Thread: Belgian yellow coticule

Is a yellow coticule suppose to feel sleeker than the 8k side of a norton 4k/8k? Mine doesn't feel as smooth as my norton.

What do you lap your hones with ? I have both and I hadn't noticed enough of a difference to make an impression on me.

Originally Posted by Dups

Is a yellow coticule suppose to feel sleeker than the 8k side of a norton 4k/8k? Mine doesn't feel as smooth as my norton.

Assuming you lapped them both with the same grit, they should be similar.

It's possible you have a rougher coticule, but it shouldn't be that much different. I say test it on a razor and see what happens.

I lap my coticule with some 1000 grit wet/dry SP. Actually as I was lapping it yesterday a fairly large chunk of the coticule came off.

Originally Posted by Dups

I lap my coticule with some 1000 grit wet/dry SP. Actually as I was lapping it yesterday a fairly large chunk of the coticule came off.

That is a bummer! I don't know what to tell you.

Whoah! You have any pics of that?

Mebbe you have a piece of sandstone somebody sold you as a coticule?

I can still use the it. I just have to stop before I get to that section. I actually don't find that it gives me a better and smoother edge than my 8k so I usually go from the 8k to a pasted strop with cr0 instead.

Originally Posted by Dups

I can still use the it. I just have to stop before I get to that section. I actually don't find that it gives me a better and smoother edge than my 8k so I usually go from the 8k to a pasted strop with cr0 instead.

That's a good thing! I had visions of a crumbly piece of sandstone after your other post.

The 8k side of the norton and the coticule have a bit of a different feel to them, but you should be getting better results off of the coticule than the 8k...Perhaps you are just not used to the feel of honing on a coticule. As the others said, pictures would help

But if it's lapped properly, the coticule surface should feel pretty damn smooth. If you look at my coticule, http://straightrazorpalace.com/show-...-coticule.html, the surface may not look entirely smooth because of the patterning on the surface, but it's REALLY smooth. So I'm thinking that it's not lapped smoothly enough, how much pressure are you applying when you lap it?

That's a real shame about a piece falling off of the stone...there must have been a natural fault/crack in it already.

Dave

Be aware that the 'feel' of a coticule is not necessarily an indication of its fineness. The garnets do the cutting; fineness depends on the size of them and they're too small to feel with the hand or even the razor. What you're feeling is the matrix, the consistency of which varies. But the matrix isn't cutting anything.

That said, if you're not getting an improvement over the 8K Norton, then you probably don't have a very fine coticule (there is the possibility however that you're not using it properly).

If you can't get a refund you should try it with a heavy slurry on an old beater that needs a new bevel. Some not-very-fine coticules have the silver lining of being very fast. A lot of guys would love to land this sort of coticule to set bevels with.

Good luck.