Thread: coticule connundrum

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

If you hit the enter key every once in awhile it breaks up the text and makes it easier to read. More likely that people will bother to read it IMO.

Also, assuming you are writing in English ? Spell check is your friend.

Whut iz spelchek?

Whut iz spelchek?

That wasnt very nice , my frend at all .I am from Bulgaria and still live here , not an USA citizen . I know that my english sucs , no need to remind.
Now seriously- what is a spellcheck .

Originally Posted by RusenBG

That wasnt very nice , my frend at all .I am from Bulgaria and still live here , not an USA citizen . I know that my english sucs , no need to remind.
Now seriously- what is a spellcheck .

Spell Check is software which will put a red line under a word that is not spelled correctly. Right click the word, and a menu comes up with alternative spellings. The one at the top will usually be the correct choice, but not always.

Originally Posted by RusenBG

That wasnt very nice , my frend at all .I am from Bulgaria and still live here , not an USA citizen . I know that my english sucs , no need to remind.
Now seriously- what is a spellcheck .

Didn't mean to offend you I was making a joke about spell check. I'm not a U.S. Citizen either.. Just because your a U.S. Citizen doesn't mean you speak English or speak/spell it well. What about people who move there from different countries.Most devices today have spell check automatically. The red line under a word that is spelt wrong indicates the word is spelt wrong. It also gives you options usually if you right click on the red lined word.


On the other hand you could run whatever you're saying in your native language through a translator. The grammar may be poor but the spelling will be correct.

You are doing better then I would if I was writing in Bulgarian.

Originally Posted by gssixgun

TI's especially the newer harder steels would be the razors I would never use a Coticule on it would be one of the last of my finishers I would choose...

Try it on some of the softer Sheffild steels and see how it works for you..

My Sheffields love Coti's. My german hollows and Swedes? Well they like ze germans

A coticule was my first hone. And the first razor I managed to hone to shave-readiness was honed on it. If you have a good quality coticule bought from a reputable seller you should be able to get any razor shave-ready with it. Perret in 1770 describes them as the only razor hone available in Europe at the time. He did not mention slurry stones at all so that is something that came on later. Probably influenced by Escher and other Thuringian hone resellers.
Start using them without a slurry, get to grips with it and only then start experimenting with a slurry stone. Make sure you use a good quality slurry stone as well. The first coticule slurry stone I had to be replaced because it had a few hard inclusions that scratched the surface of my coticule. When those inclusions are mixed into the slurry they will damage your edge.

Thanks to Moderator i will try next time using this software , but how can i turn it on . In SRP is automaticaly .
I maybe over react ,as they fired us from the job , were i was working , me and a few other guys .So from this point were unempoyed .
Abbout coticules i think theyre amazing stones and the best midle gritt stones avaible,but i have honed to this moment ,a few razors / 50 60 maybe more i dont count them anymore /.
So it is not so hard for me , the concept of diluting before dulling the edge , and no presure at all for finishing . I know that every coti will provide serviceable edge , but this is not the perfect edge .
I have found that ,3 from my 7 old coticules ,can finish with a proper skills , a razors edge ,on a pretty good levell . Almost Swedenstein hones levell.
For me the coticule in the honing progretion ,is amazing prefinishing stone - aways a plesure using them . I found that thick slurry , doesnt work well in most casses .
So the edge from misty slurry , with a 2 drops of watter every 30 seconds is much sharper and smoother .
Here , in our country in most cases the old coticules are sold ,in pair with a Swedenstein or huringian stones ,most of the times .
I explain myself this , as the persons that uses this stones , to maintain theyre razors , find that the coticule edge is much plaisant , when finished on a finer /thuri / hone .
I bought twice a hole progretion , of bevell seter , midle and finishing stone.
Bevellsetters are usualy some rusian microcorund stones ,or a very hard oil stones 400 600 grit, usualy . As theyre hard , the scratch patern is finer than , the modern 600 gritt stone . Usualy they are mising from the progretion , as some relative finds , how convinient are they ,fot a knife sharpening .
Coticules sold in eastern Europe , the past centurie , are small rectangular stones 4 x 1 size to 6 x 1.5 inch . The bigest i have seen here is 5 x 2 and 8 X 2 . Maybe because the prise , bigger stones were rare here . The finest coticules from the old stones , in my opinion , arent the natural combos . The finer stones were a single layer cotis , in a padles 1.5 to 2 sm in thickness .
Those midle hardness stones are moderate fast on slurry . and leave suprisingly good edge , compared to other old stones .
Thuringians hones sold here , were small size stones from 4x1 to 6 x 1.5 .
Most of them were - The celebrated razor hone or Rassier Watter abrieht / or something like this .
My point is that , most of the passed away , razor users and honers , from the past centurie , were using aways a thuringian stone as a last stone . after the coticule . They feel the need of finer stone , obviousely .
Sorry again for my english , hope this helps . For me this is the proof ,that many people , honing straights in the past centurie , have found the need of finer stone after coticule in a progretion .

Natural stones are what they are : natural, random, a bit chaotic.
I have hear as much discontent on the JNATs as I have on the cotis.

Granted, the first coticule I bought is a truly wonderful stone. I have learnt a lot thanks to it.
Luckily, I was offered one with a set of razors on a flea market and it was nothing alike : a grit lower than my BBW and it's damn aggressive.

The thing is, if you want natural stones, that you must build your progressions for what they really are and not what you hope they are. They don't have a calibrated grit, and hell, you don't even know what it is even about beforehand.

So, what to think of this very agressive and rough coticule ? Not the "pivotal universal stone" that the coti is sold to be, but looking at it the other way, it's a damn good bevel setter, and I can say that my progression is coti 1/bbw/coti 2 (the BBW/coti 2 is a combo) and I find it damn fun.

I've read "gentleman stone", I would likely more compare it to manual/automatic driving.
Manual requires a bit more skill, is rarely as efficient as automatic (when it comes to the mechanic of it), but you can push your skills to the finer grains and have more contrôle.
Cotis and every stone which produces a slurry anyway, are "manual" : no calibrated grit, but the ability, with the slurry and the correct feeling to "fine tune" everytime.

My advice : start synthetic, build a calibrated progression, buy some natural stones, try them and put them where you feel they work the best in your progression.

(little trick : you want to push a finisher "a bit further" ? Try a drop of liquid soap)

Live in Britain and most spellchecks use American spelling so have to be ignored anyway. They say english spell check then tell you colour is spelled color or sulphur is sulfur etc

You can use Windows spelling check. It offers you many varieties of the English language, amongst them UK and US English.