Thread: Progressive Straight Razor Honing Clinic – 9 Part Video Series

I'd like to see it available on DVD for versatility reasons. I know it's probably a little more expensive than CD's, but I'm willing to pay a little extra for the ability to watch it on any TV or computer. I love the availability of information here and improved production and zoom-ins on HHTs and bevel shininess would be a welcome improvement worth an investment by the members here. Keep up the good work!

Adam

I have heard the comment in some form or another that “a Norton 4K is not enough and you need a 1K stone to set the bevel”. In my experience this is absolutely not the case. While a DMT 1200 grit, Shapton 1K, or Norton 1K will cut significantly faster than the Norton 4K and will set a bevel and/or remove damage quicker than the 4K (as well as leave a deaper scratch pattern), if you have some patience then the 4K can absolutely get you there as well. As Lynn showed in his video, using circles with the 4K is a technique that can be used to remove metal, remove damage, and set a working edge faster than back and forth strokes if speed is your concern. The main point is that a good working edge/bevel must be established before you move on to polishing stones like the Norton 8K, Belgian blue and yellow, Shapton 8K and others if you want to make quick and significant progress.

Depending on the razor you can (and might even want to) establish a bevel with a relatively fast cutting polishing stone like the Belgian Yellow, but it could take more than 10 times as long as if you were to use the proper stone for the job. If the razor is already really close to being sharp then it might be even faster to do it this way, as LX_Emergency showed on his coticule honing video, instead of using a low grit stone then spending the time polishing out the scratch pattern. Establishing a great edge as indicated by the sharpness tests and shave is what is important, not necessarily which stone you use. Some will take more patience than others to do a given job due to their relative grit and cutting level. It is really nice to have a variety of stones so that you have the best one for the job though. The DMT 1200 grit stone is not the only stone that can be used to set a bevel (although I am quite fond of using it for this purpose), I just wanted to show the most common (most efficient) way that I would go about sharpening a really dull razor like the one that I got in the video. If I got a nice full hollow new or NOS razor without any damage then I would probably do 50-100 passes on the yellow coticule and see if I am making quick and significant progress as indicated by the TPT and HHT. If I was then I would just stay on the yellow until I was completely happy with the edge; if I was not getting any improvement then I would likely drop down to the lower grit stones, establish a sharp working edge, then polish it to a shave ready edge as I showed on the videos.

David

David,

As you already know, I hold quite a fondness and interest in the Belgian hones, and have been busy lately, collecting theoretical as well as empirical data about them.
It is true that the Yellow Coticule can be regarded as much as a"bevel cutting" hone as it is a superb polisher. In the old days people were using it to sharpen a variety of tools, and they didn't really made the difference between bevel formation and polishing, as we make it today. A stone, being able to remove the apt amount of metal and leave a fine edge at the same time, was what truly made the coticule a remarkable and unique hone.
If you look at the Coticule as a polishing stone, and use it with water only, they all produce that superb shaving edge in about the same amount of effort. But if you start using them for bevel cutting activities, raising a slurry on them, bigger differences between different specimen emerge. Some of them are way faster than others, and some of them are almost too slow to be practical on hard carbon steel. I can back that up out of first hand experience. But there's more.
Joelski78, who's a member of SRP, was kind enough to send me a digital copy of a very interesting booklet, written in French by Charles Gaspar. It's a historical survey, written in 1971, about the then rapidly dissapearing Coticule Industry. He describes 3 different main veins, each containing several subveins, that again contain different layers, each of them with distinct qualities. Some layers were used to produce "Pierres à rasoir" (hones for razors), other layers merely delivered raw coticule for use on woodworking tools and alikes. The layers carry names in local dialect, and were well-known by the people who worked in the Coticule industrie. Just a few examples: "lu grosse blanke" - the big white (excellent razor hones), "Lu vonnète" - the veined one (hones of varying quaily), "lu grosse djène" - the big yellow (inferior quality razor hones), "lu djoulie" - the speckled one (hones for woodworkers and cobblers), "lu fine" - the fine one (excellent quality razor hones). There are many others. Today, Ardennes Coticules doesn't differentiate between the different layers, but they have plans to do so in the nearby future, for the layers that they have access to.
For polishing, I have not (yet) found evidence in the 6 coticules that I have build experience with, that such grading would be of much significance, but for bevel cutting, I did find important differences between them. Between the fastest and slowest I own, their could be easily a factor 20 difference. If not more. With the fast ones, the slurry starts to darken from metal particles almost immediately, with the slower ones, I takes much longer before that happens. (same razor, of course)

Bart.

So are you saying that in your experience the coticules that you have all leave a very similar edge/scratch pattern but seem to have drastically different cutting speeds?

Hi David,

Thank you (and the others) for the efforts to get this up! Should be very helpful for so many people

Cheers
Ivo

Originally Posted by heavydutysg135

So are you saying that in your experience the coticules that you have all leave a very similar edge/scratch pattern but seem to have drastically different cutting speeds?

That's right. Of course, my experience base is not that large. 4 of those I tried are more or less in the same speed class, if they differ speed-wise, it's more a subjective feeling, than a real notion. BUT: I have one that cuts way faster than all my others, and I've also one that cuts noticeably slower than all others. The fast one is more faster than the slow one is slower.

I was directed to buying the faster one by Rob Célis, during my visit at the quarry. While I was trying to make up my mind which one of three candidates I'd buy, Rob approached me and said: "I believe my father would consider that one, a very good one". It looks very pinky, and feels quite soft, easy to scratch with a fingernail. Although, my slowest stone is definitely not my hardest stone, so I 'm not saying softness/hardness correlates to speed.

At the moment, I'm planning to buy a (possibly an incomplete) 7 day set, so I have a few very similar razors to conduct experiments. I would hone them with all kinds of variations, and pass them onto a straight shaving buddy, who would test them "blindly". Than he would do something to reset them, ie 30 passes on a DMT1200?, hone them again with the same variations, and pass them on to me, for another "blind" test. Then we would compare notes, and run another series of tests. I'm still looking for the set, as we speak.


Kind regards,
Bart.

Originally Posted by Nickelking

I'll be rewatching it later today now that I can focus a bit more on the subject matter

Me too. Thanks for this series.

David,
When you put tis out on DVD I will take a copy, put me on the list
Malcolm

A big thank you from Cairns Australia. I have had a DOVO in a cupboard for almost ten years that I lost interest in, as I couldn't find anyone to show me how to hone correctly. Well I became internet savvy, found this website/forum and got the old thing out, started fiddling and got keen again. I had never heard of a belgian coticule, now I have one on the way. I had a strop that was obviously below standard so I have a good one coming as well and the help I have gotten from your videos is fantastic. I am amazed at the obvious community that has grown in straight razor users and this is a truly excellent resource... I might even be able to convince my Dad to break out his fathers old Crown and Swords beast and get into it!!

Anyway, thanks again and I'll be keeping posted.

Luke

Originally Posted by luke777

A big thank you from Cairns Australia. I have had a DOVO in a cupboard for almost ten years that I lost interest in, as I couldn't find anyone to show me how to hone correctly. Well I became internet savvy, found this website/forum and got the old thing out, started fiddling and got keen again. I had never heard of a belgian coticule, now I have one on the way. I had a strop that was obviously below standard so I have a good one coming as well and the help I have gotten from your videos is fantastic. I am amazed at the obvious community that has grown in straight razor users and this is a truly excellent resource... I might even be able to convince my Dad to break out his fathers old Crown and Swords beast and get into it!!

Anyway, thanks again and I'll be keeping posted.

Luke

Sounds good! Please keep us posted on your progress.