Thread: Honing with a Coticule

Is there a special method to use when polishing a blade with a Coticule? I didn't see anything in the wiki\

I'm sorry I just found it in the wiki

It helps if you know what a 'coticule' is. It's not like asking the same about a Nani 12K, all cotis are different both in clarity and abrasive speed.

If you are finishing with a coti, make sure your blade is already sharp. Most come off an 8K then go to coti with water. Try 60 laps and test. Repeat if necessary.

You kinda need to be careful with asking on a Coticule.. You asked how to Polish" with one which Scipio answered, but your going to get a ton on responses and do a ton of reading about "Honing" with a Coticule which are two different things...

You also have to understand some of the naturals, and especially the Coticule, some can do what is called Auto-Slurry, some of them do this way faster then others, and this creates a self limiting sharpness factor.. So check the water about every 5 laps if there is slurry in there, then dip or spray for clean water to "Polish"

Originally Posted by ShoreBird

Is there a special method to use when polishing a blade with a Coticule? I didn't see anything in the wiki\

I'm sorry I just found it in the wiki

Use a google "site" search and you will find a lot of info. Look for
postings by Bart and also scan Welcome to Coticule.be - home of the famous Belgian Coticule Whetstone

The Coticule is a natural stone that contains garnets.
Garnets are fragile and mostly round.

Many folk start by rubbing their coti and building a slurry.
That process crushes and liberates garnets resulting in
a hone that cuts steel quickly. As the edge develops
the slurry is often diluted and the hone transitions and
begins to polish more than cut. The soccer ball shape
of the garnets tends to make shallow scratches in steel.

Combine this natural dynamic of the hone with a light touch
and many folk get a fine shave.

You can use a modest sized coti like a barber hone
for touch ups. Rinse it under the tap and give the razor 5-6 laps
strop and enjoy.

Perhaps this will help.

Originally Posted by RoadKingMoe

Perhaps this will help.

Good link....
Most should skip the step where the
razor is dulled on a tumbler/ glass. The value is
that when experimenting the blade is known dull.
The resulting edge is the result of what you just tried.
The negative is that sharpening a blade that is
dull is a lot harder than refreshing a blade that
has been shaving fine for weeks and now does
not respond to the strop.

They are natural hones and can vary a lot
from one to another. You can collect some
Coticule slurry stones to see the variability
if you are curious.

For example, My coti is about a medium softness, but not self slurry building, I have to use something else to start it, the razor will not start one. Now my BBW glued to the other side it the hardest hone I have, harder than my nakayama asagi. With a pretty darn good polish even though it's still got deep scratches.

You really have to play with each and every stone to get a feel for THAT particular stones abilities.

Do you have pics of the stone...? and when you say, Polish, You mean, Finishing...?

Originally Posted by RoadKingMoe

Perhaps this will help.

That is what I was looking for. A explanation of the unicot and dilucot methods is what I was looking for. I read on some earlier post about special considerations with the coticules.

Originally Posted by zib

Do you have pics of the stone...? and when you say, Polish, You mean, Finishing...?

I don't have a coticule , I use naniwa 12000 ss and I have a Thuringian for finishing stones. I also bought a jnat from ebay that was "advertised" as 16000 grit, just tried it today and i'll test the shave tomorrow. I am considering a coticule and I just wanted to find out if there is anything special about final polishing with one.