Thread: Now I get what Bart's been saying...

I've read every word I can find around these parts about coticules, and what Bart has said really stuck in my mind...

According to Bart, coticules will finish off at a certain sharpness. However, if you are able to get a blade sharper than what you can on a coticule, and then take that blade *to* the coticule, the coticule can then improve the blade's smoothness without affecting the level of sharpness. I hope that made sense.

So I've been testing his theory... I've sharpened two blades from start to finish on the BBW/coticule combination, then gave them each 50 linen and 50 leather. I then took two more blades to the coticule with water. One of these had been finished on the Shapton 16k, then 50 on .25 diamond on a pasted paddle strop. It's a known good shaver. The second one had been finished on the Shapton 16k as it's final step. Again, it was a known decent shaver. Both of these blades did 100 laps on the coticule with water. Then 50 linen/50 leather. I took all four blades to the shave test.

The two that I honed start to finsih on the BBW/coticule were smooth, but not as sharp as I like.

The ultra sharp blade (that had been finished on .25 diamond) was much more smooth, while still retaining it's ultra sharp edge. This one was by far my favorite.

The Shapton 16k -> coticule with water blade was much smoother than it was previously, but still not quite as sharp as I'd like.

The point of all this is that, IME, Bart has it nailed: a coticule is capable of refining/smoothing blades that are sharper than what the coticule itself can produce. *Noticeably* so. And my particular coticule finishes a blade to a smoother level than what I can get with the shapton 16k.

Now to pit that coticule against the Shapton 30k tonight....