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First Dilucot with no. 16

Well I did another dilucot using no. 16. The razor is a newly restored (just did the hand sanding today, it looks pretty good!) 5/8" Torrey razor, not a full hollow but not a wedge, somewhere in between. :p

The hardest part was getting the bevel properly set....but I didn't move on with the dilution until I was totally satisfied with it. Then it was off to the races. This time I was less concerned with counting laps and number of dilutions. I just added a drop of water when the slurry either got kinda thick or was drying out, so basically going by feel a little more. I ended with 50 laps after lightly rinsing the stone off, then another 50 using my hands and wiping the stone under water to ensure no slurry was left. I just stropped in on my linen and plain leather. I won't shave until tomorrow, but holy cow batman, does this razor ever cut hairs silently and effortlessly! On the HHT the hair just kind of falls when it hits the edge, and it's silent. I don't have much practice with reading too much into the HHT, but I know that whenever I've gotten a HHT to work that well, the shave always kicks ass.

I will shave with it tomorrow, I'm sure it will go well. :thumbup:

I'm loving this stone more and more, and even finding myself honing faster on it. When I first used it I found myself being a little careful as it's an odd shape (I think it looks kind of like a guitar :) ) and gets narrow towards one end. But now I don't have any problems honing with nice full strokes and there's no problem with keeping the razor flat at all. I flip the stop 180 degrees after ever dilution (for even wear), and even then I have no problem honing quickly and accurately on it. I think I'm getting to know this stone more....I'm up to 5 dilucots on this stone now. B)
 
Absolutely awesome, its funny how it just sort of falls into place isnt it
Well done amigo! :thumbup:
 
I think this thread explains why synthetic guys have a bias against coticules. I know that 200-300 strokes seems excessive, but it doesn't take long. If you are a "less is more" kind of honer, it makes a lot of sense to prefer another method. However, the time involved in the process isn't much more considering how fast I've become in my stroke... But, the learning curve for a new honer would be tough, IMHO
 
richmondesi said:
I think this thread explains why synthetic guys have a bias against coticules. I know that 200-300 strokes seems excessive, but it doesn't take long. If you are a "less is more" kind of honer, it makes a lot of sense to prefer another method. However, the time involved in the process isn't much more considering how fast I've become in my stroke... But, the learning curve for a new honer would be tough, IMHO
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Paul,
I have to agree with you on this. I think the toughest part for someone starting out with the Coticule as their first stone is perhaps the inability of knowing what to expect at the 3 different stages of the process. But once they get this figured out, they seem to do just fine. We have many examples of that right here.

Ray

p.s. you are in the felt strop group now.
 
tat2Ralfy said:
Absolutely awesome, its funny how it just sort of falls into place isnt it
Well done amigo! :thumbup:
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Thanks Ralfy, it totally did all fall into place. Well I just shaved with the latest razor I used dilucot no. 16 on (the one I JUST restored :) ), and BOO-YA-KA-SHAKA! A great shave. :thumbup: This stone is awesome.

Paul, I agree with you also. It does take more laps doing a complete progression than using synthetic stones, so that's probably a huge turn-off to some honers. But you really do get quite quick with each honing stroke once you get used to the stone, so the numbers don't seem so huge anymore. It also seems so much more simple in concept, i.e. just using one stone. I like the idea of using the same stone to set the bevel and for easy touch-ups. I feel like the coticule is a complete honing arsenal in a nice tight little all-natural package. :scared:
 
grear stuff dave,

i find now i'm doing less laps especialy at the begining i was overly doing laps just to make sure i did'nt miss or loose any sharpness the last thew times i have moved on a little quiker with out over doing and i have had the same results .
 
StraightRazorDave said:
I feel like the coticule is a complete honing arsenal in a nice tight little all-natural package.
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Well said, Sir! :thumbup:
 
richmondesi said:
Bart said:
StraightRazorDave said:
I feel like the coticule is a complete honing arsenal in a nice tight little all-natural package.
Click to expand...

Well said, Sir! :thumbup:
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+1 more... I love it:thumbup:
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+3 with me! lol

I didnt even know people used more than 1 hone until I read about it on SRP! honestly why would you complicate the process and empty your wallet at the same time, always struck me as odd.

Besides my great grandfather was born in the 1800's, shaved with a straight, and synthetics werent even invented!
If it was good enough for Mr Gamage Thomas Horsepool its good enough for his great grandson Adam Thomas Horsepool.

Ya Dig?
 
