ShavingUniverse.com

Register a free account now!

If you are registered, you get access to the members only section, can participate in the buy & sell second hand forum and last but not least you can reserve your preferred username before someone else takes it.

Coticule feedback

towliff

Well-Known Member
Hi all,

I want to share a humbling experience I had last night with my coticule. Im no experienced honer, with very limited success on dilucot, and still struggle a bit with the unicot. Last night however, gave me some great insight into my coticule - #29 in the vault. Its a difficult stone to use as its very narrow, im still getting used to it.

In the process of finishing off a unicot in which I was struggling to reach even a violin on the double arrow, using my very thin blonde hair (tis a nightmare for HHT on the double arrow - which is why I like it!). After a quite a substantial amount of laps, I noticed that when the stroke was right, the sound of the stroke was different, and the feel too was different, almost as if there was more abrasion than before - like the blade was clinging a bit. At this point it felt as if the blade was noticeably sharper, so I gave the HHT a try and Voilla, HHT 3 across the entire blade. My best HHT on the double arrow to date fresh of the rock.

Cant comment on the shave at this point, as I finished it with crox and let my housemate use it this morning!

Suffice to say, the experience with the "new" feedback I achieved from the stone was very humbling and enjoyable.

I hope to recreate it again soon.

Best Regards,

James
 
Great post, James. You're breaking the code. Almost all experienced honers use tactile feedback more than counting laps to get their results. It is intuitive when you think about it. When you get a flat bevel on a flat stone and have a little moisture of some kind to fill the gap, it will get that "magnetic" feeling because air pressure holds them together. Not so much with the taped stages of unicot, though, because there is so little metal hitting the stone. (You can pick up two finely lapped stones or pieces of steel with the slightest amount of lubricant between them by one piece alone.) You can be pretty sure that you are close, and if the bevels have met, you could easily been done at this stage.

You're right about your stone being a bit more difficult to learn, but a lot of guys love narrow stones, including me, to the point they will cut down a full size gorgeous les latneuses to get the right width or send it to a scurvy dog friend.

With insights like you have just had, dilucot will be very rewarding for you. Sincerely, Denny
 
:thumbup: Well done.
Next time you hit that level, first try to test shave it, without the CrO. A good Coticule edge doesn't improve from CrO. In fact, many of us (including myself) prefer it over a CrO finished edge.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
Hi james,

i find just by sound you can tell a nice stroke etc. i will say the hht of DA is a bloody tough one to get, if you get a three you have done very well and the shave would be a good one. i do what bart mentioned and i listen to the abrasion as i'm honing. as i'm diluting i tend to stop when the abrsion disapears and as the abrasion lessons i up my laps . nice to hear from you
cheers gary
 
As said from me too.
Well done James :thumbup:

A HHT3 on a DA is as good as you will ever need, please try a test shave without the Crox next time, it should be very nice.

Regards, and nice to see you
Ralfson (Dr)
 
If you got an HHT 3 straight off the hone before stropping, then it's a shame you finished on CrO.
Like the others, I too prefer the smoother shave from a coticule.

Not sure how what you describe as "more abrasion than before" had a positive effect on the result.
I always find that the opposite applies...
 
abrasion i mean when honing with slurry you can hear and feel the slurry cutting as the slurry becomes thinner that sound gets less and less untill it feels like your honing on just water . thats when i swithch to clean water and finish, rather than just carrying on , it gives me sign of time to finish as the dirty slurry is ready for rinsing.

gary
 
Sorry Gary I should have made myself a little clearer.
The sequence you describe mirrors my own experience.

It was James' comment in the OP I was addressing;

towliff said:
After a quite a substantial amount of laps, I noticed that when the stroke was right, the sound of the stroke was different, and the feel too was different, almost as if there was more abrasion than before...

Edit: I suspect he was surprised to find that more abrasion seemed to yield a better result.
 
yeh that s ok mate . i find all coticules feel differant some don't offer as much feel as others do, once bevel is set there is a clear differances in feel as you go along depending on the hone there can be no abrasion or for example my hybrid never lets up there is mega feed back
 
Cheers for the great comments!

Ric Tic, my wording didn't exactly put what I was trying to say clearly. I know that there isn't any more abrasion going on, its that "magnetic" feeling that Denny describes is what I was trying to describe, as if there was slightly more resistance in the stroke than before due to it, which makes it seem like its abrading more. I was thinking of the situation akin to an optical illusion, tricking you into seeing something you KNOW isn't there/cant exist.

All the best,

James
 
Back
Top