Coticule Home run!

My success with the Japanese stones has only heightened my frustration at not being able to even close to the same edge with any of my many coticules. After two serious successes with the Jnats tonight I was determined to figure out these damn coti's!

I have tried the dilucot and unicot methods and while I CAN get a good edge with the unicot I would like NOT to have to tape the blade to create a secondary bevel. I know it works and I ALSO know it's possible to get a great edge without doing so. I need to Master this.

My approach tonight mimiced the jnat approach but instead of using one base stone and multiple slurry stones I used multiple coticules and varying amount of slurry. Same but different.

dulled my 1955 Moscow blade with the Bridge on the face.

built slurry with les lat hybrid bout to milky consistency on vintage combo coticule
5 laps of 30 circles and tested
arm hair. cut but not enough so
4 laps of push strokes and half strokes( 30)
refresh slurry when it thickens to maintain milky consistency going off this principle

Cutting SPEED:

• heavy, almost paste-like slurry: 1000 - 2000 grit.
• regular, milk-like slurry: 4000-6000 grit
• thin, misty slurry: 8000-12000 grit
• water: 16000 grit - or even slower.

Just like you refresh the slurry on the Jnat when it thickens too much.

tested leg hair: Very Good! Definitely getting keener and sharper

Switch to La Vert with lighter misty slurry again built with les lat hybrid combo stone

push strokes in sets of five refreshing slurry twice to keep it watery.

35 sets

tested arm hair YES getting sharper still

( it seems the real problem was letting the slurry get too thick and not refreshing it enough)

wash both

15 very slow, VERY light touch X stokes on Les Latenuese stone on water.skating on the blade.

tested arm hair. Popping like a jnat stone!

15 more X strokes and test again

even better

30 laps on linen

30 laps in leather and test: great!

30 more laps on leather.

we'll see tomorrow but what a win for me. It's been many moons since I've been trying to figure these guys out

as usual I have to do things just a bit differently than others. 

that's fine as long as it works in the end.

KEENNESS level

• heavy, almost paste-like slurry: 600 grit, although less aggressive because the absence of a sawtooth pattern
• regular, milk-like slurry: 2000 grit, although less aggressive because of the absence of a sawtooth pattern
• thin, misty slurry: 6000-8000 grit
• water: 10000 - 15000 grit

SMOOTHNESS level

• slurry: surface looks sandblasted on a micro-scale
• very thin slurry: can be used to tone down harsh edges, very friendly for sensitive skin.
• water: will add smoothness to the feel of almost any other polish level without removing keenness up to 15000 grit.

SHAVE TEST: perfect!!!! classic coticule goodness. very sharp but buttery smooth. Best coticule edge ever. did most of the shave with this blade