Thread: Coticule driving me to drink!

I am not sure whether slurry dulling has been mentioned. That is when the garnets released to the surface are larger than the fin of the edge. That is why the slurry reduction goes to running water for a finish. It removes all of the loose garnets and leaves the garnets in matrix.
~Richard

Such was my frustration with the coticule that I worked out my best coticule edge was when I sat my razor on the same table as my Gok20, I'd say it is shave ready.

Progress update:

Saw something in another thread about buffing Arkansas stones with a cotton wheel and such to help with the final burnishing of the stone. Well I dug out and started to work over a bunch of stones, and about halfway through I started the coticule and seriously contemplating if this was as good an idea as I wanted it to be...well, only one way to find out! So I covered it with green crayon and set about polishing it along with just about every other natural hone in my collection.

I think the hardest part was actually getting the green schmootz off the rocks. Turns out Mineral spirits dissolves the crap out of whatever wax binder they used for the chromox crayons. Used the same test razor I've been using, gave it a quick reset on the Norton 8K, then a little over 100 swipes on the coticule with 1 part mineral spirit and 1 part oil as the honing medium. Stropped 20/50 linen & leather after cleaning the oil off the blade.

Shave test: Passed with flying colors. No tugging, no pulling, 2 pass DFS with no need of spot touch ups. Kinda crazy that the key to this stone was finding a way to burnish a soft stone that easily auto slurries, but who am I to argue with results?



This is the surface with a skim coat of mineral spirits.

Lol, told you guys I wasn't crazy!

Originally Posted by eKretz

Lol, told you guys I wasn't crazy!

Crazy like a fox!

Just when you think you have things figured out you get thrown a curve ball. A couple of weeks ago I got a whim to pull out the coticule and tune up the GCW razor I've been using as a test bed. I don't know what changed between the day I put this hone away and the day I pulled it back out, but the edge I got from it was nowhere near as good as it should have been.

This of course led to another round of tweaking and fiddling until I hit pay dirt. Reading through another thread, I saw mention that lapping with a diamond hone could potentially shear garnet and leave you with an unhappy hone. Well, I got nothing to lose so I picked up the slurry stone and set about working the surface of the coticule here and there. I scrubbed it pretty good over the course of a week. As I did, I got to wondering...which is harder, the coticule or the slurry stone? So I pulled out a small Arkansas stone and did a little not so definitive test. Seemed like the hone was harder than the slurry stone. So I scrubbed at the top a little bit with the Arkansas stone too, just in case.

This eventually took my mind down another rabbit hole. Which has finer garnets? And how would I even figure that out? Well, to make a determination I plucked out the tried and true Cnat that's just about as hard as an Arkansas stone and built up a slurry with the slurry stone. 50 passes of the razor on a nice thick slurry, followed by another hundred or so on the Cnat's surface with pure water should tell me what I want to know. The slurry to make nice deep scratches, and the pure water passes to polish away shallow ones and leave only the deeper ones behind. What I saw was scratches that one might equate to a 1K hone left on the edge.

Zero the blade on the Norton 4 and 8K stones, and repeat the process with slurry made from the coticule. This time there weren't any deep scratches, but I was left with a sort of Kasumi finish for lack of better terminology. That may be the target with a Jnat and an excellent edge but not what I'm looking for out of this particular stone. So I took it to the coticule itself with pure water and...well it really wasn't getting any better. No worse, which is good. But also no better.

While looking at it beneath the loupe I was seeing imperfections I didn't like. Dings and edge damage resulting from 7 months give or take since the last honing and being knocked about for a week or two sitting on the honing bench most likely. So I decided to take it back to the Norton 4K and work the ugly out. I already had that soaking and didn't feel like digging anything else out. Then on to the 8K so I could give the coticule the same sort of test it had been subject to in previous honing sessions.

125 laps give or take on pure water and...well I wasn't particularly impressed with what the loupe revealed. I've gotten a bit spoiled I think, nearly every natural in my collection makes an improvement over a Norton 8K edge without any special tricks, the coticule met the mark but didn't seem to exceed it. But at the same time this was equivalent to the good result I got with a thin oil, and better than previous attempts with water or failed attempts with thin oil. So I pressed onward and did another hundred laps give or take with a thin shave lather.

Now the edge is looking proper! I'd put the polish on par with my Cnat. Somewhere above 8K. 50 laps on linen and 100 on leather and the blade provided a one pass DFS with no tugging/pulling, little aftersahve sting (mostly me being heavy handed/rushing), and very little touch up after that first pass. If I can keep getting results like this out of my Belgian rock it may just start to grow on me. I just hope the next time I get the notion to employ it I don't have to tweak and fuss and fight to repeat this result.

At least I know the thing can do it. The question seems to be if it will want to, or if I'll have to beat it into submission.

I feel if there is anything I learned from naturals is this, buy from sellers that are willing to give a refund or is selling it at an amazing price. (Or let's you test the stone first)
I had about 4 cotis and my favorite was a smaller one that was actually in the softer side. It felt weird honing on it but the edges were nice.

Originally Posted by Christian1

I feel if there is anything I learned from naturals is this, buy from sellers that are willing to give a refund or is selling it at an amazing price. (Or let's you test the stone first)
I had about 4 cotis and my favorite was a smaller one that was actually in the softer side. It felt weird honing on it but the edges were nice.

In all fairness I bought it from Ardennes during a holiday sale for nearly %20 less than they normally run. They're known for their customer service, and I'm sure if I pursued it they would've offered an exchange or refund.

That said, even with the struggle I've had figuring this rock out I'm hesitant to blame the stone. Utopian has had some 40 odd coticules and only deemed two as non-finishers. That tells me that maybe 1 in 20 are unable to perform in the capacity we require as straight razor shavers.

Sure I have 10 or so different types of natural hones and a handful of synthetic options and barber hones that I get good shaving edges from easily. But that doesn't mean anything when looking at a different hone type. And this is certainly unlike anything I've ever honed on prior to it. The fact that it CAN finish (proven twice now) and I've only gotten two good shaving edges from it in 8 month's time says more about my prowess (or lack of) than it does the coticule. To steal a quote from Gssixgun:

"No amount of money spent on a Stone can ever replace the value of the time it takes learning to use it properly"
Very Respectfully - Glen

Yea I would say buying a coti from Ardennes is always a safe bet. I do believe they offer refunds but I am not sure, but I don't think they would have a problem refunding/exchanging if you wanted.

Originally Posted by Marshal

That said, even with the struggle I've had figuring this rock out I'm hesitant to blame the stone. Utopian has had some 40 odd coticules and only deemed two as non-finishers. That tells me that maybe 1 in 20 are unable to perform in the capacity we require as straight razor shavers.

Sorry, but I'm not sure that the sampling of my toys can be extrapolated out to all coticules. I don't have any reason to speculate that mine are particularly different from the general population of coticules, but that ratio might not stand with a larger sampling or with someone else's judgment.