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unicot method

G

garyhaywood

Well-Known Member
I emailed bart and said i would do a reveiw in a thew weeks on the out come of my unicot edges. I can do one now as it did'nt take me long to realize how amazing the edges are and how easy it is to acheive the ultimate coticule edge

I alway s shyed away from tape as i always preferd no tape . why just did. I've always performed dilucot method and felt unicot was a short cut for cheating. just like paste . Not that it is . Just me personaly would feel its more skill ful to acheive a dilucot edge. once you have got a good dilucot edge. You never need to tape or mess, so it just quiker and i like it that way.

the onest truth is i never had great results with unicot for some reason. then i read that people on the forum have great success.

So now i no i can get a great dilucot edge , i though why not give unicot another go.

First of all i got my self some good quality .15mm tape from electrical shop. my last tape was of ebay. It was strecthy and did'nt seem to work that well.

I always used dilucot. the times and hours and days months i have spent have paid of.

i still find if i'm slightly of and carn't be arsed i will grab my ti paste.then i thought why do that when i can use unicot. still have a coticule edge , that can be touched up on a coticule.


All i can say is i have shaved of 4 unicot edges . every one gave me a fantastic shave first time round. The new tape worked a treat. I followed ralfys 30 misty slurry /60 on water.

So very impressed and will be doing dilucot if the shave is not superb i will go back to dilucot a couple more times. If i don't fell enough improve mant. i will tape and unicot.


so my advice from now on will be go to unicot. with little practice any one can do it even me:)

It takes one minute to apply tape. It takes 60 strokes to form a new bevel and 5 minutes to do 30/60 on your coticule.



gary
 
Gary, I could not agree more! Unicot is straight-forward, efficient, and as fool proof as it can be. The resulting ege is nothing shy of a maxed-out dilucot edge.
However, I find myself stil dilucoting most of the time. Strange, maybe stupid - isn't it? I guess not. It's about he challenge, it's about stretching the time I get from one of may favourite pastime. But if I want to get a coti edge, as good as it gets, without the fiddling and pampering, I'd be stupid not to use unicot.

Cheers, BlueDun
 
Yes the chalange is what steered me away from unicot. Noing i can acheive a very nice dilucot edge now it does'nt bother me if i use the unicot to save time . Don't get me wrong i have a good 15 topline razors and i mean top line . there all dilucoted. I have 4 that are unicoted and they are also perfect.

gary
 
Actually, I've adopted one of the key elements of unicot long before I got into straight razors. I'ts a honing method called 'secondary bevel' and it is widely used among knive sharpeners. Knives are honed free handed, which makes keeping the correct honing angle much more of a challenge than with straights. Increasing the angle at the last polishing stages makes it much easier to get that last bit of keeness and even compensates for minor flaws in keeping the angle in the stages before.
When I got into straights, I kept using his technique - be it with cotis or any other hones I use. Maybe that's the reason why I personally never got to regularly use pasted strops of whatsoever composition to optimize my edges. If I ever have the Impression that the edge still needs some work I simply put on one layer of tape and go over the finisher again.

Cheers, BlueDun
 
Here's my comment on Unicot....

I cycle through about a dozen or so razors. About a week or two ago, I was sometimes switching over to shaving with a safety razor, because I wasn't getting good shaves. I finally realized it was time for a touch up on all of my razors for the most part, so it was time to break out the Coticule.

I failed to get a good enough Dilucot, so I decided to jump to Unicot afterwards, and got a really great shave off of it. Ever since then, and realizing all my razors needed a touch up, I put a Unicot edge on all of my razors in my rotation. One, it's easy to do, and two, I don't have to remember which razors were Unicot, and which were Dilucot. The last week or so, ever since I touched everything up with Unicot, has resulted in nothing but super shaves. All the shaves have been better than my safety razor tries.

So, lessons learned: Unicot works great and is easy to do, and do a touch up when the shaves aren't so good any more.
 
