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A Coticule Story

Isaac

B&B Tease-in-Residence
Well tonight I was fortunate enough to meet up with two wet shavers to learn some Coticule honing. The teacher for the night was Russell (Aquanin). Now I had talked with Russell about my inability to set a bevel using my newly purchased La Petite Blanche. He stated “by tonight you’ll be shaving in the morning with your blade”. Mind you I am not new to honing. This is my story.

We took my Dovo best and placed some tape on the spine, and proceeded to dull it on my glass Starbucks Frappucino bottle. It wouldn’t shave an arm hair to save a life. We decided we would learn the Dilucot method. He was sharpening another one of my razors on my La Dressante hone. I started the progression and managed to only pop hairs on the heel, like I had done previous to the meeting. He pointed out that my back strokes didn’t sound quite right, and noticed I had some difficulty. He informed me it’s not a race and to slow it down and make adequate contact. I began to hear and feel the difference after that. I did another series of half strokes, and OMG, it was popping hairs across the whole blade.

Now since it was doing that he informed me to leave the slurry on the blade but rinse off the Coticule and use water only. I did two more sets of half strokes on it. Then I proceeded to wipe off the stone and the blade and did about sixty x strokes on the hone. It was popping hairs before the stropping. Russell informed me that Coticule edges really shine after stropping. So I took the blade to my TM strop and did fifty linen and sixty leather. He inspected it and said, “It should shave you well. I’m surprised you did so well with your first Dilucot run.” I was ecstatic. I proceeded to hone up another blade, a Filarmonica 7/8. I was able to hone that about ¾ of the way. I had a bit of trouble on the heel, but again, that thing was sharp as sharp could be. I gave the Dovo a test run when I came home and it wiped five days worth of growth right off. BBS. I just wanted to say thank you to Russell for his guidance. I had to jest with him and tell him it’s probably because he was standing next to me, and when I get back home it will all go to crap again. I can’t wait to start honing when I get back home.
 
Cool story! :thumbup1:

It's cool to learn a new skill, and it's awesome to be able to meet and talk face to face about our hobby. Everybody I have tried to talk to in real life about straight shaving(or DE shaving for that matter) are just like, "why in the hell would you want to do that?" :001_rolle
 

Legion

OTF jewel hunter
Staff member
Nice. I wish I had a local expert I could bribe with beer to teach me. I'm going the trial and error route.
 
Thank you Isaac. You guys should have seen how great his first blade off that hone was!! I have never really taught someone in person how to hone before but it was a very rewarding experience. He first watched me take his Dovo Best Quality from completely dull to shaving sharp and he asked questions along the way.

Then we dulled the same blade and it was his turn. I had him do more steps than I would normally do to counter the slower speed of his stroke (the slurry was drying faster) but it worked out beautifully. I was pretty impressed with his willingness to learn and ask questions and it paid off. It will only get better from here. Congrats Isaac.
 
Cool story bud! I waiting for mine (coticule) to show up in the mail! Can't wait to hone my big 7/8 Ti razor with it!
 
While I was completely useless in this whole honing lesson, I did enjoy a fine cigar and conversation while observing :thumbup1:

Of course now I have to get one of these coti's for myself.
 
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