newbie intro

[garyhaywood]

James if you want a dovo strop i will gladly order you one at the price i get it for the leather has a nice soft draw on the dovo and the canvas is exallant if you take a look on the cyril r salter website let me no what you want i will order it and she will deliver it direct to you i'm sure she has some timor razors at trade . if you type in www.cyrilrsalter.co.uk in google and click on the link that say gifts men brushes merkur taylors etc thats the website there will be no prices on products as its for trade only but i will let you have at the price she sells for for example i'm sure ralfys dovo canvas /strop was £24 i think they retail any thing from £37 i no she also does the super wide dovo strops and some cheap small single leather strops made bt salters which are great for pasting i think they cost aprox £12 let me no. I will order for you. That goes for any one else.

As for tony miller strops i have both the litigo with linen is exallant the cotton he does is nice but i have better results with linen by far the draw on the litigo is very good draw the horshide is super smooth and i mean smooth it feels like it does'nt do any thing to be onest. The dovos are like asuede leather with a real nice smooth draw and i would not recomend putting any strop paste on them i did and it realy spoiled my strop it glazed the leather and never felt the same all you need is to rub your palm over the leather

 

[garyhaywood]

James if the strop you want is not on her website i can phone her as she keeps most dovos out of sight as they are hard to get hold of so she told me so she may have some dovos in stock i have a brandnew 6/8 bismark i got last month i shaved with it once it still has factory edge on it and to be fair it shaves pritty well out of the box i think they reatail at about 110 i'd except 70 for it .

 

[towliff]

Ray, cheers for the great advice - its much appreciated!

Smythe:
I may be familiar with that two sided strop that you bought, I may have bought one too, it's very "slick", almost no draw, If you don't mind me asking, was it from a member of a shaving fourm?

Nah, it wasnt from a member forum, i bought it from executive shaving. I think it was up there labelld as "large american strop". Its not on there anymore - i was gunna post the link.

garyhaywood:
James if you want a dovo strop i will gladly order you one at the price i get it for the leather has a nice soft draw on the dovo and the canvas is exallant if you take a look on the cyril r salter website let me no what you want i will order it and she will deliver it direct to you i'm sure she has some timor razors at trade . if you type in www.cyrilrsalter.co.uk in google and click on the link that say gifts men brushes merkur taylors etc thats the website there will be no prices on products as its for trade only but i will let you have at the price she sells for for example i'm sure ralfys dovo canvas /strop was £24 i think they retail any thing from £37 i no she also does the super wide dovo strops and some cheap small single leather strops made bt salters which are great for pasting i think they cost aprox £12 let me no. I will order for you. That goes for any one else.

James if the strop you want is not on her website i can phone her as she keeps most dovos out of sight as they are hard to get hold of so she told me so she may have some dovos in stock i have a brandnew 6/8 bismark i got last month i shaved with it once it still has factory edge on it and to be fair it shaves pritty well out of the box i think they reatail at about 110 i'd except 70 for it.

wow! i cant pass on that extremely great offer! about that dovo strop for £24 - im guessing thats the "short dovo strop". Can i buy one of them from her?
Ive been thinking about getting a strop slimmer than my blade as it will help my x-stroke loads, and im guessing they will be more effective due to less surface area acting on the blade at any one point, hence concentrating the stropping action.

And as for the bismark im sorry but allthough its a bloody great offer, i cant justify the expense just yet as i have my dovo, my sheffield im gunna bring up reaaal nice and also a DA on its way......and well - i kinda have a baby face that doesnt need shaving as regularly as you guys do :. So thanks very very very much, but I will give the razor a miss for the time being. I will probably come and ask about a razor later in the year.

 

[garyhaywood]

James is the short one i mhave emailed jo to see if she has one in stock they do two types one is cyril r salter one is dovo both with canvas they are both the same i will pm you. if there any thing else yopu need ie dovo paste they are £3.50 each plus vat

 

[towliff]

Cheers Gary, yep - the one with canvas is the one i would like. As for pastes, Im ok for a while - got pretty much full tubes of green red white and yellow.

 

[medic484]

Ok I had my first Coti honing session on a my combo bout, yesterday eve and although the razor is not shave ready after along time using the Unicot method I enjoyed the process and really see this as the learning stage, the results will improve Im sure, also I dulled the heck out of the razor so nowonder that the slurry stage took many passses. It did shave but harsh Im gonna go at it tomorrow

 

[rayman]

It is not uncommon for your first attempt at this to turn out exactly as it did. One thing Coticule purists don't think about much, is the fact that they are trying to accomplish with one stone, the same thing everyone else is doing with 6 or 7.

In both cases I can tell you that almost 100% of the time, if you don't get a good edge when you are done, you problem was made in the first process you did. It just seems to work out that way, for me at least.

The initial setting of the bevel is so crucial. There are actually two parts to the bevel setting. One is to make it look good. That is the easy part. The second part seems to be the most difficult. The edge Must, no absolutly MUST be perfectly smooth and cut arm hair. If it isn't, your final finish just won't cut it, no pun intended.

So, there are 3 steps to honing a razor and right now I would advise you to concentrate only on the first. The initial bevel. This is done differently on a Coticule, and here is my method.

