Thread: Anyone Using A Coticule For Touchups?

I normally use Chromium Oxide on felt with the SRD paddle strop for touchups. I got a coticule about a year ago and have been experimenting with it.

I read on coticule.be that a coticule can be used for touchups. The recommendation was for 30 x strokes on the typical 2" by 6" stone, with water and no slurry, every 5 - 7 shaves. It also states that you can go up to 60 strokes for touchups.

Are any of you gentlemen using a coticule for touchups? If so, I'd appreciate comments about your routine and experience.

You realise there is no such thing as a "typical" natural stone. Using 30- 60 strokes on a stone that will do the job in 5-6 strokes will take your edge backwards. Bottom line, you need to learn your own rock.

I use my Coticule to touch-up, well as it's almost my only useful finisher. I do not have a set routine, when stropping doesn't cut it any more, I do a touch-up. Also depends on my razor, my shefield needs touching up more often then my Dovo.

As said before depends on your stone, your razor and so on. My only recommendation is to touch-up when needed soon you'll fine the routine for your razor.

Hope that helps.
Nathaniel

my coti does everything..though I use DMT1200 to set the bevels..goes much quicker..if you have a hard coti..it can remove tiny chips as well as bevel set, sharpen and polish

As onimaru55 said the only way is to figure out how your own stone behaves, as I'd venture to say that none of my coticules behaves like yours.

If you don't have much honing experience throwing an unknown hone in the mix of all other variables is simply making your life harder for no good reason. Hence the usual recommendation from the highly experienced members here (experience with successfully teaching others how to hone) is to use a hone with well established properties for honing razors, like the norton.

But you have what you have and want to use your coticule, so the only thing that can help you in figuring it out is to contact the person who you bought it from. If they have used it for honing razors they can tell you their exact regimen. If you just bought it from a vendor you can try to identify the particular vein the stone has come from (by its looks) and then ask people who use stones from that vein for their experience wich should be fairly close to yours.
Or you can try to get some more objective measure of the performance of your hone, for example raise a slurry and do X number of strokes until the slurry changes color and post the photographs or video of the slurry before and after, so that others can judge the speed of removing metal.

I guess if you read coticule.be you can be left with the impression that 'all coticules are good, they all work pretty much the same' (keep in mind that these people are almost religious about these stones), but I haven't had this experience. Each of my coticules performs very differently from the others, so I am not going to waste my time and yours talking about my hones when they most likely have nothing to do with yours.

What gugi mentioned , raising a slurry, seeing how many strokes it takes to turn color ... showing how quickly , or slowly, the stone is cutting the metal. I fool with stones to see where they fit into my arsenal. I've got some coticules but if I need a touchup I'm more likely to go to my escher. If it seems it needs more than that, the norton 8k then back up to the escher.

I have one just for that purpose that I leave in my den. A little 4x2. Works just fine!!

Like onimaru55 states, "know your rock." But then you kind of got to know the blade too. I'll say this, I don't do that many strokes, but I do start with a very light slurry.

It's fun messing around with it - and when you use it for just touch-ups before a shave, you'll discover quickly enough what works and what doesn't. I have a barbers hone in the den too. It's fun as well. : )

Now if Naniwa made a little 12K 4x2, I would be in heaven lol!!

Just another e.g. of YMMV. Speed of slurry discolouration may only tell you how fast the stone is & not how fine.
I have 2 very fast coticules. Both raise swarf in about 10 strokes on plain water but one leaves a very coarse scratch pattern & the other I can shave off comfortably. I'd advise that some form of magnification might be a useful addition to help you assess your stone.

I have one razor which I honed on a coticule and touch up on the same coticule. I just use a water/glycerin mix, and do some plain water strokes on the hone. I aim for 20-30 strokes that way. As I recall, the results with that razor/stone were quite good.

If you have a coticule and need a touch up on your razor, then I would say to go for it. Just try some strokes on plain water and see what happens. Don't worry too much about counting strokes. Keep it moderate and you should be fine. With luck you will get a great edge, suitable for shaving, from your stone.

Michael

If you are happy with what you are using now no need to throw more money at the process. I use a coticule on most of my honing but it is not my last hone and I do not use it for touch ups and I almost never use pastes or sprays to finish. I have so many shave ready razors that each one might be used once a year if that. If I feel the desire to 'enhance the edge' I strop on linen or cloth (nylon works well also), strop on a roo strop from SRD that was treated w/ a light coat of CrOx and then strop on leather but this is rare. If I find a razor that isn't up to my current standards of shave ready I drop down to the 4k w/ circles and work back up to my finisher. I really don't have the luxury of time to screw around with my honing any more so I use what I know works best and works w/ the least amount of fuss and time. As noted above, each coticule seems to be unique as are most natural hones. I also find that using coticules requires a lot of testing along the way especially if you are using a slurry. I have found that synthetic hones, C12k's (if you get a good one) and Eschers are a lot more consistent than coticules. In the end, use what you have and learn what to expect from it/them. Throwing more money at a process is a fool's attempt to improve a process if their experience doesn't match the enhancement the tool will bring to the table. If you have the budget, time and interest go for it but don't expect to find the holy grail. To get closer to that end nothing beats personal experience with what you have on hand before you move to the next level. Be patient and pay attention to the smallest of details and you'll get there. Good luck.