Thread: Help! I've honed with a coticule, and I can't get sharp...

May I suggest you send your coticule to someone who has been able to get good results with one to help isolate if it is a technique or equipment issue? (I'm not ready to say I am qualified to do this yet...)

-Chief

Originally Posted by BHChieftain

May I suggest you send your coticule to someone who has been able to get good results with one to help isolate if it is a technique or equipment issue? (I'm not ready to say I am qualified to do this yet...)

-Chief

Good suggestion, and I was leaning toward this kind of thing.

The hone looks like on of howards? I had that problem when i first got mine i have athew now they all seem to do the job my slurry was to thick and i could'nt shave any arm hair at all 100 laps with water did make a differance the tpt should feel smoother and not grab your skin as much i use more sensative areas like further down my thumb you should get better feed back

The coticule is an interesting stone. I was having similar problems the first times I was using mine. I now have two, and my second one seems to be a little better, but it's a little early to say for sure. I'm not sure what's up with my first one.. I still have alot of side by side comparisons to make, but it seems I can achieve a keener edge off the second one.

Either way, I did get the first to give me a shaving edge, and the key thing that pushed me over the edge, oddly enough, was stropping. I would try to use the coticule with water after coming off the norton 4k/8k, or off the bbw with slurry, and each time, it would seem to kill the keenness (failing TPT, no longer popping hairs above skin). However, stropping on smooth cotton for ~100x would bring it right back in line and passing the tests. It was very strange.

I'd be curious if you find the same results... try either the one coticule honing method as Bart has suggested here - just move on when it seems to have maxed out sharpness, and when you finish the whole progression, even if it doesn't seem to be shave ready, strop that baby up on linen or smooth cotton (leather may even work) for 60 laps at a time, and see if you notice a difference. For me, the edge I had at this point was greatly improved over the coticule itself, and will shave ok, but I still found that I needed to hit another finisher or paste to really have an edge that is up to my standards.

Chris - I feel your frustration. I'm in the same boat. I've put the coticule aside for a while. I'm getting great results going from the Norton to the Chinese or even right to chrom ox. Hey, that's just me - I'm not the most patient guy in the world.

Jordan

just curious Chris, I cant really tell from the photos, but is your coticule tinted or shaded sort of green?

the reason I ask is that i have four coticules now, 1 pink, 1 yellow, 1 yellow/green, and the other is green with purple specks and yellow swirls. In an effort to follow Bart's "one coticule progression" ( I have one more shave to go and i will post my results) I found that the pink and yellow produced much sharper edges for me than the greenies did, as a rookie I know less than nothing, but it seems to me the greener stones are harder, and do more polishing than sharpening.

hopefully someone who knows more can shed some light.

I have four i find my coti with pink shades here and there cuts slightly quiker but they all seem to do a good job and they all seem hard you can tell which one cuts fastest by the colour of slurry but i could'nt tell which one polishes best to be onest. non of them create slurry on there own by normal honing so i guess they will be fine for polishing,

Chris: do you strop before you try the edge? IME you have to strop after honing before you do any of the hair tests or test shave.

I agree my razor will not pass hht after polishing or honing on coticule after linen and leather totaly differant 9 times out of ten passes easily btw coti looks realy nice.

Originally Posted by Kees

Chris: do you strop before you try the edge? IME you have to strop after honing before you do any of the hair tests or test shave.

No, I don't normally -- especially for the TPT. I do strop befor eshaving, but I was usually not getting far enough to attempt a shave. It's probably another reason why I've had difficulty switching to a coticule from my synthetic stones. This is one of the nuances that I need to remember when using this coticule.