Well I've reached number 6 dilucot with this stone. I'm getting more relaxed when doing it, and not really counting laps or number of dilutions, trying to just go by feel. I remember Gary mentioning that he can tell when a razor is getting sharp due to the feel of it against the stone, almost like it is trying to cut into it. Well this time that's starting to make more sense. When I was getting close to clear water on the stone, the razor did have a little more of a dragging sensation, and I still felt it a little when I was honing on clear water. So I am starting to pick up different sensory feedback markers as I go along. I also closely watch how the water is flowing along the edge during the stroke. I use a very gently rolling X motion, and there's a clear ripple of water/slurry moving from the heel to the toe when I do this, so it's clear that I'm getting good contact along the entire edge.

The only testing I did was after the diagonal strokes to ensure the bevel was set, and the HHT after the entire process and stropping. Well the HHT was a REAL success, cutting very cleanly, easily a HHT 4-5 based on Bart's scale.

Will test shave this puppy tomorrow! I expect great things, since the last few times when I've gotten such a positive HHT after using this stone the shave was amazing. That's also another benefit to using the same stone, you get more confident in the upcoming shaves with the razors you've honed on it! I have 7 shave-ready razors, and I think 5 of them have been honed with the dilucot method and coticule 16. My goal is to have all of them honed with this stone, that way I can just keep that coticule in the bathroom for quick touch-ups since I know exactly how each razor was honed.
 
Thats sounds good 4-5,

It just proves, it can be done.

The amount of people that actualy say you carn't pass HHT of coticule, i was one of them.

Dave, i think once you have worked one coticule out, it won't take long to work the other ones out.
 
garyhaywood said:
Thats sounds good 4-5,

It just proves, it can be done.

The amount of people that actualy say you carn't pass HHT of coticule, i was one of them.

Dave, i think once you have worked one coticule out, it won't take long to work the other ones out.
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Thanks Gary.

Well I shaved with the latest razor I honed on this stone, and it was good. I think I'm pretty confident with this stone now. I will still practice on it, but I've gotten enough that I don't feel I need to report on every razor I hone with it. :p
 
Ok, It's official, this stone is f-ing amazing. I now have all the razors in my razor roll (it fits 7) honed up using the dilucot method on coticule no.16, and they're all shaving fantastically!!!! On the couple more I've honed over the last couple of days, I had no trouble hitting HHT 4-5 after a good stropping. So now the stone will be used as a touch-up stone. But it's still quite quick with just water, so it should lend itself quite well as a touch-up hone.

I honestly would never have believed a few months ago that I would be doing all of my honing on ONE COTICULE. It's truly simplistic and I am loving the results.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
 
Good stuff Dave. I'm loving mine too:p Thanks again!

If only the Senators were doing well too :p
thanks for taking Kovalev off our hands heh
 
StraightRazorDave said:
I honestly would never have believed a few months ago that I would be doing all of my honing on ONE COTICULE. It's truly simplistic and I am loving the results.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
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Ain't it a wonderful thing?
B)

Bart.
 
Bart said:
StraightRazorDave said:
I honestly would never have believed a few months ago that I would be doing all of my honing on ONE COTICULE. It's truly simplistic and I am loving the results.

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:
Click to expand...
Ain't it a wonderful thing?
B)

Bart.
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For sure! and I for one have Sir Bart to thank :thumbup:
Now wheres that blasted Tha...... oh hang on, I remember............

Keyboard.jpg
 
Please forgive me if this is a bit of a thread hijack, but I feel that it's within the scope of this current thread, so I'll share here.:)

A friend sent me a razor to hone for him from Japan (he didn't tell me that it had rust at the edge as well as unrelated chips:mad: ). After a couple hundred laps on my 500 Shapton, I was ready to try the dilutcot method. I'm not certain, but I bet it took me over 1k strokes to get this thing ready to go to the strop... I literally did 500 strokes just on water to improve the HHT results. Of course you all know that that only took about 10-15 minutes with HHT trials included in that time. After I finally got it to the strops, I went extreme with it (I only got to HHT-2 off the stone)and did 100 laps on linen, 100 on latigo, and 125 on horsehide... The for fun, I decided to try the HHT again... HHT-5:O I fully expected to have to settle for HHT-4, but it progressed 3 grades off the strops all along the edge...

That's a sight that I rarely get tired of (hairs responding to the edge at HHT-5 level)... Only this small group of guys here can appreciate the level of satisfaction that comes with that kind of result off of a single stone and stropping:)

Gotta love Coticules!:thumbup:
 
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