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Couple Questions about my Coticule and Honing

See how it cleans up. Hot glue sticks do bubble up a bit. What I did was to rub over the cracks when the stone was hot. Kind of forcing the glue in there. I don't see why the way you did it wouldn't work as well.

Best regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
Well, I lapped it, and it was not easy. I did take a knife to get rid of the bulk of the glue, but it was still time consuming.

Maybe this weekend I'll try to hone something with it. Hopefully the clicking sound is gone, and hopefully I can take my edge a bit further.

The shave today was a little less harsh, and it's plenty sharp. The razor gives good shaves, but I'm still craving for the shaves where the alum block doesn't sting at all.
 
Well done, it is hard work cleaning up after the hot glue isn't it.

I don't know where you are. But if you send me a razor I will happily hone it up for you to enjoy. You simply pay the return post, if you are interested you can email me by clicking the "view profile" link under my avatar.

Best wishes
Ralfson (Dr)
 
Thanks for the offer, but I've got to do this by myself. Or at least I have to try my best. This blade has been professionally honed many times, and I always manage to screw it up. I don't want to send it out again, only to ruin the blade in a week.

I could hone other blades just fine, so I should be able to do this one too! The blade right now is still a little harsh. I'm beginning to think there was issues with my stroke that may have effected the edge. Or maybe that crack was the problem. I don't know, but I'm willing to try honing it again now that my coticule is fixed.

How do you all view pressure during honing? Should I be using light pressure even during the bevel setting stage? Should I keep consistent pressure throughout the dilucot, or should I gradually lighten my stroke?
 
I use pressure throughout the process, about as much as you would when using an eraser, until I get to finishing on regular strokes with water, when I do that I just use the weight of the blade.

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)
 
Gull,
For me I'm not afraid to use quite a bit of pressure when needed especially on water only half strokes. It all depends how the edge is responding, never on x strokes though, they are rediculously light, just blade only (if that).
All said and done There are a lot of factors that can determine an edge will only get so good, such as steel, heat treatment (usually unknown), bevel angle, hardness, hone or vein used etc etc.
I got some blades that take ages to do a decent hone job and the shaves are mediocre in comparison to other edges that hone really easy and give proffesional barber shaves.
I'd do your utmost to get the best edge you can but give it up after that and move on to better things. If it seems that it's better when others have honed this one, ask yourself have they have used pastes/sprays to finish?

Best regards
Joe

PS I have had a lot of good results using barts hard soap method on stuborn edges.
 
Well guys, I have disappointing news.

I was so happy when I finished "fixing" my coticule with glue. So I tried dilucoting my razor again. The clicking noise was still there. I tried sanding it down, but it only helped a little bit.

I finished the honing and shaved with it today. It was absolutely the worst shave I have ever gotten in long time. No nicks or cuts but lots of irritation. :cry:

So I'm giving this ONE more try. I've taped the coticule where the crack is, and I'm only going to hone on a small portion of the stone that I am sure is safe. I only have 2inx2in to work with, so I guess I'll do circular strokes for the whole process.

If I fail this time, a member here offered to hone my razor on my coticule. I'll take him up on his offer, and hopefully he can sort out my problem.
 
Gull,

I don't know where you bought your Coticule, but I repeat that if you contact Ardennes and tell them about your problems, they will -if I know them a bit- suggest that you send the hone to them, replace it with another one. Even if you purchased it from a reseller.

Otherwise, you're also free to send it to me, and if I can't fix this one, I'll ask Maurice (the owner of Ardennes) if I can personally pick a replacement for you.

Bart.
 
Bart said:
Gull,

I don't know where you bought your Coticule, but I repeat that if you contact Ardennes and tell them about your problems, they will -if I know them a bit- suggest that you send the hone to them, replace it with another one. Even if you purchased it from a reseller.

Otherwise, you're also free to send it to me, and if I can't fix this one, I'll ask Maurice (the owner of Ardennes) if I can personally pick a replacement for you.

Bart.

Alternatively, there is the stone that Bart picked out for me a few months ago. It has a crack in it that I believe is now fixed, although I haven't gotten around to testing it. At the very least, the BBW side is perfectly functional. I received a replacement for it, so Gull, if you'd like, you can have it. That would have the added benefit of avoiding dealing with international shipping. I will try to test the coticule side of the stone tonight. If it's fine, I think you will be very pleased. It is a La Veinette.
 
Bart, I like your suggestion of sending it to Ardennes or to you, but I'm scared of international shipping. I remember just shipping some documents abroad, and that cost me about $50. :scared:

I bought the stone from thesuperiorshave. It served me well for months, till just recently. Do you think he would offer me a replacement? It would save me the cost of shipping it internationally.

danjared, that's one generous offer! If it does work out well, then I would love to have a new stone. Although I feel bad about just taking it from you without giving you something in return...
 
It definitely would be a good idea to contact Jarrod (the Superior Shave).

Cheers to Jared for his generous offer. :thumbup:

Bart.
 
Well things are starting to look up.

I honed my razor on the upper half of the coticule. The results were MUCH MUCH better. It's still not as good as my other blade, but I can have a nice shave. I wasn't able to do any half strokes or X strokes, so I'm pleased with my progress. I had issue with hair randomly appearing on the surface. I did test the razor on arm hair, but then I stropped it thoroughly to clean the edge. It seems that despite my efforts, hair still managed to get through. No doubt that impacted the final result.

Jarrod as agreed to give me credit in exchange for the stone. :thumbup: Hopefully he has stone similar to mine.
 
I had two questions about my new replacement coticule. I have tons of options, so I want to narrow them down.

1) What layers would you all say are easiest to hone on?

2) Are some layers less susceptible to cracks? I never want to experience a crack ever again. I don't care if the layer is hard to hone with, but a crack is devastating.
 
Mmm contradicting questions there

I would say the easiest layer to hone with is, the layer you have most experience with, its that simple, in my experience there are no magical easy layers, true some layers are easier for some people, take me and la Veinette for example, its the layer I learnt to hone on, I used it exclusively for well over a year, and can "almost" be certain I will nail it 100 times out of 100.

As for the dreaded cracking, unfortunately as natural rocks, Coticules can be unpredictable when it comes to cracks, I do not know of a layer than can be guaranteed to never crack, thats not saying that I expect all Coticules to crack, far from it, it just happens sometimes, its the nature of the game I am afraid, it is not the norm however, and if it does happen there is usually a simple fix as detailed in the faq: http://www.coticule.be/faq-reader/items/how-can-i-repair-a-coticule.htmlluck has it that yours did not succumb to the simple fix, please try to not let that put you off.

that said I dont recall hearing of a Les Latneuses that cracked, although mine has a little surface flaking.

Best regards
Ralfson
 
I received my new stone and it has a BWW on the back.:thumbup:

Unfortunately, the back of my slurry stone is slate. Could I just use the yellow part of the slurry stone instead? Or would that defeat the purpose of using the BBW?
 
gull said:
I received my new stone and it has a BWW on the back.:thumbup:

Unfortunately, the back of my slurry stone is slate. Could I just use the yellow part of the slurry stone instead? Or would that defeat the purpose of using the BBW?

In my experience, you can use the Coticule slurry stone on the BBW. It does not make a difference.

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
That is good to know Bart. I was thinking that you HAVE to use the yellow with the yellow, and the blue with the blue.

By the way, I preformed a dilucot with my razor, and FINALLY got good results. I've been waiting a long time for a shave without pain. Although the razor was a little less sharp than I'm used to, I'll take what I can get.
 
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