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Water only strokes feel different (worse) than with a slurry

M

MarkAU

Member
So I finally got a coticule - what a beautfiful stone - I never thought I'd appreciate a rock so much :love:

I was having trouble getting a nice, even draw between blade and stone. I tried doing the X stroke a different way and it is much better. So I edited my post :)
 
MarkAU said:
However, when using water only, the blade doesn't feel like it is firmly applied to the stone. It feels like it is slightly skipping over the surface. I don't feel that nice draw. Does this make sense?
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It definitely does. I'd say that the particular stone's feedback is fully revealed when you're working with only water on it. I couldn't get used to it when I bought my La Grosse Blanche coticule, it really felt like a little polished piece of marble, compared to La Dressantes I'd had previously experience with. Rubbing one Coticule against another, or with a slurry stone improves its feedback on water only. Worked nicely for my LGB - thanks Emmanuel. :)

Other thing is, that when you start to really max out keenness on water, with enough light laps, there's a feeling of slight stickiness between edge and a stone. I consider this as an advanced marker, I only start to get to this stage.

MarkAU said:
I have learnt on the forums here that maybe I need more laps as the slurry thins out (I did a uniform number of laps across all dilutions). Also I can apply marker to the edge to at least see whether the water-only laps are working.
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Increasing amount of laps definitely helps. Seems logical, if the stone works slower. Marker on the edge is useful for checking if you have full contact with the stone along the edge - trust me, water-only laps do work. :)

regards,
Matt
 
I thought my question was dumb so trimmed down the post. Glad to know my concerns are fairly typical!

Thanks for the advice, Matt.
 
Thanks for the encouragement, Matt.

I have practised every night this week, and things are much improved. I get what you mean about feedback. I modified my X stroke and the water only passes are much smoother.

I can even get hairs popping straight off the coticule, before stropping. Very sharp!

One issue remains that I will create a new thread for :)
 
That's stellar. If you arrive at HHT-3 straight off the coticule, you definitely did a good job (I don't know if 4 is possible?).

BTW, there are no dumb questions! :)

regards,
Matt
 
Thanks again, Matt. About the dumb questions, thank you, sometime I am a bit too self-conscious and didn't want to waste people's time ;)

Yes, perhaps not reliably a 3 on HHT every time off the coticule, but yes I have achieved that. At least I know I can do it and that is what to aim for.

I knew honing would be a challenge, as it's a new skill to learn. I didn't realise it would actually be hard work physically! But then they say things worth learning aren't usually easy :)

cheers
Mark
 
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