Thread: Question About Belgian blue/ Coticule

Update:

I thought I was going to get a yellow slurry stone but the seller was kind enough to look through his stock and found a combination slurry stone as well.

I'll let you guys know when I get it.

It's too bad that all my 4 razors are shave ready right now.

I'm curious to see if I could go from Coticule/slurry - BB/slurry/ Coticule with water to get a razor from butter knife sharp to shavre ready.

I might just play around with my Double Arrow. Better make mistakes on that one than on one of my more expensive razors I suppose.

Originally Posted by Dups

It's too bad that all my 4 razors are shave ready right now.

The irony!

Good luck on your next honing sessions.

Originally Posted by Dups

Update:

I thought I was going to get a yellow slurry stone but the seller was kind enough to look through his stock and found a combination slurry stone as well.

I'll let you guys know when I get it.

It's too bad that all my 4 razors are shave ready right now.

I'm curious to see if I could go from Coticule/slurry - BB/slurry/ Coticule with water to get a razor from butter knife sharp to shavre ready.

I might just play around with my Double Arrow. Better make mistakes on that one than on one of my more expensive razors I suppose.

Betcha can. There's some crazy Belgian guy running around here that uses that exact progression.

I've read every word he's written about it, and it is a *very* good way to end up with a smooooooth shaver. This is hard to explain, so bear with me... for any given level of sharpness, the corresponding level of smoothness (to me, at least) is better off of the Belgian naturals than any of the synthetics I've used so far. The only exception to this is my Shapton 30k which gives an amazingly smooth edge. Granted, I haven't used all of the synthetics, but man... it's hard to imagine a more comfortable edge than what you get off of a good finishing coticule.

Now if you combine a Sheffield blade with a Belgian hone.... Well, it's something you have to experience for yourself. Literally a "Velvet Squeegee" experience. I'm going to snap up every Sheffield blade I can find, they are that smooth. And for some reason, they are even more so off of a natural stone than synthetic.

Sorry for wandering off topic but I'm just darn excited about BBW's, coticules, and Sheffield blades.

Originally Posted by FloorPizza

Betcha can. There's some crazy Belgian guy running around here that uses that exact progression.

Watch your tone young man, or you'll have to wash your mouth with lather!

Looks like the stone should be here on Friday! This week feels like christmas! I got a nice scuttle this morning!

Originally Posted by Dups

Looks like the stone should be here on Friday! This week feels like christmas! I got a nice scuttle this morning!

To paraphrase a famous quote, Beware the ADs of March".

Originally Posted by Dups

I'm curious to see if I could go from Coticule/slurry - BB/slurry/ Coticule with water to get a razor from butter knife sharp to shavre ready.

I'm a big fan of Barts yellow/blue belgian notes. (Thank you, Bart and SRP.)

I tried the same progression as above for a few weeks with poor results. (It's because I'm a newbie and not yet fluent with the subtlties of the various belgian stones.) Then I switched to the following:

DMT-D6E (1200) -> Blue Belgian with Slurry -> Yellow Belgian with Water

Instant shaves. (The secret was in the bevel-setting. I couldn't get a good bevel with the yellow slurry. However, that may change with more experience.)

Oh...and now I give it three strokes on the Itsapeech for good luck.

One day I hope to set a bevel on a yellow belgian. Why? I'm not sure. One less stone? (K.I.S.S.)

Christopher

I'm also hoping to minimilize the size of my honing equipment. The idea of having one stone do it all is very appealing. I don't think I'll really need to set the bevel on my razors for a while anyways. They're all shave ready so unless I truly mess up the edge or nick it, it should be good for a LONG time simply using the coticule and the blue when the yellow no longer suffices.

I'd also like to stay away from the cr0 as much as possible.

Recently I've been using some plain newspaper as well after the cr0. It sure gives a very sharp edge but I think it might also be a bit harsh on my skin.

Would going back to the cr0 for a few passes get rid of the harshness or would simply intense stropping doing it?

thanks,

JF

I've had that before were my edge has shaved perfect and i've wonderd if the paste has made my edge to harsh. when i did barts progression bbw then yellow that solved my harsh edge straight away .

Hi All,

I've also read everything about Bart's Coticule/Slurry -> BBW/Slurry -> Coticule/water progression (thanks for that Bart) but haven't been able to make it work so far. I just can't seem to get the razor sharp after many (200 - 300) strokes. I only have one Coticule / BBW combo so far but it seems very hard (from la venette) and doesn't seem to remove much metal (slurry color doesn't change much). I've also experimented with mixing the grits by creating a slurry on the Coticule with the blue side of my slurry stone. I'll keep at it because like you guys I'm also looking for a K.I.S.S. approach and like the idea of getting by with little. In the meantime however I have a few Naniwa SSs, one of which is a 12k, arriving tomorrow and I'll experiment with that also.

Cheers,
khat