After my disagreement with Bart about the koordenwinkel, I feel I should clarify in more detail why I have that opinion about their honing technique, and the importance of the flaws in some of the coticules they sell.
Please note that both approaches to honing work. They are just very different.
I thought long about whether I should post this or not, but I decided to post because I don't want people to get wrong ideas about the koordenwinkel after reading my earlier comments. It's a nice shop with lots of good stuff, and the people there are friendly and helpful.
They are in part responsible for the revival of straight razor shaving in Belgium, and I commend them for that.
My issue with the koordenwinkel is that I disagree with them on the subject of honing and hones.
Standard SRP way
At SRP the default honing technique (lapped stones, 12K finishing stone or better) results in a triangular edge (with optionally a teeny mircrobevel)
The resulting edge is very sharp, and it stays vary sharp for a long time.
This is imo because repeated stropping turns the edge from triangular into teardrop shaped.
The only way this happens by stropping on leather is because the tip of the triangular shape makes good contact with the strop and is 'abraded' easily. This mechanism is similar to the way that if you tape the spine, the first couple of passes take away metal at a great speed, because the point of contact is so small.
As the bevels get wider (or as the teardrop is shaped) the contact surfaces get bigger and the abrasion slows down.
This means that the edge is 'sharpened' by the stropping, and any microscopic edge damage gets removed by the strop. (Microscopic is the keyword here).
Their way
At the koordenwinkel, the first difference is they don't lap their stones. The reason is that it doesn't matter in their honing routine.
They start out on the coticule with slurry, and then make X movements like we do. This continues until the razor passes the TNT (their variation of it. same difference).
Then they switch to a pasted loom strop with dovo red paste. An important sidenote here is that the strop is not fully tensioned. It is slightly loose, causing it to droop a bit when the razor passes.
The red paste is equivalent to the norton 8K in grit size, though less aggressive. It would probably compare to a 12K norton.
Then they strop and shave. At that point the razor is shaving sharp. Note that at this point, the edge is teardrop shaped already because of the non-lapped coticule and the slightly drooping pasted strop
Why I think our way is better
Following their way, it is relatively easy to hone a razor, but this ease comes at the price of having to refresh the edge frequently.
Stropping on leather only will not remove the microdamage, because the lack of triangular edge means that it won't be abraded by the leather.
The SRP way of honing takes longer to learn. The reason is that there are so many mistakes you can make, and so many ways to mess up the triangle. However, once you have it, the end result is that your razor stays sharper for a long time.
I have used both honing methods (since I started out using theirs) for some time.
Theirs is easier to learn, but you need to touch up frequently on the pasted strop
And the razor won't be as sharp as stone finished edges (assuming a 12K finishing stone or better), unless you also use finer pastes than the dovo red paste. If you use .5 chromium oxide or diamond paste, then the sharpness should become equal, or at least they should be within the same variations.
Our way is hard to learn, but edges can be sharper, and last longer.
It's a tradeoff, but for people who are in this for the long term, I believe our way is preferable, once you have the hang of it. The simplest reason is less time between touchups.
Why I don't like their honing course and technique
There are 2 problems I have with honing as it is taught at the koordenwinkel. Again, this is just my opinion, and not a judgment about sharpness or shavereadiness.
The first is that the skills and materials are not easily transferable.
Some of the coticules they sell are unsuitable as finishers as we use them.
In their way of honing, that doesn't matter because they only use the stone to get the edge to the TNT sharpness level. They finish on paste, not on the coticule. They use the coticule where we would use a 4K stone.
So a coticule bought there will be good for what they use it for, but it might be unsuitable for finishing after the norton 8K or similar stone.
The techniques are also not easily transferable, because they omit a lot that we depend on, like lapping, and chamfering of the edges of the stone. Leaving the loom strop loose is also a certain way to destroy your triangular edge. There are more issues but listing them is not what this thread is about.
People wanting to learn honing as we do will have to overcome several hurdles, and unlearn a lot in order to make the switch.
The second issue is maybe not entirely objective, but they also have different standards about when a razor is beyond hope of honing (let alone restoring), and they make no mention of other stones than coticules.
My razor had a double bevel due to extremely bad stropping on the pasted strop (my newbie sin :)) and the advice I got was to ship it to dovo for regrinding, or spend 12 hours on the coticule to get it back.
When I hone such a razor now after restoration, it only takes half an hour on the 1K to reset the entire bevel.
As long as a razor is in good condition, they can get it sharp as I mentioned before
But as soon as a razor is in less than ideal shape, the people at the koordenwinkel are lost because their way of honing is not suitable for doing any real metal removal.
Perhaps this is not wholly fair on my part. I realize that repairing or restoring a razor is not for everybody, but at that point I feel they should simply mention that the razor is not lost, but can be restored or repaired if you have the correct equipment or know someone who does.
Then the people would know that a razor with minor damage is not lost. Especially with an expensive TI, that would be a big waste.
I have to admit that I don't know of all the people who use straights, how many care as much as we do (few, I guess) and how many would care for restoration (very few probably).
I all likelyhood, restorers like some of us are to the average shaver as the mechanics who restore a1960 MG are to the average car owner.
The end
I hope that with this, I have sufficiently explained the reasoning behind my opinion on the koordenwinkel way of honing. To summarize:
1) They can hone a razor so that it is shaveready, just as we do.
2) Their way is probably easier to learn.
3) But the fact that they start with the teardrop shape means it needs to be refreshed more.
4) They have a low threshold to judge a razor un-honable or lost.
5) Knowing their way of honing can make it harder to learn our way of honing.
6) The koordenwinkel is a very nice shop for lots of edged stuff, like razors, scissors, nailclippers, chef knives and lots more
