I never had a crisp edge of a Coticule, but then again, what's in the word "crisp"? We've had that discussion before.
I do use "brisk" for a refreshing, rejuvenating kind of shave. "Mellow" for the kind of shave that leaves the skin feeling the exactly the same as before the shave. And "engaging" for when I can't make up my mind about either of the above.
Anyway, I find the differences extremely small, to the extent that I have regretted more that I ever introduced those three terms in the Vault descriptions, than I have found them useful. With the kind of tricks that every seasoned razor honer should have up his sleeve, I believe any Coticule can be coaxed in doing what its master wants it to do. Lately the concept of
surface refreshment before finishing has received good attention. You definitely can do that, but you definitely can also deliberately
not do that, and finish on a more "worn" surface. Or you can do the "one rub"-trick, and finish on a hint of slurry. You can do that edge-leading, or spine leading. You can use oil. You can clog the surface with tea candle wax. All these different treatments do make a difference. And then there's the (by my experience highly underrated influence of different bevel angles). Some strategies will turn a "brisk" stone "mellow", and others will turn a "mellow" stone "brisk".
How comes? I don't think anyone knows. Likely garnet sizes differ, perhaps some layers tend to have more uniform garnets. And then there the influence of finely grained quartzite, that possibly has a bigger influence during the finishing stages on water, than we imagine. I think we can only ever reveal some of this, by doing extensive research with Scanning Electron Microscopy, of the kind John Verhoeven did in his knife sharpening experiments. Coticule.be owns a set of razors with detachable scales and the sample Coticules to put the edges on. But no access to a SEM.
But as said, in the end, all that matters is that the user knows how to use his Coticule to the best of his liking. I've had Coticules that I liked better than others, for reasons that I find impossible to put into words. Mostly based on how the stone behaves while honing, the song it sings, the hand it fits, etc. But never have I met a Coticule that I could give to another Coticule user, with the words "here, use this one, it will be
betterthan the one you already have. If you ask me about my "best" Coticule, I honestly could not give any meaningful answer.
Kind regards,
Bart.