Thread: Only one hone

I agree with Ben and Chris, stick with the belgians. You seem to already have great success with the coticule and BBW, so why not just keep them and sell the rest?

If you did want a bigger stone, I would look for a natural combination BBW/coticule so you could have the blue side to use too. You could always use your current BBW and coticule for slurry stones for the larger one too.

So if I had to give up all but one of my kids which one would I keep ? It so happens that out of 12 coticules I have one 8x3 natural that is the best of all of my cotucules vintage or recently harvested. It came from Howard and he of course got it from Ardennes. I guess if I could only have one that would be it because of the versatility. It isn't the "best" finisher I have,

I think that my blue/green and yellow/green Eschers are better finishers but since it is a bbw/yellow and can with slurry set a bevel or finish with water it would be my choice. I am experimenting with Eschers with slurry to see how effective they can be with slurry followed by water. I'm wondering if I can duplicate the performance of the coticule and surpass it but I haven't come to a conclusion yet.

If you want versatility, nothing beats a Coticule.
I regularly manage to get premium edges off just one Coticule, and if I would narrow my collection down to only razors that respond well to that method, It would be all I ever needed.

Bart.

This question is really tough to answer.
I will be agree amoung the stones you want to choose only 1 stone then i go with coticule or norton 4./8k.
Questions doesn't mention are you willing to use pastes after hone?
if this is the case i go with norton 4/8k
.
Again please i love to get maximum edge from any blade and that is why sometimes coticule is best most times escher's best.Depends on your needs.
As i said this is not easy to answer you will be the only person could decide what you want and which hone will best suite your needs/
i hope this helps

BBW/Yellow coticule.

If I had to recommend one hone to a newbie, I would definitely say a Chinese 12k. For $30 it simply cannot be beat.

For a more experienced user looking to simplify, I would say a very hard 8"x2" Natural combo Coticule/BBW

+1 on Chinese 12k... Very nice hone, almost no feedback, but it produces an edge so smooth that I regularly skip CrOx and hit the leather directly afterward... I haven't tried it with slurry, but it's great for touching up razors...
I haven't tried the coticule yet...
But I would definitely vote for coticule because all the good words I read about it...

I have same setup plus 12k chineese its got tbe bbw/yellow no dout