Thread: Help needed with coticule honing.

Nearly every coticule honer I know has a reliable 1k/320 grit backup stone to set bevels or remove chips in case a coticule can't do the job.

You may not realise it but depending on the size of your coticule and how narrow it is, your stroke may be dulling the edge. I had a problem for along time where my stroke coming toward me would be messing up the edge (the blade was never fully flat until I changed how I held the coticule and razor) whereas the away stroke was near perfection every time.

Playing with slurry's on a new coticule is complicated, its hard but not impossible, but if you only have one razor, maybe send it to be rehoned and use the coticule for touch ups may be the best bet? you could find a junker from ebay and practice with that on the coticule to learn it

have you honed razors before?

regards Alex

I have a coticule. I'm happy to have it but would have a hard time with it as a firststone. It's too slow. Would take forever to set an eBay bevel. It's 40mm width makes it touh to do a stroke without tilting the blade. So if I were newer and without other options it would be very frustrating. If its all you have though, then I'm sure you can make it work. Just get some more razors and keep practicing. What do you have to lose?

Michael

Originally Posted by kpower05

Hi there. So, I've been using a straight razor for roughly six months, and it is now very blunt. I got given a Belgian coticule as a gift (wouldn't have been my first choice as I'm new to honing). I've been playing around with it and so far I'm not getting anywhere. I blunted the razor on a jam jar first (so it no longer shaves arm hair), then proceeded to raise a thick slurry and try some different strokes. No matter what stroke I use, the slurry goes grey very quickly, but the edge gets no sharper - any tips would be welcome.

ouch why blunt it? but no crying over spilled milk... pm me i probably have a spare razor you can have that i will bring up to speed with a coticule for you.

yes the edge can be done from start to finish on a coti or a barber's hone ( i think of coticules as natural barber's hone) but it takes time.

Originally Posted by syslight

ouch why blunt it? but no crying over spilled milk... pm me i probably have a spare razor you can have that i will bring up to speed with a coticule for you.

yes the edge can be done from start to finish on a coti or a barber's hone ( i think of coticules as natural barber's hone) but it takes time.

blunting it on glass is no problem. I do it all the time on my practice razors to rebuild the edge with a different combination of stones or protocols.One downstroke on glass doesn't take that long to rectify at all. One thing that hasn't been mentioned is using the BBW side of the hone with slurry. It brings the edge up to arm hair shaving very quickly and doesn't dull the blade as the coticule does.

After I dull it on glass(especially with the softer sheffields) I use the BBW side until it shaves arm hair and THEN go to the coti side with light slurry then to water. works very well.

One must look at strokes technique as well. if the edge isn't touching the stone throughout the whole stroke it doesn't matter what the stone is)

Originally Posted by syslight

ouch why blunt it?

Bart has been promoting this blunting for several years now. The original idea was that beginners usually have a hard time establishing a good bevel, so blunting the edge removes some of the false positives, as then they are supposed to stay with thick slurry/low grit until the razor can shave arm hair, or some basic test like this.
Obviously there are other ways to address the exact same issue if it is an issue to start with, which do not involve blunting the razor.

Of course, like everything else when this becomes a religious point instead of a tool to solve a particular problem there are all kinds of problems.

Honing a razor in decent condition is fairly straightforward job when you know what you're doing. But when you have no reference whatsoever starting with a method that has huge unknowables that you need to figure out for your specific case, is not the best approach. That's why most people here recommend beginners start with known synthetic hones and eliminate the hone performance unknowns. Despite what all the coticule fanboys keep saying the variations among coticules are huge. I have used 30 or so coticules and that's enough to make the conclusion. Same thing with the BBW hone.

Originally Posted by RogueRazor

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is using the BBW side of the hone with slurry. It brings the edge up to arm hair shaving very quickly and doesn't dull the blade as the coticule does.

First, OP's hone doesn't have BBW side, it has a slate. Secondly the way your BBW performs isn't the way most of my BBW have been performing, so it's pretty foolish to presume the transferability that you do.

Originally Posted by RogueRazor

One must look at strokes technique as well. if the edge isn't touching the stone throughout the whole stroke it doesn't matter what the stone is)

A fast hone in the 1000 grit range rectifies that pretty quickly, as long as the strokes are consistent. So yes, the hone does matter.



The only thing I could suggest to the OP is to find somebody local to him and get help in person. Or start doing something different, i.e. look at the edge with magnification, use sharpie if necessary to see what the hone is doing exactly. Then proceed based on what you learn.

OK now i understand the blunting (thanks Gugi), but i will not be making it a practice

yes i know all the coticules, bbw, Escher's thuringens (real ones) and other natural stones i have tried or own behave differently which is why i mainly just use one of type so i have a better understanding of how the razor will respond on it... and mainly they are the stones i like to shave off of.

i know the OP does not have other tools to experiment with and it can be daunting but in time and after watching some of the honing videos closely he should be OK ... but his best bet is to have it honed for him and then learn on an ugly blade....

Originally Posted by gugi

find somebody [who has good honing experience] local to him and get help in person

This is good advice and I agree with it. Hey, we need a this-is-good-advice-and-I-agree-with-it button

Why do you want to hone your coticule? Isn't it sharp enough?

James.

Originally Posted by syslight

ouch why blunt it?.

I've used this technique, and it helped me a lot with razors that hadn't been professionally honed before I received them (mostly eBay or junk store purchases). It helps me to make sure that I've actually set the bevel instead of getting a false positive on the TNT. However, on razors that I know were sharp and just need touch ups, I never blunt. That way all I have to do is re-finish them, or at worst a few swipes on the 8K and then back to the finisher de jour.