Hey guys, long time, no see. So long, in fact, that I had to re-register here.
Quick background... I've been shaving and honing straights for around two and a half years now. I've run the gamut of various hones, including a complete set of Shapton GS (through and including the 30k Shapton). I ended up selling all my other stones except for two coticules.
One is a Vintage "Pike" coticule. It's rather narrow (just a bit under two inches), with only about 1/8" of the coticule side left at it's thinnest point. It's a combo BBW/Coti. I *love* this stone for it's speed, but no longer use it, as it's getting too worn down, and it's a great piece of history.
The other Coticule is a BBW/Coti natural, 3"X8". The Coti layer is very thick; almost twice as thick as the BBW layer. The coti side is a beautiful green color. While this stone is a phenomenal polisher, it is extremely slow. Especially for me, as I have some what shaky hands, and must hone using both hands to hone, using very slow, deliberate strokes. I really think I got lucky with this coticule, as it is *extremely* hard, a beautiful color, with only one small inclusion at the very end of it. Truly an exceptional stone.
During the past year, I've had great success at keeping my daily shavers nice and comfy with my green coti. However, I'm now back to honing a bunch of razors I've been restoring. And now that I have some time again (finally!), I'm also quite anxious to get back in to honing as a hobby. As much as I enjoy shaving with a straight, to me, honing is even more fun.
So what's the point of all this back story?
Going from blunt instrument to smooth shaver on my beloved green coti takes me forever. So I'm trying to make a decision on how to go about (dramatically) increasing the speed.
I'm considering getting a full set of 1k - 12k Naniwa Super Stones (for me that would be 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, 8k, and 12k). Yeah, I know you can leave out some of those, as conventional wisdom is to double the grit from stone to stone, but I'm looking to reduce the total number of strokes, and if you think through it a bit, it makes sense to make slower grit jumps to decrease the total strokes required to remove the previous grit scratches, i.e. a 2k stone will remove the 1k marks faster than a 3k, and the 5k will remove 3k marks faster than it would 2k scratches, etc.
When I had my full set of Shaptons, I could go from blunt instrument to smooth shaver faster than I can on my green coti. Since I don't have the ability to pay for a full set of Shaptons right now, I'm considering the Super Stones.
Now the dilemma... I'm not sure if I would be better off getting the Super Stones, or just trying to find a really fast coticule? The problem with the coti approach is that they are getting *very* expensive, especially in my preferred 3"X8" size. Plus, coti speed is a pretty subjective thing.. what might be a "fast" coti to one guy, might be "slow" to another.
So for you guys that have tried a lot of cotis, ranging from slow to fast, and also have experience on the Super Stones, which would you do for my situation, get the SS's, or try to find a faster coti?
At one time I was thinking about selling the green coti to finance the SS's or another coti, but I just don't think I can give it up as it is an incredible polisher.
Right now, I'm pretty much stuck with using a modified Unicot (I use two layers of tape)method, which is ok, but my edges (strangely) don't last as long with the Unicot method when compared to the Dilucot method. But the Unicot method is much faster for me than Dilucot on my hard green coti.
Quick background... I've been shaving and honing straights for around two and a half years now. I've run the gamut of various hones, including a complete set of Shapton GS (through and including the 30k Shapton). I ended up selling all my other stones except for two coticules.
One is a Vintage "Pike" coticule. It's rather narrow (just a bit under two inches), with only about 1/8" of the coticule side left at it's thinnest point. It's a combo BBW/Coti. I *love* this stone for it's speed, but no longer use it, as it's getting too worn down, and it's a great piece of history.
The other Coticule is a BBW/Coti natural, 3"X8". The Coti layer is very thick; almost twice as thick as the BBW layer. The coti side is a beautiful green color. While this stone is a phenomenal polisher, it is extremely slow. Especially for me, as I have some what shaky hands, and must hone using both hands to hone, using very slow, deliberate strokes. I really think I got lucky with this coticule, as it is *extremely* hard, a beautiful color, with only one small inclusion at the very end of it. Truly an exceptional stone.
During the past year, I've had great success at keeping my daily shavers nice and comfy with my green coti. However, I'm now back to honing a bunch of razors I've been restoring. And now that I have some time again (finally!), I'm also quite anxious to get back in to honing as a hobby. As much as I enjoy shaving with a straight, to me, honing is even more fun.
So what's the point of all this back story?
Going from blunt instrument to smooth shaver on my beloved green coti takes me forever. So I'm trying to make a decision on how to go about (dramatically) increasing the speed.
I'm considering getting a full set of 1k - 12k Naniwa Super Stones (for me that would be 1k, 2k, 3k, 5k, 8k, and 12k). Yeah, I know you can leave out some of those, as conventional wisdom is to double the grit from stone to stone, but I'm looking to reduce the total number of strokes, and if you think through it a bit, it makes sense to make slower grit jumps to decrease the total strokes required to remove the previous grit scratches, i.e. a 2k stone will remove the 1k marks faster than a 3k, and the 5k will remove 3k marks faster than it would 2k scratches, etc.
When I had my full set of Shaptons, I could go from blunt instrument to smooth shaver faster than I can on my green coti. Since I don't have the ability to pay for a full set of Shaptons right now, I'm considering the Super Stones.
Now the dilemma... I'm not sure if I would be better off getting the Super Stones, or just trying to find a really fast coticule? The problem with the coti approach is that they are getting *very* expensive, especially in my preferred 3"X8" size. Plus, coti speed is a pretty subjective thing.. what might be a "fast" coti to one guy, might be "slow" to another.
So for you guys that have tried a lot of cotis, ranging from slow to fast, and also have experience on the Super Stones, which would you do for my situation, get the SS's, or try to find a faster coti?
At one time I was thinking about selling the green coti to finance the SS's or another coti, but I just don't think I can give it up as it is an incredible polisher.
Right now, I'm pretty much stuck with using a modified Unicot (I use two layers of tape)method, which is ok, but my edges (strangely) don't last as long with the Unicot method when compared to the Dilucot method. But the Unicot method is much faster for me than Dilucot on my hard green coti.