Thread: [VIDEO] Straight razor honing on Belgian Coticules Selected Grade

Straight razor honing on Belgian Coticule Selected Grade NOW WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES (Spanish spoken).

In this video I explain:
-Why Coticules are different from synthetic stones and why naturals vary from piece to piece.
-Why we shouldn't talk about "grit" as far as natural stones are concerned.
-What to expect from a Coticule
-A little bit of history of Coticules
-A little bit of the Coticules composition (spessartine garnets)
-A brief demonstration and 60X picture of the final edge.

https://youtu.be/hvEzUtSBwC8

I'd appreciate feedback on the information I'm giving.

Kind regards,
CoffeeAddict24

I found it interesting but it was too long for me.

Nice video, and nice accompanying music as it is calming (the opposite of caffeine, however). I found the vantage point to be really helpful as it shows exactly how you are gripping the shank with your thumb and fingers, and changing their orientation during the flip. Interesting to see the use of a squarish coticule too. From experience, one thing I would suggest in hand-holding a coticule is to rest the stone on your outstretched off-hand only, do not grip from the sides as shown. The reason is that the thumb or other fingers risk to slide up to the honing surface during the honing process, risking a serious cut.

Not sure if you are moving up and down with the stroke or introducing a little bit of lateral X-pass. Here, it would be helpful to briefly cut to a second point of view from above to show this, or at least mention it in your commentary.

Subtitles read well, allowing this anglophone to follow along quite easily. I don't know any Spanish, but your enunciation seems clear all the same.

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for letting me know. I'll do some briefer videos soon.

Most of the time I did straight-forward strokes.

There's a moment when I exxagerated the X-Stroking motion but I realized it's quite difficult to notice.

Thanks a lot for your feedback.

Kind regards,
CoffeeAddict24

I have one coti and usually do a slurry with a matching tomo as it seems quicker but I only use it for finishing.

To return to the video as posted, I want to make a few comments.

What I appreciated most was the attention to how the fingers are gripping the shank during the pass and during the flip. Very clear to see as shown. That said, it inspired me to try to hone in the same way as I normally grip the shank and flip the razor a bit differently.

In the video, the thumb and forefinger appear to be making contact with the top and bottom (or where the jimps would be) of the shank during the pass, the flip being achieved by a roll of the fingers with the hand remaining in approximately the same orientation the whole time. This is similar to how I stropped, in watching various videos on the subject, when I first started out. The result on leather was that I would sometimes nick the surface as I did not have enough control over the leather. When I switched to an approach that involved gripping the shank more from side to side, with the thumb remaining in the same orientation, biassed toward the edge, with a slight roll and slight change of the position of my hand and wrist during the flip, I found my stropping had improved, and no more nicks.

Since then, I have used this method to hone razors, hand-holding the stones rather then using them on the bench. But as the alternative approach was so clearly shown in the video, I decided to give it a shot on the stones.

On Wednesday evening, I restored the bevel and edge of an old Bengall "Cast Steel" razor. Throughout the process, I gripped the shank as shown in the video. The result was a very clean bevel and edge with no complications. So far, so good. However, I noted that during the process my forefinger was pushing the stroke from the spine towards me whereas my thumb was pushing the stroke away from me, this perhaps introducing a source of imbalance and instability.

Last night, I tried to do the same with a new production Dovo full-hollow. During the early stages, I noticed that the middle and toe of the bevel were receiving wear whereas the heel area was under-served. Continuing nonetheless, I then noticed that a burr was starting to form on one side in the heel area. Thinking that it might be the stone I was using (the progression being different than the one I was using on Wednesday), I switched to the equivalent hone I had been using the night before. Still, the burr was there, it would not go away.

This was something that I had already suspected. My thumb was not biassed towards the edge from the side of the shank on either stroke, or perhaps more importantly, on both strokes, leading to an imbalance. So the pass towards me was done with more pressure than the pass away from me, leading to the burr on one side, this being more pronounced towards the heel due to its proximity to the shank. Realizing that the burr was not going to go away if I continued gripping the shank in this fashion, I returned to my usual method of gripping the shank from side to side with the thumb biassed to the edge with each stroke, and the burr quickly went away and the rest of the progression proceeded smoothly from there.

This leads me to wonder why the same problem did not occur with the Bengall razor. It being a slightly thicker grind, perhaps it was more resistant to the imbalance. Or, being more conscious of what was going on in the video there, I used a lighter touch with the thumb during the pass towards me, whereas last night, I was slipping back to my habitual approach as the position of the thumb was closer to where it would have been had I been holding the shank more from the side with a bias towards the edge.

An interesting dilemma for yours truly. If stropping is an analogy, then I know that gripping the shank more from the sides leads me to more control, and it makes sense to me that the grip of the shank should be similar in both stropping and honing.

I learned a very bad habit from day one of learning to hone and I just can't break it.

On the stones I always lift the blade at the end of the stroke and flip it over the edge instead of over the spine.

Terrible and risky habit but what can I say

Slow down until your muscle memory masters the proper movement.

That will also help you avoid nicking your strop.

Originally Posted by DZEC

Slow down until your muscle memory masters the proper movement.

That will also help you avoid nicking your strop.

Sorry if I was unclear. My problem with nicking my strop was solved around ten years ago.