Thread: Belgian Coticule as a finishing hone

Originally Posted by AirColorado

I seem to have horrible stopping technique that no amount of practice can shake (SRD is almost a bi-weekly order for strops). So I'm assuming that after a few more months, a really good final (and very fine grit) stone may be worth the cost as opposed to dropping $25 or so every month for a new strop replacement slab-o-leather.

I would try going back to the basics. Reviewing the fundamentals. In this barber manual here in the SRP Wiki there is information on stropping that I found helpful. If flipping the razor is where the problem is they recommend that you practice that without moving your arm. Once you have that down begin to slowly at first move the razor. I have seen a butter knife recommended for beginners and that isn't a bad idea.

Personally I like my strop at waist level. I pull it pretty taut and I notice whether I am putting a twist in it when I pull. IOW I pay attention to keeping it flat. Smooth strokes and speed comes until I can move my hand almost faster then I could count laps but I don't because I think that is where you could lose control and it isn't doing any better than a brisk but controllable pace.

The most important thing in my experience is concentration. I pay strict attention to the razor and the strop. I don't allow my mind to wander or look off into space. I focus on the job at hand. In mountain biking you learn to "look where you want to go, don't look where you don't want to go." I think that is applicable to a lot of things and stropping is one of them.

Yup, practiced keeping it on the leather and rolling it with my fingers. It seems I may be rolling it a fraction of a second too early - a bit of the heel catches every few stroke. I suspect slowing down again as you suggest and practice a bit more with a practice strop is in order. Thanks!

Originally Posted by pjrage

You need to learn how to strop. A 30k hone is not a replacement for a strop!

This may sound stupid, but you are doing the stropping motion and leading with your SPINE and not the edge (as you would with honing), right? I can't imagine anything else in the world you could be doing to the strops that would require a new one every two weeks!!!! Even when I was a newbie I only nicked my practice strop a couple times Just keep the spine on the leather at all times and go light and slow... the edge should never be digging into the leather.

Great link Jimmy! I'll read that - from glancing at the first 2 pages I already picked up a few mistakes. Man this gets more interesting every week! So damned much material but it sure is worth the time. I think we may have the equivalent of the Library at Alexandria here with regards to straight razor shaving!

Originally Posted by AirColorado

Great link Jimmy! I'll read that - from glancing at the first 2 pages I already picked up a few mistakes. Man this gets more interesting every week! So damned much material but it sure is worth the time. I think we may have the equivalent of the Library at Alexandria here with regards to straight razor shaving!

Glad that you like it. I have found the honing info in that manual to be really useful too. That is where i got hip to the benefits of a slightly smiling blade. That SRP Wiki is turning out to be the greatest resource for straight razor info yet known to man.

You definitely should work on your stropping technique, but it sounds like you have provided enough financial support for SRD for a while. Until you improve your technique, you might want to strop on newspaper. It's significantly cheaper.

My favorite shaver is one I honed from start to finish on my coticule. So sure it can be used, would it be even smoother finished on something that is even smoother? Probably.

Am I in a huge rush to spend the cash to find out? no.

You know, I was thinking about this thread and the coticule as a finisher. I mentioned that I have a couple of coticules and a couple of vintage thuringians. The vintage thuringians work very well and give me a very sharp edge when used at the end of the progression.

On a couple of my razors this is what I've noticed: I honed then up to 8000, then finish on my coticule. Strop and get a smooth-close shave. Then give them a few passes on my yellow-green thuringian, strop and shave. This shave gives me a bit of irritation. I then give the razor a few passes back on my coticule, strop and shave. (These are on different days btw). The shave right off my coticule seems to agree with my face more.

I am by no means saying that the coticule is a better finisher than a thuringian, just that it seems to work better on my face and with my shaving technique.

Also, I think a HUGE part of your like/dislike of the coticule in general is based on your coticule's particular properties. The one that I have great success with at the end of my honing progression was ordered from Howard and he gave me his hardest 8x2 he had specifically for polishing purposes. It polished VERY well, but also slow as hell.

My coticule gave me great results as a finisher because it is one best suited for such purpose. It someone had a comparable one and tried to sharpen a razor on it, it would probably yield less desirable results. A similar argument could be made for a very soft coticule in reverse. i.e. It would excell at removing metal quickly and sharpening, but probably not be the best polisher.

I thought of all of this while I was shaving earlier....It's supposed to be a time of relaxation, but my mind's always thinking. Just thought I would share my thoughts!

That all sounds reasonable to me.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

I thought of all of this while I was shaving earlier....It's supposed to be a time of relaxation, but my mind's always thinking. Just thought I would share my thoughts!

You might call that zen.

Originally Posted by StraightRazorDave

You know, I was thinking about this thread and the coticule as a finisher. I mentioned that I have a couple of coticules and a couple of vintage thuringians. The vintage thuringians work very well and give me a very sharp edge when used at the end of the progression.

On a couple of my razors this is what I've noticed: I honed then up to 8000, then finish on my coticule. Strop and get a smooth-close shave. Then give them a few passes on my yellow-green thuringian, strop and shave. This shave gives me a bit of irritation. I then give the razor a few passes back on my coticule, strop and shave. (These are on different days btw). The shave right off my coticule seems to agree with my face more.

I am by no means saying that the coticule is a better finisher than a thuringian, just that it seems to work better on my face and with my shaving technique.

Also, I think a HUGE part of your like/dislike of the coticule in general is based on your coticule's particular properties. The one that I have great success with at the end of my honing progression was ordered for Howard and he gave me his hardest 8x2 he had specifically for polishing purposes. It polished VERY well, but also slow as hell.

My coticule gave me great results as a finisher because it is one best suited for such purpose. It someone had a comparable one and tried to sharpen a razor on it, it would probably yield less desirable results. A similar argument could be made for a very soft coticule in reverse. i.e. It would excell at removing metal quickly and sharpening, but probably not be the best polisher.

I thought of all of this while I was shaving earlier....It's supposed to be a time of relaxation, but my mind's always thinking. Just thought I would share my thoughts!

I've been saying this a lot lately... when I shave straight off the coticule, I can be quite liberal with my blade angles and pressure and not get any irritation. I think it is partially due to the edge not being as sharp as other finishing methods. If I use the same liberal approach off, say, a vintage thuringian or escher, I get tons irritation. I need to be much more conscious of my blade angle and pressure when shaving with a sharper edge. This being said, when I'm careful and conscious with the sharper edge, I find it much easier to get a better shave. Sure, the coticule is much harder to get irritation, but the entire shave I feel like I'm hacking and tugging the whiskers off, whereas with the escher + pastes, for example, I feel like I'm slicing the whiskers off. If that makes sense. Granted, I only have experience with 2 coticules so far. And surely I have a lot of honing (and shaving) knowledge left to be gained, but this has been my experience thus far.

Originally Posted by pjrage

I've been saying this a lot lately... when I shave straight off the coticule, I can be quite liberal with my blade angles and pressure and not get any irritation.

If I may float a point by you. You mention pastes, diamond? I found that I got a very sharp blade but that it did tend to be a bit harsh. I went to 25 laps on Chromium on balsa as the last step and found that the shave turned to very smooth, sharp and at the same time no irritation. I just never got around to using Chromium till I had someone hone my razor in front of me and then take it to the Chromium, really, another jump shave quality.

Just a thought,
Richard