Here's a glimpse at some different types of Coticules, and some honing on a nice natural combo Bout too. Etsy Shop - www.etsy.com/shop/tomonagura Website - www.tomonagura.com FB - / tomonagura IG - / keithvjohnson
Excellent video, as always Keith! Thank you for sharing your honing knowledge. Hearing hones in action is often just as good as seeing them during the videos.
“ Psycho maniac”. Hey! I resemble that remark! Haha. Great video, Keith! Coticules have always been my favorite stones. They’re not the sharpest, and definitely not the easiest to hone on, but there’s just something special about them that lures you in. And by the way, I kick myself in the ass daily for selling you that Bout back. That is one very special stone.
Great job. Bought some vintage Williams soap from you a while back but did not realize your expertise on stones (also your nice cut to the chase attitude and delivery). Heading to your site to pick up a coticule.
I like your description of the scientific method. I appreciate you talking in depth about these methods, I recently acquired some soak stones and am budding my honing skills so I'm a ways off from jumping to stuff like cotis and JNATs but I appreciate learning from your input in the meantime. Edit: poobah is one of my favorite words, subscribed.
I love my coticule stones aswell. I only have 2 but they were picked out by Mr cellis at the Ardennes quarry when my Belgian friend visited there for me. I can go from bevel set on a ferrule hoses to shave ready by adjusting the slurry on the coticule. I have a Japanese sushi chef friend who will be trying one soon when I get round to sending it. As always great video. Keep these videos coming Kieth as you have been a big influence on my attitude towards honing and pert of the reason I enjoy it so much. Thanks. P.
Finally learned enough to get a workable edge on a dovo 5/8 that I've never gotten great shaves with unless it was crazy sharp ...and then it was not fun to shave with. I was using way too much slurry and pressure to start with. I've even gotten a couple of nice edges on pocket knives and a small kitchen knife. The statement of needing to learn the stone and it's language always bothered me, but it turned out to be right on. That and comparing the amount of slurry you were using here to my technique finally turned on the light. Thanks for another good video and the great input and way you have of presenting the info.
Awesome comment, I love hearing success stories like yours! Great job in persevering to the other side, well done! And it's always good to hear about the listening and learning stuff too, thank you!
Every video I watch of yours, I desire to learn technique. I don’t have the money to continue wanting to learn new techniques!!! Lol. Thanks for the educational materials, you’ve got an abundance. 👍🏻
Thanks for the coticule tutorial.Timely, as I have recently received a coticule and have been able to produce a good edge. I am still figuring out my JNAT, but I think my time on the JNAT (after spending a lot of time (re)watching your videos) helped me with the coticule. I have found the coticule edge an easier shave, gentler shave, but I still like that JNAT edge. I am sure I will continue to use both.
Great video as usual, I like your "no bullshit" approach. I have a question on Nagura stones for my shaptons. Which one should I get? Some with a higher grain sizes as my stones, lower, or does it matter at all? Thx and keep up the good work.
lol @ idk if its cause i'm an obsessive lunatic. I can feel when i get small pieces of dust under my razor it drives me crazy i dont use a microscope though.
Just out of curiosity, was that shading natural combo that you used to hone marked as standard or selected? I have a very similar looking stone and the gradient between the blu and yellow side is just awesome
I was going to purchase my first coticule this week, so this piece couldn't have been more timely. Thanks for sharing your thoughts Keith, and for running such an informative channel.
Interesting video Keith, thanks. How do coticules compare to hard black arks as a finisher & is it necessary to have both. Is one better than the other in other words?
Better is a subjective term. A hard black Arks can be almost soft or almost as hard as a SB/trans/true hard, and Coticules are also known to vary is personality, type, etc. Best way to approach this is to judge each edge and stone on its own merits.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge. I can already get a razor from absolutely dull to shave-ready. Nonetheless, I'd like to know if you can give any piece of advice concerning blue belgian whetstones? Or, do you have a video about them? Kind regards. -Mike
Ok for cutlery, pointless with razors if you have a yellow Coticule. There is nothing a blue can do that a Coticule can't and yellow Cotis will, invariably, make better edges.
