Thread: Recommendations on Friodur with a coticle?

If you plan to be in the area by any means let me know I'll meet you and we will hone.
My take on coticule for beginners from what I know about the dulicot/unicot method is that its not a beginner razor hone. It requires some testing to be able to use your particular coticule properly and that can be time consuming.
My personal opinion get the norton set from amazon lap it nicely to get rid of the cruddy surface layer and have at it with an e-bay special

Originally Posted by randydance062449

I would stay with what you have and try to refine the edge more by using the coti with water only and trying Gssixgun's approach of rinsing frequently.
Your almost home so why go back to first base?

Well, it's the perfectionist in me. That, plus not really knowing that the bevel is as good as it could be, that the compound bevel is something that I should live with...you know: inexperience!

Originally Posted by mainaman

If you plan to be in the area by any means let me know I'll meet you and we will hone.
My take on coticule for beginners from what I know about the dulicot/unicot method is that its not a beginner razor hone. It requires some testing to be able to use your particular coticule properly and that can be time consuming.
My personal opinion get the norton set from amazon lap it nicely to get rid of the cruddy surface layer and have at it with an e-bay special

Sounds good, Stefan. You're right about the coticle. It's extremely dynamic and yet subtle, but man - it sure has a good feel. In any event, I have already learned a lot about honing in general and the coticle in particular just from this exercise.

Steve

BBW with water will do nothing ,Bart has said this in hios threads. Thatv is what i have found. If the razor shaves arm hair well. try coticule with water. If you need to set the bevel and have no 1k stone. You could use your coticule with a good slurry with back and forth strokes. If your slurry does'nt go dark fairly quik ,then your stone may be to slow. If the slurry turns grey rather quikly your coti is fairly good cutter. Once you feel the bevl is set you will have to start diluting method to increase keeness. If the razor does'nt shave to your expectations , go back and either try a progession with paste, or perform unicot by adding one layer of tape , do 20 laps on misty slurry and 50 laps on coti clean water , do nice light laps for this. then test again

Originally Posted by gary haywood

BBW with water will do nothing ,Bart has said this in hios threads. Thatv is what i have found. If the razor shaves arm hair well. try coticule with water. If you need to set the bevel and have no 1k stone. You could use your coticule with a good slurry with back and forth strokes. If your slurry does'nt go dark fairly quik ,then your stone may be to slow. If the slurry turns grey rather quikly your coti is fairly good cutter. Once you feel the bevl is set you will have to start diluting method to increase keeness. If the razor does'nt shave to your expectations , go back and either try a progession with paste, or perform unicot by adding one layer of tape , do 20 laps on misty slurry and 50 laps on coti clean water , do nice light laps for this. then test again

Thanks for the input, Gary. I'm still interested in how the BBW fits in here. With water, it does nothing? I thought it was supposed to be ~4K or so. What's the best use of the BBW, then?

In any event, I went back to the drawing board this weekend and reset the bevel with the coticle/slurry. No problem with the hone cutting. Bevel now appears to be set much better - nice and even; uniform reflection the length of the blade; no microchips that I can see (at least with the 60x Radio Shack microscope); and it shaves pretty well (my left arm is bald, now with some stubble coming in...). Went through the dilutions and wound up finishing on clean water. The edge was coming together and it is definately a heckuva lot better than what I got an acceptable shave with the other evening. However, I feel like I have gone as far as I can go with the coti and wish I had some other finisher. For now, I'll hit it a few licks on Cr2O3 and strop the heck out of it.

This coticle is really an interesting beast. Kind of like learning to play a musical instrument.

Thanks again, all.

Maybe try using the method in here(Skipping the bevel setting step) if it is close.

A simple honing method with DMT-E, Belgian Blue Whetstone and Coticule - Straight Razor Place Wiki

Originally Posted by Woodash

Thanks for the input, Gary. I'm still interested in how the BBW fits in here. With water, it does nothing? I thought it was supposed to be ~4K or so. What's the best use of the BBW, then?

In any event, I went back to the drawing board this weekend and reset the bevel with the coticle/slurry. No problem with the hone cutting. Bevel now appears to be set much better - nice and even; uniform reflection the length of the blade; no microchips that I can see (at least with the 60x Radio Shack microscope); and it shaves pretty well (my left arm is bald, now with some stubble coming in...). Went through the dilutions and wound up finishing on clean water. The edge was coming together and it is definately a heckuva lot better than what I got an acceptable shave with the other evening. However, I feel like I have gone as far as I can go with the coti and wish I had some other finisher. For now, I'll hit it a few licks on Cr2O3 and strop the heck out of it.

This coticle is really an interesting beast. Kind of like learning to play a musical instrument.

Thanks again, all.

you will get a great shave of dilucot method. If your not then you have lossed the keeness som where . I would go back to a fine slurry and start agian and see if it improves. BBw with milky slurry will reach more keeness than yellow coticule with slurry,Bart says this. which is true. So you can set bevel on yellow then move to very milky slurry on blue untill it maxes out and then finish on yellow with water to polish. I don't use blue at all . i only use yellow. If cr.ox does'nt improve you will need to go back to dilucot. also you need to strop on canvas 60/60 leather. One paste that will work and i no because i use it . that is TI rasoir paste on canvas strop . use after coticule with 10 to 30 laps and you will see the differance straight away.

Hello there - I'm back.....

Here's where I'm at: I initially went through the dilucot method and the bevel seemed pretty decent. Shaved arm hair really well after the thick slurry and then I went through the dilutions to increase sharpness, eventually finishing on clear water. Things seemed OK, and I got an 'acceptable' shave. I would like it better, though.

Next, I dropped back and took the advice of Slartibartfest and Gary Haywood to try to bring up the keeness with BBW and milky slurry, finishing with clean water on coticle, Cr2O3, and 100 laps on leather. The edge improved, but the shave was pretty much the same. It was decent (close shave after 3 passes; no major pulling, but definately required more touch up passes resulting in some razor burn).

So, what do you think? Back to the BBW/slurry? Is it possible to really blow the edge with stropping? Any other suggestions?

Sorry to be a pain here, but I would love to get this thing right, if possible. I like the feel of this razor a lot, and I really like the whole coticle vibe as well. Thx once again for all the help.

Woodash/Steve

Make sure your coticule is good enough for straight razors . coticules are natural stones and their quality differ a lot. if you don't have a good quality coticule doesn't matter what you do you will not get what you are looking for.
gl

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

Make sure your coticule is good enough for straight razors . coticules are natural stones and their quality differ a lot. if you don't have a good quality coticule doesn't matter what you do you will not get what you are looking for.
gl

Thanks. I got this from a very reliable source. It's lapped/beveled appropriately, and I can see what/how it's cutting with various dilutions. I am confident that it must be operator inexperience....