Thread: Coticule Usage

Howdy all,

I've been playing around on my coticule lately and I've been trying to produce a nice smooth shaveable edge.

What I've been doing is building a lot of slurry and then doing 20 passes and then adding a fingertip of water and going again until I eventually end up with just water. After that I rinse off the stone and razor and do another 20 laps.


So far this is giving me pretty good results. Then again I'm still learning my coti but I can shave well off of it.

What I wanted to know is what if for my last step I honed with less water and used the stone until it was dry. Would anyone recommend this? I've seen some comments about using a hone dry but no real solid posts.

Also if anyone has some tricks they use on their coti I would love to hear it.

I use this stone type too, it absolutely wonderful for me and I am pretty new. I picked up my Belgian stone direct from the quarry in Belgium there are a number of people who sell them invisible edge is one I looked at, the come in a lovely wooden box with a slurry stone. I imagine you have all of this, right?

Well mine came with some instructions that said to build up real good slurry using the “rubber” as its known. I do about ten strokes or more on both sides with the heavy slurry, I dilute a little, 10-20 more dilute more, until I can shave hair on my wrist (top of) then I rinse the blade, rinse the stone and do 20-40-strokes with just water testing the on the arm hair, if it shaves very cleanly, I am done. If not i do all of the above again until i get it right. I wash the stone with water, wash the rubber and let them air dry before placing in there box.

On my instructions it reads “never use dry as this can damage the surface of the stone and the razor”

Enjoye!
PS my instructions also said that you will get to know your stone, use it exclusively and you will know how the stone works, they can all be different!!!

Basil, yes, I would certainly recommend finishing on a dry coticule. If nothing else, it certainly does not hurt to try. My experience is that any stone of any grit will leave a finer edge when dry honed. The negative, if you can call it that, is the more you hone with it dry the more the stone will swarf up with particles of metal and lose it's ability to cut/polish which of course is the reason we use a medium like water to try and keep the stone surface clear to begin with.

Generally speaking, my J-nats leave me nice edges, but only when I finish with them dry. My coticules give good edges straight off the water and are slightly improved when finished dry.

Marc

I am interested what you say about not using any water. I would need a few more votes for it as my instructions say that its a bad idea. Keep me in the loop.

I would try doing more strokes water only.

I recommend this post:

To all aspiring razor sharpeners - home of the famous Belgian Coticule Whetstone

Coticules doesn't run "dry" mode,...they have not grit, the coticule system is different, this stone has "garnets", the garnets are in the stone and in the Slurry...more slurry and thicker slurry= fast honing because there are more garnets in contact with the blade. You can add wather to get a clearer slurry that can hone a bit slow but smoother,....for final touch ups only water.

The easy way is to start with the Unicot method

http://straightrazorpalace.com/advan...le-honing.html

Oh boy....

Dry hone doesn't have to mean a DRY hone, like out of the box dry hone...

Here is a trick it works on many stones, like any other trick you have to try it to see how it works on your hone with your stroke...

I called it "20 laps to dry" a few years ago, so let's just stick with that, it works on most anything, even synthetics...

Your last 20 laps on the stone, wet the stone with clear water, tip it and let all the water run off so there is none on top of the stone, or use your finger and wipe off the excess...
Start doing very light, very perfect, very slow X strokes, let the stone slowly go to dry and stop, it should take 10-20 laps... This should get you every single bit of "Smooth" out of that stone...

According to Bart the heavy slurry cuts faster but it also has a dulling effect on the edge. So that should be taken into consideration. I like to set a bevel with a 1k synthetic and work up to the 8k level before going to a coticule for finishing.

I've also had success in setting the bevel on the 1k and using a light slurry on the coticule, diluting as I go, and finishing with water only. The old barbers I knew in north Jersey all used lather on their coticules as a vehicle. You might give that a shot just for fun. I've never liked honing dry on anything except a touch up on a Swaty or a similar barber hone but that is just my personal prejudice. YMMV.

Thanks for the comments guys.

I was actually hopping that jimmy and glen would comment because i respect your honing advice greatly.

I gave the coti a shot today to just refresh the edge on my grelot.

I started off on a 6000 grit stone actually and did about 25 passes with a slurry and then another 30 with just plain water to try and smooth out the bevel and any small chips i wouldn't be able to see.

After that i took my coti and worked on it with a milky white slurry that was fairly thick.

Every ten laps i would add a finger of water and keep repeating until the slurry was all gone. I did another 20 laps before i washed off the stone and razor, and then finished off with 30 laps with just water.

I decided against the stone letting run dry, i might pick up a junk razor soon and just experiment with it.

After the stones i stropped on linen 60 and leather 130 and had my shave.

I must admit i did a pretty good job, the shave was nice and smooth and the razor treetops hairs better than ever!

Thanks all for the advice and little tips, i know it just takes practice but im always scared that ill do way more damage than good, but at least now i know i can do a pretty good job!

I also used my coti in the way Jimmy described. I'd either set the bevel on a 1k and use light slurry and dilute or use it with just water as a finisher.

I bet lather would give a finer finish than just water - lather helps the blade glide over your face more smoothly and with less resistance (cushion and glide), so I would think it would do the same on a hone - effectively reducing drag and pressure to give shallower cuts and therefore a finer edge.