Thought I'd annoy all the guys here with another coticule journey post... I'll try and make it short dont worry

Ok, got a standard grade coticule on the advice of Gary Haywood, who has honed many razors for me and all fantastic edges from his coticule, so i took the plunge and got one.

I tried the dilucot with varying success and other methods that me and Gary have toyed with; setting bevel on thick slurry, go to water back to thin slurry then to water again, basially playing around with the dilucot and moving the parts around.

I played with pressure changes and speed of stroke and had verying degrees of success... The enlightenment came when I realised that I was setting a bevel with medium heavy pressure then diluting with light pressure and wondering where I went wrong when the razor comes off rough.

I thought about it and came up with a theory that it was like coming off a 1k stone and going to light strokes on a 12k and expecting it to perform.

Essentially here's my coticule sharpening process;
semi skimmed milky slurry with no feel of chalkyness when honing - hone medium pressure until cuts arm hair with resistence
same slurry - light pressure, until cuts hair with little resistance
dilute twice by putting razor under tap to dilute
wash slurry off and hone on water with light strokes
make alot of thin slurry (as much water as you can hold on the stone to make semi skimmed slurry)
do no pressure strokes (as little pressure to keep the edge on the stone and no more) circles, halfstrokes, whatever your preference.
dilute to water and finish

I go back to slurry after water as it gives the razor such a soft edge, like a butter knife soft.

I hope this helps more than it confuses people, I've found pressure change on a slurry to be paramount in determining the stage of honing your at. sort of like a multi tiered pyramid method dictated by pressure


happy honing
Alex