-F8IUc

A couple of thoughts.
It is quite typical that when people are new to honing razors, they tend to put way too much pressure on the spine and cause the spine to wear far too quickly. It is easily mitigated with the use of tap.
A coticule is an extremely difficult place to start compare to synthetics.
Due to you location getting together with another may be difficult.
If you watch gssixgun videos you will see how you can hold the blade so you are torquing the edge down. The finger placement seems like you may be pushing down on the blade and not concentrating on the edge.
Good luck

Thanks for the comment RezDog in my mix of information I am afraid of put too much pressure on the spine and cause more wear than it already has due to the fact that the razor belongs to a barber who used on daly basis as a work tool, although I used my both hands to control the strokes and add some pressure in the first stages with the heavy slurry since is a coticule I am guessing some pressure must be applied in order to obtain results since is a fine grit sort of speak, I was thinking in use some tape but doing that I will be adding more variables to watch after

If you always use the same tape, there are no added variables.

Originally Posted by RezDog

If you always use the same tape, there are no added variables.

Do you mean, once you use tape you have to use it always unless you re bevel it ?

Yes, use tape, always use tape. Unless you want to use tape at the very end to make a microbevel. This is done by some coti users. I cant help you with a Coti as i found them to not give a keen enough edge. So i sold mine. Had no need for a stone that couldnt give an edge I liked. It is a hard stone to learn on. In my opinion about any other stone would be better, but you are limited to what you can find. Synthetic stones are the best to learn on. Maybe one of the Coti users will chime in and help.

It changes the angle very very little and once you have honed with tape if you choose to hone with no tape it tapes only a few strokes to change it back to the no tape angle. Super fast, super easy. It does take a while to hone well enough the tape no tape issue to be a non issue.

Lift the stone higher off the bench, a ¾ -1-inch-thick piece of wood with rubber or cloth between the stone and wood will secure it nicely.

Lifting the stone will keep your hand well off the bench and allow a more clearance and comfortable stroke. See how little time the heel is on the stone, it is not being honed. Try a heel forward stroke and keep the heel on the stone until it reaches the halfway point, then bring the toe in an arc to the bottom corner. This will hone the whole edge evenly

Some sharpie ink on the bevel will show you your progress.

Do use some electrical tape on the spine, you will use too much pressure, do way too many strokes and needlessly wear the spine. If the razor has spine hone wear, a layer of tape will bring the angle closer to what it was originally and make getting the bevels to meet easier.

I use two hands for the beginning bevel setting strokes and finish with light single hand strokes. Use magnification and ink to check your progress, make sure you are honing to the edge and that the bevels meet fully.

As said, a one stone bevel setting progression with a Coticule is challenging. It can and has been done for hundreds of years. You will have to learn the nuance of slurry.

Some close-up photos of the razor and both sides of the stone may assist in advising you. The large Coticule looks like a nice one, some of the early glued stones have very good BBW sides that may be better than the Coticule side, some are good bevel setters.

More info to deal with, sadly I have to earn some money LOL so I will back tonight and keep on learning.
See you later

If you are new to honing, it is difficult to control the pressure on a narrow hone to insure the entire blade is honed evenly. The center of the blade is on the hone nearly all the time while the ends are on the hone only briefly. If you are not careful, you can end up with a frowning blade. If you have a smiling blade to start with, using a narrow hone can be an advantage. Honing smiling blades, however, is not a beginner task.