Wet your stone as usual and create a thick slurry. Take your edge and place it on the stone at about 20 degrees. Put your index finger on the middle of the spine. Put about twice as much pressure on the spine, with the index finger, and very quickly do half strokes across the full length of the blade in about 1" of stone. Do about 30 laps. Then reverse the blade, change the angle to 340 degrees and do the same thing. After about 4 or 5 repetitions of this the slurry should start turning gray. If it doesn't you aren't pressing hard enough. If it is, test the blade for sharpness.

Hold the blade and take the pad of your middle finger and check it like a knife. You will be able to tell real quickly if there is one part of the edge duller than the others. Once you have the same sharp feeling, start checking if the blade will cut arm hair. When it does, you are ready to move on. AND NOT BEFORE!!!

If the slurry gets to thick, and it is really dark, wipe it off and make a new slurry and keep going.

After you do this, follow the regular methods you are using to finish. If you have any questions, let me know.

Ray

 

[medic484]

Thanks Ray,

Im gonna use your advice and try honing my Dovo 5/8 special instead of the Ontario 5/8 one the Ontario is warped and I only used it to scavange the scales also its very thin anyway interseting you mentioned the swarf is that the greying of the slurry, I wasnt sure but it made sense to rinse that and I did. how thick should the slurry be mine was milk like in color and slightly more viscous than milk but not much, am I looking for a thicker consistancy?

 

[rayman]

There is actually a difference in the thickness of the slurry that seems to be needed. I don't know if it needs to be different for each stone or not, but I played with that and found the correct consistancy for my No2 stone.

I found that if I wet the stone and brushed off the water with my finger and then made the slurry, it became like a thick milk. I then add 1 drop of water to help it move around. This is the perfect consistancy for me.

You just have to try making different solutions and see what works, but I think thicker to start out is better.

Ray

 

[Bart]

There is actually a difference in the thickness of the slurry that seems to be needed. I don't know if it needs to be different for each stone or not, but I played with that and found the correct consistancy for my No2 stone.

I found that if I wet the stone and brushed off the water with my finger and then made the slurry, it became like a thick milk. I then add 1 drop of water to help it move around. This is the perfect consistancy for me.

You just have to try making different solutions and see what works, but I think thicker to start out is better.

Ray

Good advice, but I generally try to err on the thiner side myself. If the slurry starts to discolor from metal entering the mixture within the first 10 half strokes, you're fine.

On other thing, in case this wasn't already clear in Ray's post: pressure during bevel correction stage is to be applied by finger force only. No pressure added by the wrist. This rule limits the applied force to safe, yet efficient boundaries. Always add a few normal X-strokes (without the finger in place), before trying the arm hair check.


Best regards,
Bart.

 

[Paul]

Thanks for the tip, Bart. I've always been curious about the "proper" amount of slurry

 

[towliff]

I highly recommend the Kanayamas. I just recieved mine and it is absolutely orgasmic! Keep an eye out for my review here in the next week.

Where's this review!?

Im procrastinating atm and find myself really wanting to read some awesome things about these strops :

 

[justin]

Haha. Yes, I think I'll write something up right now.

 

[Matt]

Ok I had my first Coti honing session on a my combo bout, yesterday eve and although the razor is not shave ready after along time using the Unicot method I enjoyed the process and really see this as the learning stage, the results will improve Im sure (..). It did shave but harsh (...)

Yeah, almost the same stage here... Yesterday I tried dilucot (haha, probably too fast, 3rd session, isn't it). Although my razor shaves arm/stomach hair I just couldn't get it to pass HHT at all, the shave was too much of pull, so I switched to another one shave ready, quite sharper but not as keen (HHT passed with a pop all the length).

Wonder what I was doing wrong? I was doing 30-laps steps, diluting each another with ca. 3 drops of water. However, my number of the dilutions was something about 4, maximum 5, so it's less than stated in the dilucot description - is this it? I used my #26, that was described as 'easygoing' - but maybe I should have done more laps, as it's a little shorty...?

1. 
   [li]Are there any ways to check intermediate steps during dilution phase?[/li]
   [li]Did you get hour stones with chamfered edges, people? Mine #26 doesn't seem like, though if Bart run a test on it, then should it be of no concern?[/li]
   [li][/li]

kind regards,
Matt

 

[Bart]

Are there any ways to check intermediate steps during dilution phase?

The only test I can think off it the Thumb Pad Test (TPT). With some experience, it can be felt how the blade becomes progressively sharper. Personally, I don't bother with it during the dilution stage. It's much more important that you keep a close eye on slurry consistency. I may never be allowed to become dry.

Did you get hour stones with chamfered edges, people? Mine #26 doesn't seem like, though if Bart run a test on it, then should it be of no concern?

I've honed at least 3 razors on each specimen in the Vault. The edges were just very slightly rounded, which is enough. If you catch the edge of the Coticule with your razor's edge, you should certainly examine your X-stroke.

Not to worry though. A Dilucot edge that lacks just that final bit of keenness, is a great starting point for Unicot. Just tape the spine, make 20 light and precise laps on very thin slurry. Rinse everything and finish with 50 laps on pure water. It takes only a few minutes to do. The edge must pop hairs right off the stone. There is not a single hone in the Vault that is not capable of that. Just make sure to use hair that was freshly washed when harvested. If it still fails, your only concern must be to fix your honing stroke.

Kind regards,
Bart.