Thread: Shaving Straight off the Rock

Hi All,

I have a desperate NEED to be able to hone, strop, and have a perfect shave directly off the hones and strop, with NO pastes or sprays. So far, I have not been able to do this, and it haunts me in my shaves daily. In addition to that, I feel I'm doing something wrong, as on most razors I can't seem to get a comfortable shave past 5-8 shaves without having to take the razor back to the diamond spray, or worse, the hones for a touch-up.

I have been shaving with a straight-exclusively-for a year now. I have about a dozen razors I've restored, 15 I've restored and sold, 20 more in the works. That being said, I've set the bevel on nearly 30 razors, and brought them up through the progression to shave ready - but NEVER without the aide of .5 micron diamond spray on my linen. That also means I've "honed" my own razors several times each. Figure I've honed about 100 times total.

That being said, I use a Norton 1/4, then a coticule w/ slurry, (which of course gets diluted until only water is used)

Now, I purchased what I believe to be a thuringian hone (or another finisher of similar high grit) and have been trying to throw that into the mix, and it's hit or miss as to improving my shave after the diamond spray. (this hone is of course used before the spray, after the coticule)

I feel I'm on the verge of success, but I'm not there yet. I need help identifying my weak spot here. Any ideas?

I don't think adding another stone will help you, it's one more thing you have to learn. After using the dilution method try the Unicot method with the coticule. Unicot honing method - home of the famous Belgian Coticule Whetstone Should work.

Shame on me for not reading that before - and I've been on that site a dozen times, lol. Thank you.

My only concern is that this variation of standard honing method is a variation, and means that I do not have the skills to hone to shave-ready in the traditional method. I hate thinking that I'm lacking in ability and so have to compensate by creating a double bevel. This also means that I'll have to somehow remember which razors are sharpened with a double bevel, and which are sharpened with a single bevel.

Is there no way to get an edge off a coticule, and then a thuringian, using a typical, single bevel? the directions to the unicot method seem to indicate that I can, but it just requires more knowledge and ability with a coticule, as to how/when to reduce slurry.

I recommend that you improve your no-spray-or-paste experience by using a linen strop. Stropping on linen helps smooth out razors' edges

Do you know of a place where I can buy a linen only strop? The one I have from RupRazor is attached to the leather, and the linen is saturated with diamond spray.

If you want to buy a hone, than get a 8k one. I had much better luck honing with synthetics in the beginning. A coti can be tricky to use if you are doing more work with it than finishing on light slurry or just water. A 8k shave after stropping can be a very nice one, and you have a coti and a thuri to finish the edges off, if the edge is good enough after the 8k.

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)

Than practice Try thinner slurry, thicker slurry, faster/slower dilutions, more/less strokes, vary the pressure, etc. You will get it down eventually, it just takes time. It is hard to master these things sometimes, but a lot of practice helps. Grab a razor, and hone it until you get what you are looking for. It will take some time, but you will get there if you have enough patience and determination.

Your lacking in the 8k range... NOT an 8k stone just in that sharpening range

First dump the Coticule out of the mix and shave off the 4k and linen/leather,,, No really try it, you should get a passable shave with just that stone, not great, but you should be well into the beard cutting sharpness range with just that... Some of us have shaved all the way down to the 1k level just to prove how sharp razors should be at the bevel set...

Once you achieve that, then you need to use a LIGHT slurry on the Coticule for about 20 laps then dilute out to clear water over the next 40 laps...
Followed by 50 linen and 100 leather should do the trick, even the Coticule Fan boys agree that Linen stropping is your friend...

Might want to watch/read some of the one stone honing stuff that Lynn and I did it should help you understand what is possible


Keep in mind that regardless of the system you are using you still have 4 steps up the ladder

1 Bevel set
2 Sharpening
3 Polishing
4 Finishing

If you skip or miss a step it gets way harder to accomplish