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Gave up trying to hone my wedge with my Coti's

Jeltz

Active Member
Today I decided to hone a near wedge, I set the bevel with a King 1k gave it a little go on the 6k, before moving on to my Novelle vein. Alas with slurry the edge seemed to go off a bit even after dilution. I moved onto the hybrid side of a Les Lats which helped a bit but really wasn't getting anywhere.

In the end I moved onto a Dragons Tongue then finished with my green hone which may or may not be a charnley.

It strikes me that my coti's are a touch slow for a wedge, but generally they are quicker than my Dragons Tongue. Or maybe its just that some razors are better suited to certain stones.

Any opinions would be gratefully received.
 
Hi Nic, as you know I never hone a wedge without 2 layers of tape, and a Coticule works well for me at that, it does however take a lot more work than with a full hollow, because the bevel is still much wider, also it helps me to be much more precise with the whole process, I make sure the bevel is as sharp as I can get it before I start dilutions, and I dilute slower (more dilutions) and do twice the number of half strokes per set (30 instead of 15)

It can be surprisingly hard to get it first time too, and i often go back to a very light slurry at the first hht attempt

Before that I always used to unicot the edge, I still do at times, that has never ever failed me.

Best regards
Ralfson
 
Is your La nouvelle Veine fast on slurry or very slow? la Nouvelle, if on the fast side of the layer, can slurry dull a razor very easily. I would use a light slurry on it after a 6K stone and see what happens. It can be a difficult layer to learn how to sharpen a razor to it's limit.
 
Yeah the slurry might have been thicker than I usually do. It does dull blades if its too thick, I forgot that. I was honing without tape, I'm trying to get away from tape on all my razors just so I know none of them need taping for touch ups.
 
tat2Ralfy said:
Did you ever try the bevel angle calculator Nic? http://www.coticule.be/wedges.html?file=tl_files/barts_pics/Bevel_angle_calculation.xls

I find it very useful, its often surprising how much difference a degree here or there makes when it comes to the feel of the blade on my face, I know Gary tried some things with different layers as well and found a noticeable difference

Regards
Ralfson (Dr)

Hey, that's my horse you're riding! :D

I stand by what I told before. A degree difference in bevel angle has at least at much influence on the way a razor shaves, as the difference between fancy finishing hones X and Y. Yet the latter is documented in 1000's of forum posts at every foru about straight razor shaving, and the former is hardly documented at all.

Bart.
 
Thanks, great stuff!, No I've not looked into the bevel angle but I will.

With this wedge the tape wore away while honing it 1st off so I thought that I was ending up with a varying angle anyway, and besides I wanted to just get away from having to remember if I used tape and if so how many layers etc.

Next time I shall go with lighter slurry and some pressure initially, and I'll look into the bevel angles too.

Many thanks
 
Here here to all that had been said

I have a couple of wedges that i only use unicot on - why because they already have tape on as I feel it is necessary on a wedge. Thus so it is simply easier to go unicot. I have never failed.

I do not touch these up as you need to put tape on, I simply start from scratch and rehone
 
If it is a near wedge (versus a full wedge), and the bevels and spine wear are small enough, you should be able to hone it without tape without a problem... well, so long as you put extra time into it. I've honed a near wedge before that didn't have too much wear, and it worked out fine. But, I had to spend more time than usual on it. I actually ended up doing a dilublue with a LOT of time spent near the end to fully polish out those bevels.

All that said, definitely check the bevel angle.
 
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