Thread: Coticule after 12K?

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.

Originally Posted by life2short1971

Anybody try a diamond slurry on their coti?

If you mean generating slurry on your coti by rubbing it on a DMT plate, yes I've done that and it works very well. You get lots of slurry. Of course the coti slurry stone works very well too.

No I have a bottle of .25 spray and I just thought I would see what happened with a spritz on when finishing.

After reading the OP, I don't think you can improve a 12k edge with any Coticule. I have many...If it's honed properly that is..I'd venture and say, that if your edge is better or smoother after a 12k to a Coti, then it wasn't honed right to begin with.
Edges off a C12k or a Nani 12k are great, They're smooth...

One way I go backwards that actually works is from Diamond paste, say .50 or even .25 to Crox. For me, the edge off diamond paste is just a tad keen. The crox kind of mellows it out...

Originally Posted by life2short1971

No I have a bottle of .25 spray and I just thought I would see what happened with a spritz on when finishing.

Coticules are non porous, That should work...? I never tried it, but as long as the spray stays on there...I'm not sure what would happen when the garnet's get released and mix with the diamond spray...

Apparantly, it's bad to do that...So, don't do that..

What results did you get....?

FWIW, Diamonds rate a 10 on the hardness scale...Garnet's rate 7-7.5
Still pretty hard stuff....