What i have done is , put a peice of tape on my razor box that i have performed unicot. that way i no which one is unicot and which ones are dilucot. btw a good dilucot edge is as good as a unicot edge. unicot is just much easier. both methods to me make it so simple to use just one hone and absalutley nothing else.

i carn't think of another hone that can do so much, with great results either way.

regards gary
 
I admit to feeling the same was as Gary. That using Unicot or pastes and sprays is somehow a crutch to cover poor technique. I am getting ready to start experimenting with CromOx ond TI paste on a paddle strop, but that's more out of curiosity than anything else.
I've never tried Unicot, and rightly or wrongly, I suppose I still view Unicot as a last resort if Dilucot will not work, and as such, an admission of failure in my Dilucot technique. And, why shouldn't I feel that way? We're working off the same stone, the only difference being a thin layer of tape on the spine to expose the edge, and only the edge to more intensive work. If the unicot works, why shouldn't, or couldn't Dilucot with a bit more effort? Yes, the included angle is changed, but only slightly, and can the differences be attributed to that? Common sense tells me no.
Even if my future forays into pastes proves successful, I will still think of it as a failure on my part to reach the successes others seem to achieve easily with their coticules. It will not be an acceptance of defeat, but a reason to put my limited mental powers to work in an attempt to ascertain why...
 
BlacknTan said:
the successes others seem to achieve easily with their coticules.
Click to expand...

That, my dear friend, is a missconception that seems to prevail with quite a few members - especially novice coticule users. So, for those folks, let me state my opinion based on my personal experience with dilucot clearly: Dilucot is not straight-forward nor does it lead you to the keenest possible coticule edge in the most efficient way! It MAY get you there, but it requires certainly more devotion to what you're doing. I'm am not a complete newbie but I am far from getting every dilucot attempt spot on. I still need to play around a bit with many of my edges and I still do miserably fail occasionally.
For me, dilucot is really about the challenge. It's about paying attention to those subtle nuances between different hones and blades, between one or two rubs with the slurry stone, between slight and the ever so slightes pressure. It's about competing against myself and improving what I love doing.

And there's is absolutely nothing wrong with preferring unicot when you want to get the best coti edge with the least risk of failing. I do so. Even Bart does - well, at least with some razors. So, gentlemen, use unicot with hour head up high. Nothing wrong , nothing to be ashamed of. You'll get the a fine coti edge almost for free - perfect! Or use dilucot and maybe fail. Perfect as well, because you'll learn something every time and your ratio of 80/20 of failing vs. passing will gradually grow to a 20/80.

But above all, be it unicot or dilucot: Enjoy what you're doing!

Cheers
BlueDun
 
take me for example i was that stubborn i would never dream of using unicot on principle. I now no i can get a fine dilucot edge . I'm at the stage now were i just want to try unicot, for a change . all i can say is i've been very impressed . Why because it actauly works so easy. i will still spend time on dilucot. I no now i can also do the unicot edge . I have beleive it or not not had as much success with unicot. Probably due to wrong sized tape . some times i found unicot edges to agressive , so i gave them a miss. both methods are great.

My coticule dilucot plus ti paste is also bullet proof method it works first time. So there are many options. unicot is great because its still honed edge of your favourite coticule.

regards gary
 
It may be a simple layer of tape, but there is more to it than meets they eye. Sharpening is basically the act of abrading a flat facet with an abrasive stone. There are likely a few other principles at play, but those are defined by our choice of abrasives (in our case a piece of Coticule rock), and I won't get into that now. Abrasion it is. At two levels.
1. steel removal of the entire bevel facet. The rate is defined by the abrasive properties of the hone and by pressure.
2. detrimental steel removal from the edge where both facets meet, caused by collision of that edge with the same abrasive particles as are causing the surface abrasion. The edge hovers over a microscopic cobblestone path: the very edge bumps into the high spots.

The keenness limit of a hone (any hone) is a function of these 2 parameters. The edge is gaining keenness by the first, but the finer it becomes, the more prone it is to loose keenness by the second. In the end both principles keep each other in balance. The edge looses as much as it gains. The stone has maxed out.
On a Coticule, and certainly with Dilucot, the sweet edge, is found close to that limit. That is, in my opinion, why it can be a struggle. One must reach the maximum of the stone, before it will truly shine as a perfect shaving edge.

Unicot cheats the siituation in couple of ways, but one that is mostly overlooked is this:
By creating a very narrow bevel, the surface abrasion (parameter 1 form the above explanation) rises significantly. While at the same time, the detriment by edge collision (parameter 2) remains basically the same (except maybe for the first few strokes after applying the tape). This means that our abrasion/detriment ratio improves. Or in other words: the keenness limit rises. The effect may not be large, but it is there, and more noticeable when the razor orriginally had a wide bevel in it's untaped state. Dilucot can approach the keenness from a Unicot edge, but it will never surpass it.

