Thread: A complete stranger gave me this coticule!

This is a special one. I got it from someone with whom I'd exchanged names less than a quarter of an hour before. And he isn't someone who doesn't know his hones: he used to be a barber and collects barberiana. In fact he's so skilled, he claims he can feel it when someone else used his new coticule. But apparently he enjoyed our talk and gave me an old barber coticule. I'd like to shout out his name to thank him publicly, but I don't think he'd like that - which is another attest of his character.

This is the hone. It's 224x50mm (8.8x2''). As you can see it was very cupped.






Some don't mind the cupping, as it doesn't necessarily impair obtaining a good edge, and I did hesitate because flattening would require quite a bit of material to be removed, but my honing skills aren't that good and moreover, I like my hones in prime, flat, polished condition. So this is how it looks now:

Here are some more pictures.

Dry coticule side, wet coticule side, dry blue side, wet blue side:

As you can see, there is quite a lot of 'veining' I believe to be transitions to BBW. This will probably have some adverse effect on honing, but frankly I don't really care. I think this is a wonderful gift and an exceptionally beautiful hone!


Dry detail 1(700x700 pix taken from the previous scan, which is originally 6878x7180 pix)


Dry detail 2


Wet detail 1


Wet detail 2


BBW dry detail 1


BBW dry detail 2


BBW wet detail 1


BBW wet detail 2

Thank you for sharing this story. It's a great hone and I hope you get many years of use running countless razors over it. I think the best part of the story is the gentleman that gave you the hone and the person that made such a good impression on him that led him to do so. Hopefully a great friendship will result from this encounter. Best of luck with your new hone. It looks like it is in the hands of someone that will cherish it for a long time..

You are such a lucky man!
Congratulations!

+1 thanks for sharing that. If it was me I would love to talk honing with the fellow. I've often been curious as to how barbers of yore managed to sharpen razors without flattening their hones. If there was a diplomatic way to broach the subject I would love to hear what the man had to say.

Thanks for posting the story and the excellent photos to go with it.

Ah, we have a fellow HADdict, here. Thanks for the pics. And a very generous gift you've received to be sure.

Chris L

What an amazing gent. It's good to see the straight razor alliance extends beyond our small world here at SRP.

What a generous gift from a very nice person! I am very impressed with your restoration of that beautiful coticule. I have a large one with numerous veins like yours has. They have no effect at all on honing because once I lapped the stone, I could not feel them at all with my finger or a razor blade. Yours looks BBS. Secondly, I am also very impressed with your photographs of the garnets on the BBW. It is nice to see what actually cuts and smooths the steel. Thanks for sharing and I also hope you and he maintain a friendship in the future.

Congrats!!! The barber who gave you this hone is one hell of a man and you must have made a great impression on him so +1 to you and enjoy! What I would give to receive a hone like that WOW!!