Quote Originally Posted by woodsmandave View Post
I do not intend to get any more hones (unless a particularly special coticule crosses my path at the right price)

I've had my norton 1/4 from the beginning, and use to have a kitayama as a finishing hone, but promptly sold it once I got my coticule. Now, I use the coticule after the 4k side of the norton. So, My coticule has to take a 4k edge to shave ready. I don't think that's too much to ask of it, and though it may be trickier than, say, a naniwa 12k, I would prefer not to spend more money on a hone to fill the gap (the gap being an inability to use the coticule to its full potential)
Instead of buying yet another 8k, I'll just turn back to the diamond spray if I have to (but the point of this thread was that I don't want to)
you will need more than coticule if you want to get to the point where you want to be. You will need to add a finer stone such as you already have or a Jnat or something else, the issue here is they also vary in quality. For your particular case of hit and miss, the best way to go about it is to have a way to calibrate your edges, this is easily done with an 8k or 12k stone. Once you get consistent edges off one of those stones you will be able to figure out if your finishing stone is up to par or you need a better quality one.