Thread: My Dear Coticule...

If you say the marker is being removed from the heal then keep honing untill it feels sticky sharp with the tpt. whatch heavy dutys honing video on the warped blade section i think 9 and watch him hone very carefully all the way throught the progression and you will notice he starts with the heal down first on his normal blade study his honing and try and practice i learn't alot from his viceos every thing his in there. go to video section i think hes on there or utube on hoining straight razor he also uses bbw and yellow you must watch all the way through i have watched at least 10 times.He explains why he puts heal down first as in his experiance the heal does'nt spend much time on hone and he had a thew razors that wern't getting sharp at heal so that is why he hones that way i do now and i find it works realy well with good consistant strokes and normal light pressure always.

still nothing....

I tried more passes on the coticule with slurry to perfect the bevel...It was shaving leg hair but only going down with the grain I suppose, When I flipped the blade over and tried to come up my leg it wouldn't do much. (passed the marker test)

I then moved to the blue with some slurry, did about 100 passes, no improvement whatsoever, I would even say that it sort of made it worse than before.

I'm absolutely puzzled at this point..

Maybe you should send the razor to Lynn or to Glen (gssixgun). They could take a look at it and probably see what you have been doing with it and give you some advice to correct it. Also they could get it shave ready for you.

That could be a solution, but I live in Canada and I don't really like the whole cross border shipping business.

I know it is a hassle. I have mailed stuff to Canada and received stuff. Just takes a bit longer. floppyshoes is in Montreal and I am pretty sure kaptain_zero is in Canada. Not sure where. You could shoot them a PM and see if they could help you out.

Best case scenario would be if you could actually get together with someone who could show you what they do and watch what you have been doing. They could tell you how to correct your technique. You might even put up a post,"Any honemiesters in Canada?"

Originally Posted by Dups

I'm absolutely puzzled at this point..

That makes two of us.

Normally, coming off the Coticule with slurry, the razor should shave arm hair without problems. It clearly isn't doing that. But it's doing something. If you had the edge downstroked, as I suggested earlier, it now doing something would mean that you're very close to bevel completion.
If you never downstroked, your results could be residual keenness of the razors initial condition, and you could still be way off, certainly if the razor still had the factory bevel on it, or if it was previously honed with a (few) layer(s) of tape added to the spine. I sure hope you didn't hone with tape yesterday and without tape today? (I guess not, but just checking to rule out all possible recipes for disaster)

Another possible thing that could seriously undermine all chances for success, is connected to stroke errors. Lifting the spine is a big no. And tilting down to the point where the razor slightly cuts into the edge of the hone is another possible error. Again, this all sound unlikely, just mentioning a few things.

That leaves us with the hone and the razor. The last thing I usually question is the steel of the razor and the quality of the hone. I reckon that you have shaved with the Dovo before, so we can rule the Dovo out as a culprit. Leaves us with your Coticule. The slurry turns gray quickly, you said. That is proof of metal removal. A possible problem can be that the hone has hard inclusions that affect the delicate edge of a razor. In that case the vendor should replace the hone. Rob of Ardennes has stated on this forum that he has no problem with replacing a Coticule if the costumer thinks there's a problem. Inclusions can always bee seen in the hone's surface. BEWARE: not all inclusions pose a problem. They know at Ardennes what should be ruled out, so in the vast majority of cases inclusions are purely cosmetic. But if your hone has a homogenous surface without any foreign artifacts, then you can rule out all the above as well.

The same things apply to the Blue side. I emphasize that is very unlikely that something is wrong with the tools, as Jimmy says, it usually is the Indian, not the arrow. But since no one ever honed successfully on the hone, we can't completely rule out the possibility of a flaw in the hone.

Normally at this point I would suggest trying a DMT1200 instead of slurry on the Coticule , and see if that changes anything for you.
This would all be much easier if we could sit together, with a pile of different hones for a while.

As for a final suggestion, before I'm going to start offering solutions that will involve sending razors and/or hones across the pond, here's emergency plan B:

Please follow this exactly as layouted:
-Tape the spine with 2 layers of tape.
-Run the edge gently over the bottom of a glass jar, as if you were trying to cut into the glass: 2 strokes.
-Test with leg hair and make sure it does not shave.
-Raise milky slurry on the Coticule
-Hone with back and forth, diagonal strokes on one side of the razor. Apply some pressure, about the same amount as you use to squeeze out a tube of tooth paste. Count the motions till 50 times back and forth . Flip the razor and repeat on the other side.
- Try to shave leg hair. If it fails, go back to the previous step. Keep checking and doing sets of 50 strokes per side till it shaves hair.
- Once it shaves hair, back off on the pressure and start performing regular X-strokes. Check every 30 laps with the TPT and/or the shave leg hair test.
- If the keenness stops improving, finish with your 30 best laps on very thin slurry.
- Please report back if you decide to try this approach and manage to achieve a good bevel. The razor should shave your leg or arm hair without any problem.
Once there, I'll try to guide you though the Blue stage as well.

Good luck,
Bart.

Great suggestions by Bart. Another question, have you had success in honing other razors with that hone or with any other hone ? Just trying to rule out technique as an possible issue.

I just got the hone this week.

I just did the marker test again with a real 'sharpie permanent marker'

From I can see it seems that the bevel is set apart for a little section at the toe and heel. I'm trying the whole rolling X stroke but It's not as easy as it sounds

If I'm honing a dovo tortoise should I still angle the razor to do the rolling X stroke?

Originally Posted by Dups

I just got the hone this week.

I just did the marker test again with a real 'sharpie permanent marker'

From I can see it seems that the bevel is set apart for a little section at the toe and heel. I'm trying the whole rolling X stroke but It's not as easy as it sounds

If I'm honing a dovo tortoise should I still angle the razor to do the rolling X stroke?

If you've ever honed a pocket knife with a clip blade it is similar except with a razor the spine and the edge immediately across from it are always in contact with the hone. Depending on how bad it is you can also use Lynn's technique of heel leading with a 45 degree angle on the blade. The marker test will tell you if that is working. It is easier to do than the rolling X.

My coticule is falling appart!!! The coticule side of my stone is losing some parts. I just spent a long time trying to get it back to completely soft all accross. There still a small point toward the end that I didn't attempt at fixing.

I know they're natural stones but I'm expecting a bit more robustness .