Originally Posted by
BHChieftain
The thing about the coticule is that every stone is different, so I'm not surprised to hear so much conflicting advice on what technique works best, including "dry" or "lather" honing...
All I can say is I have a natural BBW/Coticule (6" x 2") that I use exclusively for my razors, and I get absolutely fantastic results. But it took me 6+ months of experimenting to figure out the slurry dilution rates and honing pressure on both the BBW and Coti sides to get these results. Every stone is a puzzle, and the journey to unlocking it can be extremely rewarding (or extremely frustrating...).
I've tried a bunch of different techiques, but with my *current* stone, the BBW+Slurry (thinning over time, but not too thin...), then Coticule + *extremely* light slurry dilluting to water works great. But on a previous rock, the BBW+slurry was not as good as just Coticule + thicker slurry , with dillution (Unicot, I think is the term) worked well. All depends on the specific rock I think...
Another thing-- I think some razors just work better with coticules than others. I've had a Livi "regrind" razor (relatively softer steel) that I just could *not* get sharp with my coti, but on the other hand, I have a Wacker razor with very hard steel that would just chip with a synthetic hone, but hones up utterly fantastic with a coticule hone...
Lastly, thing about the coticule is that I am convinced that while it does not result in the keenest edge possible, it can result in the smoothest edge which I think is more important for a comfortable shave. I say this because when I've gotten razors back that have been professionaly honed, they can easily pass the hanging hair test, but I get razor burn using them, whereas my own coticule honed razors do not pass the hanging hair test, but I get a great shave without razor burn...
Chief