Thread: Leo's Daddy Learns to Hone (picture heavy)

Before anything else: in my humble opinion, you're brewing up a recipe that will put a lot of future frustration on your path. That recipe is called "jumping tracks". It's best to stick with one tried and trued paradigm, when you're new to honing. Right now, from what I read in your posts, I think the best approach for you is pyramids on the Norton 4K/8K. If you get it shaving, a few swipes on the Coticule won't do any harm.

Originally Posted by olafurson

It seems apparent to me I misunderstood the ideal use of the coticule, and when I asked a friend on the SRP board which hone I should get if I wanted only one hone, I asked the wrong question.

There is no ideal use of a Coticule. You can use it as a finisher, you can use it for setting bevels, you can use it as a mediator before another finisher. And for each of those uses I could spell you out what the advantages and the disadvantages were, just like that could be done for other hones.

Originally Posted by olafurson

I'm trying to sort all this out in my little brain, so here is what I took from the videos. Feel free to pick any of this apart if it's not correct:

1.I would like to think of the coticule-with-water as equivalent to perhaps a 10000 grit hone (since I have a Norton 4K/8K to compare to, and the coticule is supposedly "finer" than the Norton 8K).

If you're going to think in grit numbers, you better sell your Coticule and buy Naniwas or Shaptons instead. A Coticule is not finer or rougher than a Norton 8K. Is is just very different. Furthermore, someone with a good honing stroke, will put a better edge on a razor with a 6K hone than a heavy-handed guy with a 16K hone. Not that it means anything, but the Garnets in a Coticule have a median size equivalent to 1.5K, by the way.

Originally Posted by olafurson

2. A coticule with slurry is faster at removing steel, especially with a tiny bit of finger pressure. But it's still pretty darn slow. Let's say... a little slower than the Norton 4000?

More on par with a 1K stone, actually

Originally Posted by olafurson

3. A Belgian Blue Whetstone with slurry can in my mind be thought of as, let's say, a 6000 grit hone. Not as fast as the Norton 4000, not as slow as the Norton 8000 or Coticule.

See the remark above.

Never use a 220 grit hone on a razor, but you already figured that one out, I guess.

Originally Posted by olafurson

Here's my problem with the physics/geometry of the Unicot aka double bevel method. What happens when my razor gets dull again? I can't just take it to the coticule with no tape and touch up the first bevel, because only the second bevel has been doing the actual cutting. Fixing the first bevel wouldn't suffice, I'd have to set another second bevel as well.

You can easily touch up the narrow secondary bevel, with about 30 laps on the Coticule with water. Of course you need to reattach the tape.

Originally Posted by olafurson

And I can't just add a piece of tape and touch up the second bevel, because now with the original second bevel gone, the edge of the first bevel is super-blunt instead of just a little bit blunt.

No. It doesn't get any more blunt than a single bevel. The secondary bevel looses some keenness after a number of shaves, just like a single bevel does.

Originally Posted by olafurson

The first bevel would HAVE to be set again before a second bevel could be. Otherwise the second bevel will get wider and wider every time I touch up the razor.

Yes, it does become wider, but you can still do touch-ups. Even when the secondary bevel has completely wiped out the initial bevel, you can keep doing touch-ups, certainly on a full hollow ground razor.
On the other hand, you can also reduce the width of the secondary bevel by honing without tape. No need to completely reset it.

Originally Posted by olafurson

So essentially, I'm dooming myself to requiring taping the blade for touch-ups. And not only that, I'd have to go through the ENTIRE Unicot procedure every darn time I want to touch up the razor, as would anyone else I lend/sell/give the razor to.

Bah.

If I knew your preference for colorful language, I would have swallowed my comment about Aquanin's razor yesterday.

If you don't like to tape a razor, than don't use that method. It's that simple. But you don't need to go through the entire procedure for touching up the razor.

Originally Posted by tat2Ralfy

Good plan!

I second that. Way too many suggestions in this thread. Honing is not that complicated. You'd better focus on learning a good X-stroke, than on finding some magical honing paradigm.

Best regards,
Bart.