Thread: Coticule Success

Well tonight I was fortunate enough to meet up with two wet shavers to learn some Coticule honing. The teacher for the night was Russell (Aquanin). Now I had talked with Russell about my inability to set a bevel using my newly purchased La Petite Blanche. He stated “by tonight you’ll be shaving in the morning with your blade”. Mind you I am not new to honing. This is my story.

We took my Dovo best and placed some tape on the spine, and proceeded to dull it on my glass Starbucks Frappucino bottle. It wouldn’t shave an arm hair to save a life. We decided we would learn the Dilucot method. He was sharpening another one of my razors on my La Dressante hone. I started the progression and managed to only pop hairs on the heel, like I had done previous to the meeting. He pointed out that my back strokes didn’t sound quite right, and noticed I had some difficulty. He informed me it’s not a race and to slow it down and make adequate contact. I began to hear and feel the difference after that. I did another series of half strokes, and OMG, it was popping hairs across the whole blade.

Now since it was doing that he informed me to leave the slurry on the blade but rinse off the Coticule and use water only. I did two more sets of half strokes on it. Then I proceeded to wipe off the stone and the blade and did about sixty x strokes on the hone. It was popping hairs before the stropping. Russell informed me that Coticule edges really shine after stropping. So I took the blade to my TM strop and did fifty linen and sixty leather. He inspected it and said, “It should shave you well. I’m surprised you did so well with your first Dilucot run.” I was ecstatic. I proceeded to hone up another blade, a Filarmonica 7/8. I was able to hone that about ¾ of the way. I had a bit of trouble on the heel, but again, that thing was sharp as sharp could be. I gave the Dovo a test run when I came home and it wiped five days worth of growth right off. BBS. I just wanted to say thank you to Russell for his guidance. I had to jest with him and tell him it’s probably because he was standing next to me, and when I get back home it will all go to crap again. I can’t wait to start honing when I get back home.

Nice! I'm gonna try the method that you used and see how it goes for me. I've never tried rinsing the stone and just leaving the blade's slurry before.
How thick was the initial slurry?

It was a milky consistency. Remember that a thick slurry can break down the edge of the blade. You definitely want a thinner slurry than thicker. I woulr really recommend checking out Bart's videos on YouTube. He did everything I did, but more proficiently.

That is excellent...I read this on B&B too. What an experience ...a few hours spent with someone like Russell is probably worth a few months of banging your head against the wall or reading "How to" posts/articles about it

Great post, some of us wish they were lucky enough to meet a friend and hone razor. How is your coticule in just water? I am curious because my stone is very bipolar so dilution is tough.