Thread: First Efforts with BBW/Coticule

Originally Posted by Disburden

I use a BBW and a coticule for my honing too and I love them. What I do is I use the coticule with slurry to make a bevel, if the bevel is far off then I use the DMT also or the Naniwa 1K.

Slurry on coticule should turn black fast from blade, if not it's too slow of a coticule and use only the DMT. I then rinse the coticule and raise more slurry and do half strokes some more, maybe 3 sets of 30 for each side.

I then rinse and repeat again...

After that I move to the BBW and wet it and use a slurry on that, I make about 100 passes.

Then you can finish on water with the coticule, make a lot of passes.

After that I go to Escher stones of variety of fineness.

Just to clarify you are using your BBW/Coticule as a Sharpener/Polisher or the same as a Naniwa 3/8 or 5/8 Norton 4/8 Shapton 4/8 so basically you are doing a 4 stage progression too...

Bevel / Sharpen / Polish / Finish where the BBW and Coticule fit in the middle????

Myself I use a Coticule as a finisher only... mostly on Sheffield steel

MY coticule is fast so that might be the reason I can do this but I do the following:

Coticule and slurry, do laps of half strokes in about 3 sets of 30. Do some x strokes after. I then Rinse the hone and repeat. I then rinse the hone again and repeat with lighter slurry. This can shave arm hair. I only use the Naniwa 1k or the DMT 1200 if I can't get a bevel set on the coticule, which is usually very uncommon for my coticule. The secret, for me, is to not let the swarf dull the edge while bevel setting, which is why I rinse and recreate slurry in sets.

Then use the BBW with slurry and do about 100 laps to add keenness. This is where shaving arm hair pops at mid length.

Coticule with water or lather and then I move to the Eschers (one with slurry and then a finer one with water).

My coticule is not good as a finisher although it leaves a very smooth edge it isn't keen enough as a finish on an Escher.


Now this is something I have been doing for only a month so it may change. I was before using Naniwa 1K, Norton combo, and then finishing on a naniwa 12K and Escher.

Mine would take way to long and way to much yellow mud to do that progression...

My norm is Norton 1-4-8 (to shaving sharp) then the Coticule with a light slurry for 20 laps then rinse... Continue with 3 laps at a time, dipping the razor every 3rd lap so that NO auto slurry is generated, this keeps the keenness I generated on the Norton 8k...

This past couple of weeks I have substituted the Henckles (Naniwa) 1-3-8 in there for the Norton set...

I would guess relatively speaking which is hard to do when discussing natural stones, your Coticule is more in the 6k range, and mine is in the 8k...

Hmmmm that doesn't quite make sense either,,, I have to chew on that a bit

Say when I use my coticule for bevel I make a slurry that is white like milk sitting on the stone. If I make 10-20 halfstrokes back and forth on the hone it turns dark grey from the metal coming off.

It's that fast...

That's why I go to the BBW after that because the hone is so fast that it dulls the razor easily, also why I rinse and recreate slurry if I need to take more time on the bevel. All in all it takes about 5 minutes to set a bevel on mine.

It amazed me when I first did it. lol

I know I'm not the most experienced honer but I use my coticule differently than everyone else has said so far.

I start on the bbw side and raise a thick slurry and do a set of 30 half strokes on each side.

From there I do 20 laps and then dip my finger in a cup of water and add that to the stone. I'll keep doing the 20 laps till it's just water then flip the stone over and start on the coticule.

On the coticule I'll start with a thinner slurry but still do laps of 20 until water. After the plain water I'll rinse the stone and the blade and do another lap of 20, if I feel like it still needs it I'll do another 30 on plain water.

For me this gives me an nice sharp and smooth shaving edge.

Also I always tape the spine so I don't get excessive wear on the spine. And some stages might take longer or shorter depending on how the blade undercuts the water on the stone.

@ Disburden : Is your Coti very soft.? I have one like that but my "finer" coti is very hard.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

@ Disburden : Is your Coti very soft.? I have one like that but my "finer" coti is very hard.

It laps easily but its the only one I have so I can't compare the surface to say for sure. There's black veins in the hone and they can be seen as black lines from the sides. What's weird is that its slow in water and hardly brings back a dulling edge at all...it would probably take a few hundred laps if I tried.

Now I really confused you guys lol

Ahh , the mystery of natural stones

Originally Posted by Disburden

It laps easily but its the only one I have so I can't compare the surface to say for sure. There's black veins in the hone and they can be seen as black lines from the sides. What's weird is that its slow in water and hardly brings back a dulling edge at all...it would probably take a few hundred laps if I tried.

Now I really confused you guys lol

i generaly would use my 600 to 1k for real bevel work. but i can onestly say i have two coticules that are as quik or even quiker than my 1k naniwa. i have even removed chips with my fastest coti. i'm just not keen on wearing a nice natural away so i tend to use my 1k naniwa. plus there is not loads of slurry getting in the way of checking my bevel.

any more than 20 minutes on my coti and i will drop back to 6k or 1k. theni will use coticule from slurry to water .

Originally Posted by gssixgun

I have never been in the habit of burning up a $300 hone to prove a point...

But then that is just me, let us all know how that works for ya... although I guess I should have said in the 8k range, like the Coticule, although it has been done on the Eschers, and a Japanese Natural just to prove a point...So I guess if you have a 30k that you want to burn a decade of use off of,,, it would work... Your going to need a synthetic nagura to raise a cutting slurry, then it should be pretty straight forward...

Come to think of it you raise a good point Paul, why would people burn up a perfectly good $200 stone like the Coticule to set bevels, when a $30 1k can do the exact same thing faster and easier??????

I just noticed the added/edited question... I own several coticules, none of which cost over $80... There are several reasons that I do it.

a) I don't find it harder, or considerably longer. I go from dull, not shaving arm hair to shave ready in 10-15 minutes consistently. That does take a lot of strokes, but they are very fast. (just my experience)
b) Considering I don't hone for money 10-20 razors a day, there's zero chance that I'll ever use enough of it to notice it in my lifetime (with the honing that I do), so even if it cost me the $300 that my one Shapton 30k cost, I still would probably do it... In fact, I'm pretty sure I would. But, I can't see me buying another $300 stone again (unless it's an Escher just because that's about all you'll find them for)
c) I don't enjoy honing on synthetics like I do on naturals. If I had a better selection of nagura, I'd be using my Japanese stone from start to finish.
d)Finally, I just love the aspect of only using one stone to do the job. I don't personally value using 4 or 5 tools to do what I can do with 1. I'm definitely weird that way.

Different strokes, my friend