BlueDun
Well-Known Member
Hey all,
I think I made a good step forward in getting the hang of coticule honing.
For a while now I've been experimenting with my two cotis I recently found in some old knife shop. I tried unicot, dilucot, and things in between with a couple of different razors. But I never reached a sharpness level that would would actually make me want to try a shave. Well, I tried once but no real success.
So I got this old Le Tiernois I could never make into a good shaver. It's actually not hard to sharpen. I could easily get a very nice HHT3-4 edge with progressive honing on synthetics. But the shave was always brutal. Rough, bumpy, harsh ... I never made more than two strokes before I put it away. So it sounded like an ideal candidate for that allegedly smooooth coticule edge.
Tonight I gave it another try on my coticule. I opted for unicot and off I went. Since I used to sharpen this razor with a taped spine it took me quite a long time to set the bevel on slurry and make it shave my arm hair (btw folks, do you also have people asking you why your arm looks like chewed up? :| ).
After taping the spine for the second part of unicot I felt like mixing in some dilucot by thinning the slurry a couple of times before I went to water only. And since I have the impression that my hone is a tad on the slower side I gave it about 100 X strokes while rinsing two times in between.
I then tried a HHT and got maybe a HHT-0.5. Yet, this was much better than anything before. Then, after stropping I had a clean edeg with a very nice HHT sharpness - success!
BUT: I did not shave yet. I'm really curious if there's any difference. The edge seems pretty much as sharp as before. The shave will be the beta test. I'll report the outcome - stay tuned.
But in any case, tonight I guess I passed coti honing 101 and I'm in the next grade. I'm proud of myself
Thanks to everbyody - I'm glad I found this site.
Cheers
BlueDun
I think I made a good step forward in getting the hang of coticule honing.
For a while now I've been experimenting with my two cotis I recently found in some old knife shop. I tried unicot, dilucot, and things in between with a couple of different razors. But I never reached a sharpness level that would would actually make me want to try a shave. Well, I tried once but no real success.
So I got this old Le Tiernois I could never make into a good shaver. It's actually not hard to sharpen. I could easily get a very nice HHT3-4 edge with progressive honing on synthetics. But the shave was always brutal. Rough, bumpy, harsh ... I never made more than two strokes before I put it away. So it sounded like an ideal candidate for that allegedly smooooth coticule edge.
Tonight I gave it another try on my coticule. I opted for unicot and off I went. Since I used to sharpen this razor with a taped spine it took me quite a long time to set the bevel on slurry and make it shave my arm hair (btw folks, do you also have people asking you why your arm looks like chewed up? :| ).
After taping the spine for the second part of unicot I felt like mixing in some dilucot by thinning the slurry a couple of times before I went to water only. And since I have the impression that my hone is a tad on the slower side I gave it about 100 X strokes while rinsing two times in between.
I then tried a HHT and got maybe a HHT-0.5. Yet, this was much better than anything before. Then, after stropping I had a clean edeg with a very nice HHT sharpness - success!
BUT: I did not shave yet. I'm really curious if there's any difference. The edge seems pretty much as sharp as before. The shave will be the beta test. I'll report the outcome - stay tuned.
But in any case, tonight I guess I passed coti honing 101 and I'm in the next grade. I'm proud of myself
Thanks to everbyody - I'm glad I found this site.
Cheers
BlueDun