Okay, so I decided to try my hand at honing my own blades. After a bit of reading up, I decided to try a coti. After a bit more reading (since my results have not been stellar [more in a bit]), I find that perhaps it's not a great stone to start on. 
To make matters worse, I made the mistake of trying to touch up my razor with slurry. I later found that this has helped to actually dull what fine edge was on my razor. Since I was in this deep, I figured I'd go for broke, start from relative scratch and try the Dulicot method. I dulled my blade on a glass bottle, slurried up my coti and got to work. I reset my bevel. I checked my bevel using the TNT and the permanent marker test. I seemed to have created a nice consistent bevel. So far so good. I did the recommended 30 laps, thin the slurry, 30 laps, thin the slurry, etc about 5 times. With the slurry pretty thin, I increased my laps to 50 for a couple more rounds, rinsed off the coti and took about 60 laps (20 at a time) with just water. Whew! That's a lot of laps and I still don't get a very good shave out of it. The razor travels smoothly. It doesn't even tug, but the result is not a very close shave.
I'm wondering if I progressed through my thinning slurry too fast. Should I get back to a thin slurry and work at that level until I have a bit keener edge before thinning down? Should I be using a different stone between a slurried coti and just water? I'm not too anxious to buy another hone at this stage, but I'd like to get this razor shaving again (without sending it in to a honemeister). Does anyone go from a slurried coti to a slurried BBW to just water on a coti? What about running on the coti dry? I've heard some people do that. What other progressions would you suggest for a newbie without a whole lot of money to burn? Or am I just looking at many many more laps with water on a coti?
To make matters worse, I made the mistake of trying to touch up my razor with slurry. I later found that this has helped to actually dull what fine edge was on my razor. Since I was in this deep, I figured I'd go for broke, start from relative scratch and try the Dulicot method. I dulled my blade on a glass bottle, slurried up my coti and got to work. I reset my bevel. I checked my bevel using the TNT and the permanent marker test. I seemed to have created a nice consistent bevel. So far so good. I did the recommended 30 laps, thin the slurry, 30 laps, thin the slurry, etc about 5 times. With the slurry pretty thin, I increased my laps to 50 for a couple more rounds, rinsed off the coti and took about 60 laps (20 at a time) with just water. Whew! That's a lot of laps and I still don't get a very good shave out of it. The razor travels smoothly. It doesn't even tug, but the result is not a very close shave.
I'm wondering if I progressed through my thinning slurry too fast. Should I get back to a thin slurry and work at that level until I have a bit keener edge before thinning down? Should I be using a different stone between a slurried coti and just water? I'm not too anxious to buy another hone at this stage, but I'd like to get this razor shaving again (without sending it in to a honemeister). Does anyone go from a slurried coti to a slurried BBW to just water on a coti? What about running on the coti dry? I've heard some people do that. What other progressions would you suggest for a newbie without a whole lot of money to burn? Or am I just looking at many many more laps with water on a coti?