Just discovered your channel this week. I’ve been into sharpening for some time for knives and woodworking tools. My highest level of stone work would be using Arkansas stones. Not a straight razor guy..but love the sharpening process...looks great. Love the passion you’re willing to share with us. I knew about Japanese natural stones and a bit about the Belgium stones. I had no idea thar slurry stones could be/are used on any kind of natural stones. I’m aware of slurry stones on Japanese water stones. Is there any similar slurry applications used on Arkansas stones?
they say to use oil but i prefer to finish my knives on a hard white Arkansas Dry no lube water. Oil for me didnt work to well used Nortons Honing oil it clogged the stone way to quickly little dish soap and a scrub will clean metal residue and oil. but i found best results just taking my time on the edge with no lube . that way i can see the edge
Hello Keith! I recently purchased a coticule from you and I am enjoying using it. I am learning on a 'pre-owned' ~1/4 wedge razor made from US steel (Boston). I hear people talking about how the razor will start to stick when its getting close to finishing. Do 'wedgee' razors stick less than more hollow razors when using coticules? I can get my razor to briefly grab several times per stroke, but never holds fast and stops. I am getting better edges with each attempt, though; I can get to an uncomfortable edge thus far. Its been a fun process.
I've been honing for a long while, never had a razor stick/stop. Go by the numbers, start at the beginning, learn to set the bevel well enough so you can shave with it, and then proceed.
Hello again! Have you ever had a coticule load with steel? After honing the surface of my coticule has reflective spots that to my best assumption is small voids filling with steel similar to how a ark loads but far less uniform.
Just received my slurry stone from you for my new vintage belgian coticule and it is great! They may not be an exact match but hey its like you said it's shaving not rocket science.
as to old stones or new stones...a good stone is a good stone regardless of wen it was cut! im finding a good tell as to overall quality is price! lol..the only good cheap stones ive found wer either in the rough or oddly shaped.i dont mind facing off a rough stone especially wen its very good quality, and i dont mind an odd shape wen it means i can afford to get my hands on quality, this is in reference to jnat mostly. ive ben enjoying your videos alot and learning alot of useful information! thank you
Totally agreed, 100% Joe - they're all 25 or so million years old, when there were taken out of the ground MIGHT mean something but as you so eloquently wrote - "a good stone is a good stone regardless...." .... truer words have never been spoken.
How do you cut a coti I chipped a corner off a 8x3 and losing an inch won’t hurt anything. It’s slate backed and I wasn’t sure how hard the slate would be to cut.
It's very easy to shatter a stone, or make the existing problem worse, so I don't recommend cutting them. Better to just lap that corner with a diamond plate until it's flat and evened off.
I just posted a short video of my dreaded Le Grise. I discuss the fact that it tends to flake & crumble from lapping. Take a look if you have time because I’m wondering if you have any better ideas about lapping a crumbler. Sand paper rather than a lapping plate perhaps? Thanks
Stuff like that I have to see in person before commenting. I would suggest contacting the quarry or the seller. They may have a solution or make an exchange.
You could try sealing the sides with something that penetrates but won't interfere with honing - many coats of very thin nail polish maybe. Using w/d paper to lap might help but then again maybe not. Rounding edges instead of chamfering is called for. The stone may continue to flake forever though, no matter what you do .
Thanks for all the suggestions. I suspect that most of the difficulties I’ve had with this stone over the years is due to the fact that it’s virtually impossible to get a good surface prep due to the instability of the stone. Thanks
Awesome video Keith. I love the edges I get off my Coticule that I have in my collection. They are fabulous stones but they can be very challenging too as my friend Dr. Matt found out. I simply followed his lead and just use plain water on the one I have and it's phenomenal. Very soft and comfortable edges. Choosing between a Jnat and a Coticule is like choosing between Fillet Migon and King Crab for dinner one night.
Keith, did you or would you post 60x photos of the bevel at various stages through the process, 2K, 4K, 8K etc.? That would give us a general guide to follow.
