Thread: Coticule and what i think

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Originally Posted by gssixgun

So to tell somebody new that you can get by with a barbers hone or even just a coticule is a path to frustration....

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LOOKS like i am not crazy .

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

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LOOKS like i am not crazy .

I wouldn't go that far.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

So to tell somebody new that you can get by with a barbers hone or even just a coticule is a path to frustration....

Now if you were to qualify that and say "You can get by with just a barbers hone or a coticule after the razor has been honed to shave ready and you learn how to use them to maintain your razor"

Then I would whole heartedly agree....

The difference here is a small one and many of you miss the point, are you maintaining razors or are you sharpening razors????

To maintain a razor requires exactly what you said, to sharpen razors requires Time, Proper Hones, and Talent.....

Been there on that path to frustration twenty five years ago. Glen's statement is totally on the money IME not IMO.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Now if you were to qualify that and say "You can get by with just a barbers hone or a coticule after the razor has been honed to shave ready and you learn how to use them to maintain your razor"

Then I would whole heartedly agree....

That is exactly what I have always said and meant. If you are starting with a shave ready razor and not doing eBay specials, you can shave for an entire lifetime with a barber hone or a coticule. I know because I've done it. Whenever anyone asks me, I always explain that I only buy new or NOS razors, that I can usually hone them myself but, a couple of times I have had to send them out to be honed the first time. This is my factual experience during 29 years of shaving.

One last clarification ... I am saying you CAN do that, not that it is the ideal. I did shave off of a barber hone for 28 years and in the last year I have done a lot of experimenting. I have a Norton 4K/8K, a BBW, three coticules, a Chinese 12K and pastes. I just don't use them very much because I am able to maintain my shave-ready razors with a coticule and shave to my satisfaction.

I think that new members should be exposed to all the points of view. I find that they are intelligent people and can decide what they want to do based on their needs. I am not a honing expert and have never presented myself as such. All I have ever done is responded to someone who asks, "do I have to buy all these different hones?" and I say "no you don't HAVE to. If etc., etc., you CAN..."

For the life of me I don't understand why people get so nervous about this subject.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

Now if you were to qualify that and say "You can get by with just a barbers hone or a coticule after the razor has been honed to shave ready and you learn how to use them to maintain your razor"

Then I would whole heartedly agree....

The difference here is a small one and many of you miss the point, are you maintaining razors or are you sharpening razors????

I have recommended barber hones many times, but I have always declared that the razor needs to be made shave ready first. I have maintained 7 razors in my gym locker for 4 years with just a barber hone so that is why I continue to make the declaration that a sharp razor can be maintained indefinitely with a barber hone.

Though I have always emphasized the need for initial sharpness, I have failed to point out that the honer still needs to be able to do the honing stroke correctly. That is still a critical issue.

On the plus side for barber hones, and in defense of my recommendations for them, I always tell people to only do a few strokes on them, then strop and shave. If it shaves well you're done and if it doesn't, just repeat until it does shave well. This method has the advantage of the shave being the only assessment. No skill or knowledge is needed to know how many strokes to do or when to move up to the next grit. It's the simple approach that worked for milions of men a hundred years ago.

Ha!!!

We're on opposite sides of the planet but we were both defending our barber hones at the same time!

Originally Posted by Utopian

Ha!!!

We're on opposite sides of the planet but we were both defending our barber hones at the same time!

Small world, ain't it?

Originally Posted by Chimensch

I don't disagree with a single thing you have said, but I do have a different point of view.

I shaved for 28 years off of a barber hone. I didn't know any better but I got great shaves anyway. Now I use a coticule. I have a Norton 4K/8K, a Chinese 12K and pastes, but I hardly use them. What I object to is giving new people the idea that honing is complicated and that you need to spend a lot of money on hones. Someone could get by just fine with a barbers hone or a coticule and they could learn to get great shaves from them. Or, if they want to make a hobby of it, or chase the ultimate edge, they can do that too. You probably can get a fantastic edge off of an expensive Japanese hone but I'm not going to buy one because I don't think I would get that much better of a shave.

I don't get nervous, wrong word...

This is your post in just this thread, Now a Newb reading this would take this to mean that they can go and get a razor off e-bay and hone it and just shave away....

As a senior member on the forum new guys read what you say, nowhere in this do you clarify your actual use of these stones...

You elude that these will sharpen a razor, and I will even concede that in the case of the Coticule, in the right hands, it is possible....

I am just asking that you guys as senior members with knowledge to impart and share please take a few extra seconds to clarify what you mean so the new guys reading these posts get as true a picture as possible....

After all that is what this forum really exists for, we get to share our knowledge and experiences together about a passion we all enjoy...

I've just honed a shave ready razor over my coticule with a slight slurry and the shave was still ok but defanatley lost sharpness to before i could shave with it but it would'nt glide down and around my chin any more. so i cleaned it up on my 4k 8k only a thew laps then bbw very light slurry yellow with water and this time ch12k then 20 chr.5 and the second shave was back to normal sharp and very smooth the slurry on yellow must of set my sharpness level back a lttle bart does say this a lot and hes defanatley right maybe some paste after would of brought the edge back but i like to get a good edge of my hones first

Originally Posted by gary haywood

I've just honed a shave ready razor over my coticule with a slight slurry and the shave was still ok but defanatley lost sharpness to before i could shave with it but it would'nt glide down and around my chin any more. so i cleaned it up on my 4k 8k only a thew laps then bbw very light slurry yellow with water and this time ch12k then 20 chr.5 and the second shave was back to normal sharp and very smooth the slurry on yellow must of set my sharpness level back a lttle bart does say this a lot and hes defanatley right maybe some paste after would of brought the edge back but i like to get a good edge of my hones first

If I'm not mistaken Bart also says that after the yellow/slurry you can get some more keenness with the yellow with water and no slurry. I have done that. Bart also pointed out that you can go to the BBW with slurry after the yellow with slurry to get the keenness back and then hit the yellow with water only to get a bit more smoothness.

I've tried all of that successfully. Since he posted the last video I even had better luck with setting a bevel with the coticule with slurry than I had before. I did it relatively quickly. I think another thing to consider with all of this is that we all have different gauge whiskers and skin sensitivity.

Forum member The Topher taught me how to hone initially and he sold me the best natural coticule that I have because he could not get a comfortable shave from a razor honed with that stone. I think it is the cat's whiskers. So there are a lot of variables in this honing, sharpness, smoothness and shaving business. Just one guy's take on it.