Thread: A newbie perspective on coticules

Do NOT take this as a reflection of the quality of coticules. The reason I'm writing this is that a lot of experts give their perspectives on coticules and recommend them as great hones, and I just wanted to share what I've experienced with honing on my 2 coticules. It would have been valuable for me as a newb to have heard other newbies talking about them, so maybe it will be for other newbs, too.

So, I have a 6x2 Dressante, a 7x1.5 vintage coticule, and a slurry stone. Even though I was new to x-strokes, I actually found the thinner stones to be quite nice. They actually made up for my uneven pressure by forcing me to hone more off the edge of the hone (by doing an x) so that all the blade got contact with the stone.

Now here's what I have really come to think as a result of my experiences and my discussions with others: coticules are NOT a great do-it-all hone for newbies. Maybe they're great finishers, but I wouldn't know since I spent my money on my Dressante as my only hone and couldn't afford other hones to use in a progression before my coticule (except a Naniwa 1k). Here's why I think they're not great as a do-it-all for newbies:

-Whether I tried unicot or dilucot, it was very difficult to determine when/how to dilute.
-I diluted slowly and quickly all the way in tons of different honing session and always came up with bad results.
-I tried pressure, no pressure, pressure at different stages and couldn't figure out what the hell to do.

What it boils down to for me is that using a coticule as my only hone was very confusing, because I was (am) never sure when to move on, or what to look for in the edge in the different "stages" of honing. I can't really call them stages, cause they weren't discrete.

I recently tried honing on Naniwas (Chosera 1k, superstone 5k & 8k) and got great results (for my face) on multiple razors with almost no effort. What seems to be true is that Naniwas are just a lot easier. I had discrete stages and discrete things to look for in my edges at each stage. This was very very helpful since I was (am) new to honing.


This is of course due to my ineptitude with honing, but that's the definition of a newb. I didn't start straight shaving with a 10/8 spike point blade with a 3.25" blade, and that was also due to a lack of skill. Nobody would recommend shaving with a monster on your first straight shave, and I would compare unicot/dilucot honing with that based on my experiences with it. I know that Bart is clear that they are advanced techniques, but somewhere along the way, I got the impression that a coticule would be a great do-it-all hone for someone looking for a cheap solution. I don't know why I got that impression, but that's irrelevant.
I'm just writing this for other newbs who also have this illusion. If you want to start honing with a very difficult introduction, you can. I know people who started with just one coticule and learned to use them successfully. But if you're looking for the easiest and most consistent way to hone, then I recommend Naniwas...

And before twenty people ask, yes my hones were flat. Yes the edges were chamfered...again, the point is that as someone very inexperienced with honing, all else being equal, coticule unicot/dilucot honing was much much harder for me than honing on Naniwas. You experienced guys probably know this, but maybe there are some newer inexperienced people who would benefit from reading this