That makes Unicot an excellent approach for the inexperienced sharpeneer, because it has a some more keenness to spare. But it makes it also a highly advanced sharpening technique, that can be used by and "edge aficionado" (an appropriate title for a gentleman as Gary) to dwell into the merits of the custom tailored razor edge. There is a lot to discover in the land of bevel angle alteration with secondary and even tertiary bevels. (Feather blades have a tertiary bevel, by the way).

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
I think there is no cheating in razor sharpening. If you make a razor shaving like a dream, than no one cares how you made it, only you. The best edges come with practice, but until you get there, you want to shave with the sharpest edges that you can achieve, with ANY method. If that means you have to use tape, pastes, microscope, cat, dog, honemesiter, or anything else, it doesn't matter. The shave matters, for me. For someone else the feeling matters that he got a very good edge off of dilucot, and he will rehone a razor as many times as needed to get a good edge. If the edge could be better, I do an unicot, and I am happy with it. Maybe next time I will get better results with dilucot, there is no rush.
 
I never used the unicot method but certainly i wouldn't reject it.Every body knows that a narrow edge easily honed but a larger one resists to the final result.So for me the unicot method isn't a trick ,you just prepair your razor to hone (after tape) a very very narrow edge easily.Are you agree
Gary ?
Best regards
Emmanuel
 
Emmanuel said:
I never used the unicot method but certainly i wouldn't reject it.Every body knows that a narrow edge easily honed but a larger one resists to the final result.So for me the unicot method isn't a trick ,you just prepair your razor to hone (after tape) a very very narrow edge easily.Are you agree
Gary ?
Best regards
Emmanuel
Click to expand...

yes i totally agree. I have 3 certain good razors . I use them for honing methods trial and experimenets. the bevels have grown. So i now use one layer of tape on them to save any more widening of the bevel. I also used these razor s for unicotting by adding an extra layer..

Keeness was easily reached.

I also took my meistro livi regrind that i have got a very good edge on dilucot. It took me a thew honing sessions on this razor to try and squeez the max out of. In the end i used unicot and boy it was a tadge further to where i wanted the razor to be. It also saved me going and putting any more wear on such a nice expensive razor . I have a inox puma that chips and does'nt give a great edge of dilucot. Sham honed this razor and bob keyes who i brought it from. the razor was still not a good shaver. Sham says it never would be . I did a gree untill i used unicot and the edge is amazing the best yet. The change of angle must of done the trick.

Now all my ti's which most guys struggle with or some do. They are all honed by my self using nothing but dilucot. They are all superb shavers. I would not be unicoting them, unless i do get any chipping problems or struggle to at any time in the future. with weekly touch ups and don't see why they won't keep going for some months yet. Its good to no either way i can get the max out of any razor with my coticules. Like i said i would never of dreamed of using unicot , its somthing i will defanatley fall back onto now.
 
Emmanuel said:
I never used the unicot method but certainly i wouldn't reject it.Every body knows that a narrow edge easily honed but a larger one resists to the final result.So for me the unicot method isn't a trick ,you just prepair your razor to hone (after tape) a very very narrow edge easily.Are you agree
Gary ?
Best regards
Emmanuel
Click to expand...

you must give unicot a go, i'd like to hear what you think?
 
Well,Garry i dulled a 5/8 Tiger.I work on a normal slurry until edge shave easily the arm hair.I add a layer of tape (13 mm).I didn't find 15 mm in Greece.The next thickens is 18mm.I performed 65 x strokes until get a HHT 3-4.Then i redulled the edge working on misty slurry diluting until get a clear violin.I add one layer again performing 30 x strokes on water arriving to a HHT4 easily.
Both work excellent. I think for razors resisting to the final finishing is an excellent method.
Best regards
Emmanuel
 
Emmanuel,

It's not the tape width that's important, but really its thickness. We know that 0.15mm works and that 0.10mm is too thin. (2 layers will do the trick in that case) The width is not important, as long as the tape completely folds around the spine.

And of course it works.:D What would you expect?;)

Kind regards,
Bart.
 
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