Thread: thought I'd slow down my coticule strokes

Hi there I havent posted in a while but i thought I should share this;

I had a day off today so thought I'd try honing away on some of my razors.
I honed two razors relatively quickly, to see how quick I could hone... a number of 30 halfstroke sets later both came off not up to snuff

Next honing session, same razors and I thought I would slow it down... ALOT.
it took 2 secs each stroke on a 150mm long coticule just to give you an idea of the speed of stroke
I did 10 halfstroke sets and could feel it grip after dulling on glass and doing 1 set.
I honed like this on both razors and the edges were beautiful
near mirror edge from my dressante and mirrored (as close as you can get with a coticule) from my la verte

I was used to speeding through honings but, after this, efficiency of stroke seems to be paying off... has anyone found this?


regards Alex

I go really slow and light on the finishing strokes...

The lower end strokes, I do as fast as I can do exact I honestly don't hone very fast, I hone very exact..

But yes on the last 10 or so strokes I slow way down, and really try my bestest to get as perfect as possible.

Gssixgun knows about honing, his videos taught me a lot. Since watching his videos I have been getting much better and most important smoother edges. He has also honed a few for me, very nice smooth shaving edges.

I do slow strokes at the bevel setting stage as well, as you said gssixgun I'm just trying to be exact and it seems to work alot better

There is a saying in the shooting sports Alex that I think might apply here too

"Slow is Smooth, Smooth is Fast"

I've always gone a little slower than the fast flips I've seen, including stropping a razor. If I can't ensure the razor has had contact with the hone along its whole bevel, then I don't know for sure what's going on. The amount of wear from the strop (if you don't use loaded strops) is very small, a few strokes on a finisher usually remove it. If you're using a pasted strop and only honing to clean up the entire edge, it's not quite that simple, but if you do your own honing, very little is required to keep a dialed in razor going strong.

Nothing looks dumber on a razor than a shiny bevel and a craggy edge.