Sharpen a straight razor?

howdy all,

New to this forum but been shaving with s straight for ages now.

To sharpen my razors i use a Coticule stone from belgium and its all i need to set the bevel and polish it out until it shaving smoothly.

Not sure if anyone has used one of these before but would be glad to share my experience with whoever wants.
 
I have a yellow Belgian coticule stone and wondered how much dilucot to use. Setting up a unicot style edge may take more strokes. How many strokes do you do/side before going to a strop? DM
 
I usually start off with a thick milky slurry and then do about 20 x strokes and add water and continue until I dilute down to plain water. Rinse off the stone and razor and do a set of 50 x strokes and then strop about 50/50 on linen and leather and I'm good to go.

I'm not sure if you know the site but coticule.be is all about this stone and tells you exactly how to use it.
 
Coticule being a natural stone its difficult to ascertain their grit but its more polishing. Many put the Spyderco ulta fine ceramic 1800-2K grit and these close to the same. Yet, I think they cut and polish differently. I've used the Spyderco ceramic now I'll have to use the coticule and compare them. I guess your using a non-loaded strop. But that sounds like it should give a good shaving edge. DM
 
I dont use a loaded strop just plain linen and leather.

Many people use the coticule after 10k-12k stones and find they improve the edge.

Of course not all people like these stones because they do have a learning curve since each is different. But those that do like them like them alot.

Also check out YouTube there are many videos showing the various methods.
 
Ok, B&B does as well. Its important to note the standard when stating grits: most use the JIS rating when stating Belgian coticule stones and ANSI when referencing ceramic stones as these are different ratings. There seems to be some polishing help in going to the Belgian yellow as a final stone. DM
 
The Belgian coticule is a strange stone - that particles that do the cutting are actually pretty large, but because of their shape and the way they cut they leave an edge which has comparable sharpness/smoothness to a much finer grit. I recently picked one up and it puts a great edge on which is very smooth feeling and forgiving on the face. I follow it with about 5-10 strokes on a chromium oxide strop which helps smooth it out just a bit further.
 
I just went with Basilios advice and did 50 strokes per side on my 2X6" Belgian yellow and 30 strops per side on a loaded leather 15" strop. I've yet to shave with it though. Perhaps tomorrow. Looking at it under 8.5X magnification it looks some what more polished that after working it on my ceramic stone. Whether it gives a better shave I'll see. DM
 
looking forward to hearing how it goes. It takes time to master right but once you do you its great shaves.

Its the only stone i ever use.
 
Ok, you guys---I couldn't put it off any longer and shaved with it this morning. Realize I'm no expert using this stone, yet it was a step up in sharpness resulting in a closer shave.
But with more razor burn and bite to the edge. Whereas the edge coming off the ceramic stone and stropping was smoother. So, I'll continue working with it to increase the smoothness and keep the sharpness. A good, close shave use facial lotion afterward. It was a two day growth beard. While not a glowing report I know there is a learning curve and will continue to work thru it. DM
 
Glad to see that the test worked out. Sorry for the extra irritation try to work on the sharpening technique some more because the coticule is supposed to better for sensitive skin and leave less irritation compared to synthetic stones
 
From what I hear with coticules they can vary a lot in how to use them best, but when I am in the final polishing stage on mine I have had success doing maybe 30 or 40 strokes with just a tidge of pressure (like, just enough to hold down the button on a typical TV remote), then finish with 40 or so strokes with absolutely no pressure, while rinsing the stone off every 10 strokes to remove any build up even if I can't see it. Hope that helps.
 
strop the hell out of it before shaving, it will make a real difference for the shave. Lately I've been going with 50+ strokes back and forth and the results are way better than before I did that.
 
Randomly not on the top of stones.

I got a kangaroo strop today and must say it's my new favorite by far. Leaves such a nice smooth edge.
 
Thanks guys. The burn went away after an hour or two, leaving the nice close shave. I'll keep working at it. DM
 
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