Hi, I don't subscribe the the "microscope method" . 60x mag isn't that high really but it's in the ballpark - thing is, what I see in my scope at any level of magnification isn't always, or ever, going to be what someone else sees even if using the 'same' magnification. I have microscope pix showing on my website, and I have a video with a clip of it also - where moving the light changes the view of what looks to be a good bevel into something else entirely. And I can't teach people how to discern the differences, use magnification correctly, or keep a continuously consistent light source. The best anyone can come up with is to set their own standard and try to be as repeatable as possible. Honestly, trying to match someone else's striations is a fools game; there are different steels, different pressures, different stones, and so on. Just having a different size monitor changes everything. Also, Finished Coticule edges are ugly as sin, finished 12k Nani edges are highly polished near-mirror and 'look great'. But I finish on Coticules after a 12k. So, the whole magnification game is a data-collection tool to be used wisely more than it should be relied upon for setting a visual benchmark for others to compare to.
(Knock Knock Knock, answer front door) Officer Smith - Hello Mr. Johnson I'm Officer Smith with the Honing Police. We had a complaint on a Coticule Video you made. Were gonna have to take you in for questioning. Mr. Johnson- Not Again... What did I do this time. (Get in the car) (Arriving at HPD Honing Police department) Officer Smith- Walking into Interigation room slams the stone without breaking! (Boom!) Mr. Johnson- What do you want from me? Officer Smith- can you Please hone my razor Please?
@@KeithVJohnson1 thanks Kieth I'll do that mate. If you would ever change your policy on sending your stuff abroad let me know as there are some items in your Etsy shop I'm interested in. Or if you'd do just a one off post to Thailand let me know. Thanks for your no bs approach to all you convey and I'll look forward to your next posting.
@@donsegundo5012 I buy and sell a lot of stones. some I keep for while and others I don't. The list is endless and not something worth writing out. If you have heard of it, I have probably used it, and some of those stones might be here now, or were here recently, and may show back up here again at some point in the future.
the guy at the local knife shop was kind of talking crap about arkansas stones... saying oh thats just a piece of quarts ( i think he wanted me to buy only sythetic whetstones if you know what k mean. but i have had nice results on a hard arkansas just be ready to sharpen for a while.
Vendors usually only like what they sell. If he had Arkansas stones to sell, he'd probably be singing a different tune. They're composed of microcrystalline quartz, they work very well. Some synthetics work well too though.
@@KeithVJohnson1 yeah I kinda adopted them as a personal icon when an old girlfriend sent me a meme with a innocent looking cartoon penguin with the statement "I may look harmless , but , if I get you alone I WILL EAT YOU ",...She sent me that and said it reinded me of you...HA ,...HAVE A GOOD DAY, MIKE
I love the clarification of it all...So much BS surrounding which Coti is what. How about a complete rundown of the different Eschers? We all "know" that they are great and pricey, please explain why. ???
Eschers are the 'auto' hone - you can be blindfolded, hands taped up, braindead tired and delerious from lack of sleep - and you can still hone well on an Escher. Plus, they're old, haven't been manufactured since the 40s, and some have labels and boxes. As for which Escher is best...the one you own is the best one, lol.
If I did a 'rundown' on Eschers, it would be identical to what I wrote above - the best one is the one you own. But I usually only keep one Escher on hand, can't do a comparison video with one stone. FWIW, I don't subscribe to one color Escher being better than a different color Escher. Most of the Eschers I have owned had no color label, and all have performed so similarly that the colors are of no consequence to me. As for the Escher company history, there is a storyline written by Peter on the web somewhere. Google this... Escher Hone History ... it will usually locate the PDF.
Btw what's is the difference between standard and selects stone? Ther seller had select before , but seemed to run out . So I got a standard with a Tomo. Lol Convex or , not to convex ? That is the 🤔that is the question.
but whats you experience with a convex stone? I think its good for the smiling blades. when you do trail end strokes toe to heel. I made a snall arkansas hard convex and i kind pf like the idea but. ot aure on a full bench stone. btw whats your etsy store url i have been. stone crazy and thinking of getting another stone here soon. i have forgot you mentioned you had am etsy. im just the old school ebay freak.
