Thread: Coticule after 12K?

IME the naniwa 12k gives me very sharp and smooth edges. I've never gone to a coticule following a naniwa 12k though. Like Glen, I tend to go to the coticule after the 8k if I've included synthetics into the equation. Not saying it can't be done successfully, just that I haven't tried it. A lot of this stuff is worth giving it a try if you have the hones and the inclination. Personally I think, like Lynn said, it would be redundant. Guess it depends on the stone, the honer and the shave technique as far as end results go.

Call me crazy but I'm digging the edges I'm getting with 25 laps on my C12K after the Naniwa 12K.

It wont make the edge sharper and I guess it'll basically "replace" the 12k Naniwa edge with a coticule edge.

Remember grit size isnt the be all and end all of razor sharpness. A razor should be shaving sharp coming off the 8k stone and the finisher is basically aiming to eke out as much smoothness as possible from the edge and provide that final feel. Or at least thats how I think of it..!

Just to ellaborate on Stu's point - if the razor was not already shaving sharp of an 8k before moving to the 12k, the coticule afterwards would not make much difference. However, what it could do is necessary polishing work that was not necessarily achieved before moving to the 12K. Under those circumstances and those circumstances only (for 90 of coticules) it would improve a 12K's edge - as it wouldnt really be a 12Ks edge.

And to restress that the 12K is a finisher which could only ever make an already shave ready edge even sharper.

The coticule on the other hand (with the correct honing hand) could sharpen before and finish after an 8K.

Further more, with finishers it can be hard to really compare sharpness. If, for arguements sake a certain coticule was tested and accepted to be 10K level, only a very experienced user is going to feel and appreciate the very subtle differences between finishes left on a razor.

Its not as simple as the difference between 12K and 10K = 2K, therefore 2K/10K = 20% sharper, and going onto conclude that a 12K is therefore 20% sharper than a known 10K; because it is not progressive. ie. the curve for sharpness diminishes (flattens) after 8k. Round about 95% of final sharpness is achieved at 8K, finishers ontop do not make a proportional difference to sharpness with their 'grit' differences.

By the same way that a 4K is NOT half as sharp as an 8K - it is probably about 70% as sharp.

AND when it comes to naturals, it is not an exact science, whereas it could well be with synthetics, untill you take into account that all steels will respond differently, and further appreciate that honing hands will differ....I'll shut up now!

Everything is relative and the more hones you have the more relative it becomes.

I remember a time when the Coticule was the cat's meow around here and it was considered in grit similar to an 8K maybe a tad higher but performed closer to a 10K.

For a long time after the Norton 8K I had a Kitayama as my finisher and then I got the Coticule which gave a huge improvement in sharpness and smoothness and then I got an Escher which bested the Coticule and then came the Japanese natural which under certain circumstances bested the other two.

I give up.

Dont give up Nelson, you just need to find then stone that betters your J-Nat and then you can give up.

I am in great need of filling in the air space between my mental grits.

We've got Chinese 12K and everybody knows thats a 12,000 grit stone, right? And then we've got those crazy coticules which nobody knows the grit of, but guesses they may be somewhere between 8-10 K's and, oh, they may be good finishers or they may be just OK, but everyone can shave after a Norton 8K.

And huzzah, huzzah we have the J-nats: those mysterious and powerfully effective hones that do it all in exemplary fashion, if they are marrried to the right nagura. I didn't even know they were bethothed. Apparently they have the right K's which means that their offspring will be stones to behold, but in the meanwhile their grits remain a total conundrum. Were that other-undums the mystery might be so much easier to understand.

I'm so confused that I believe I'll try waltzing with novaculite tonight to see if that gives me any revelations or epiphanies. Or maybe some Special K for breakfast will plumb these depths.

Anybody try a diamond slurry on their coti?

I thougth we were supposed to do that on the Spyderco super fine. Remember, the coticule is just metamorphosed mud with some garnets thrown in for good measure. Pretty soft stuff when compared to diamonds - the felt strop's best friend.

But I don't have a Spyderco and I am not buying one.(I hope) It does seem to take the edge up a notch thats for sure.