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Which method for a newbie

K

kishti22

Member
Hi all,
As a newbie to straight razors and honing of only 2 months.I am Just wondering which is the best method to start learning to hone with .I have been using the progressive method so far with a BBW and a small coticule with good results as this seamed easiest to learn.I am interested to try the Unicot method and the dilucut method in the future.Do all 3 methods produce similar results with regards to sharpness and smoothness etc.
 
I recommend learning the Unicot method first. It easily produces edges with excellent keenness. It is my experience that both the Dilucot and the progressive method with a BBW are capable of matching the keenness of the Unicot method, but demand more practice to yield those results.

On a Coticule, smoothness is closely related to keenness. In general, all you need to worry about when honing on a Coticle is getting the edge keen enough. Smoothness will follow automatically.

Welcome to Coticule.be
We have a fine group of members here, that will talk you through any honing problem you might have.

Bart.
 
thats a very interesting question

Both unicot and dilucot have their place

I prefer dilucot but it takes more practise and longer to perform

Unicot is the way to go with wedges for example.

I would suggest that you read all the threads re sharpening on the forum and the various threads

There are a few factors to understand re smoothness and sharpness. We are all experimenting and learning the power of the coticule.

I would be interested in how you use the BBW and results you get

If I were new to it I would pick a razor and use unicot, get it shave ready. Shave

Then I would pass the blade over a glass bottle and try dilucot and see if i can get the same or better

hope this helps a little. keep coming back to the site its infectious
 
Hi and welcome aboard

By far the easiest method is unicot, you will however need a yellow coti of a workable size, how small is your small one?
Also for a beginner getting a sharp enough edge off a coti can be a little trying, the problem is that the garnets in the slurry actually dull the edge as you work, one reason for the superb results that can be had with the more skilful dilocut.

Thats where the BBW comes in, the larger garnets in the blue stone are more forgiving, but theres less of them so a blue cuts slower, with practice its easy to get the edge where you want it on a coti alone, so i would say give the unicot a go providing your yellow is big enough and with just a little practice you should soon be getting egdes that leave nothing to be desired.

Hope this helps and best wishes
 
IMHO, Bart's unicot method is a very easy way to learn a coticule. After learning it, dilucot lets you master your skill-set. :thumbup:

Welcome to Coticule.be. This is a truly unique place :)
 
Hi Guys,
I took your advice and tried the unicot method and got a much better finish on my two kropp razors many thanks.I tried the same approach on a wapi no joy. I did notice the kropp razor gave much more feed back with regards to sound and feel any help is much appreciated.
 
kishti22 said:
Hi Guys,
I took your advice and tried the unicot method and got a much better finish on my two kropp razors many thanks.I tried the same approach on a wapi no joy. I did notice the kropp razor gave much more feed back with regards to sound and feel any help is much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Mmm interesting Mr Bond interesting.....

Well done on the Kropps, I am glad you managed better :thumbup: as for the wapi, could you explain a little more? how far did you get, could you not get it shaving arm hair? also did you notice a difference in the way it coloured the slurry? I am thinking that maybe the Wapi has harder steel or something? OR it could be the shape of the blade, are the Kropps straight and the wapi smiling, meaning that you need a rolling X stroke, OR it could be bevel size? maybe the wapi has some hone wear making the bevel a little larger than it could be? its hard to say without a little more insight.
But I have no doubt that we can get you there!
Keep up the good work.
 
Wapis are pretty bad about warping, IME. In fact, I know a honemeister that refuses to hone them because of the inconsistency in the grinds... If you can get us some more information, we'll guide you through honing it. :)
 
The wapi blade seems fine no warping or smile and the bevel seemed even. After i set the bevel it shaved arm hair, it just does not take a keen edge to the degree it will shave comfortably.
 
kishti22 said:
The wapi blade seems fine no warping or smile and the bevel seemed even. After i set the bevel it shaved arm hair, it just does not take a keen edge to the degree it will shave comfortably.
Click to expand...

Wapis will take a tremendous edge IME. I'd recommend just being patient with it. I honed 3 razors (Wapi, Sheffield Steel , and Solingen steel) for one Australian shaver and he loved the Wapi better than all the others :shrug:
 
Those Wapis are 1/4 hollow... that's close to near wedge grind, so the bevels may be a bit wider than the Kropp, so it will take much longer to sharpen up. Keep at it, remember you have to remove steel from he bevel to create the edge, and if the bevel is wide it will take longer so keep at it.

The feedback you feel with the Kropp is most likely a sign the edge is getting sharp (that's what i look for when sharpening my blades) so if the Wapi is not giving you a similar feedback, then it may need more strokes... again, keep at it.
 
I assume that you pre-dulled the wapi with a stroke on glass. If so, shaving arm hair along the entire edge, means that the bevel is ready to be refined. The taped steps of the Unicot method should have not problem doing just that. But things can go wrong along the way. One honing stroke with the spine lifted above the surface can be all it takes to set you back considerably. I'm not saying that's what happened, just trying to illustrate that it my be an random error, unrelated to the razor.

Here's my advice:

without any pre-dulling, perform 30 laps on slurry and another 30 on misty slurry, both with the spine untaped.
Then take it through the taped steps of the Unicot procedure. Leave the tape on, and rely on the HHT as explained in this article to find out if you were successful. Use thick hairs. Perform 50 additional laps on water, if the razor doesn't pop a hair.

Best regards,
Bart.
 
Hi guys,

Thanks for all your help. All sorted now, just did more laps on the hone like you all advised and it worked a treat!!

What size hone would you advise to use.....I think my bout is approx. 4cm x 10cm.
 
Personally I don’t care much for the size of my hones (or the shape) so long as it gets my blades sharp within reasonable time. But you could try one slightly larger that would fit comfortably in your hands. 15 x 5 cm (6x2 inches) should be about right, and may still large enough to fit comfortably in a standard holder if you bench hone.
 
Thanks for all your help. All sorted now, just did more laps on the hone like you all advised and it worked a treat!!
Click to expand...

Nicely done B)

Im not quite there yet with my honing. Got to a stage where I can just about get to a violin off the hone, then upto HHT2-3 across the blade after stropping. ...but then if I take the razor back to the hone for some laps on water.....it just dulls the blade back to a difficult violin! :cry:

Any tips would be greatly appreciated :) Maybe I have too much pressure on my stroke? i try and keep it as light as possible.......

Also, when your quoting people, how do you make it say their username rather than "quote"?
 
Oops! you know, if you hadn’t pointed it out I would never noticed lolol.
But I'm sure our resident multi-talented Coticule-czar and Forum-Fixer (Bart) will have that fixed in no time.
 
towliff said:
Thanks for all your help. All sorted now, just did more laps on the hone like you all advised and it worked a treat!!
Click to expand...

Nicely done B)

Im not quite there yet with my honing. Got to a stage where I can just about get to a violin off the hone, then upto HHT2-3 across the blade after stropping. ...but then if I take the razor back to the hone for some laps on water.....it just dulls the blade back to a difficult violin! :cry:

Any tips would be greatly appreciated :) Maybe I have too much pressure on my stroke? i try and keep it as light as possible.......

Also, when your quoting people, how do you make it say their username rather than "quote"?
Click to expand...

Just use the little speech bubble looking icon at the bottom right of the post you quote, and it will quote and say the username of the person quoted :)

See
 
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