If your Coti isn't in the range of around 15k, then you might need to spend more time on the Arki. or, take it down a couple of stones, and work your way back up.
Probably going to wait for the soft ark to come in and start from ground 0. The coti and I don't get along as well as the Arks. Lol
I've never tried a Coti. I've learned on Welsh Slate Stones, and stuck with them. I then added a Surgical Black Arkie. I've tried not to go down the rabbit hole, with stones. But, I wouldn't mind a little more speed(cutting power), now and again.
Only types of stones I know now is a Belgian Blue, a Coti and now the Arks. I'm getting better results on the two Arks in the first few tries than I've done months of work on the Coti.
I'm a firm believer in learning each stone well, before moving on. But, since you spent a lot of time, with the Coti, and had little success, perhaps it is time to sell it. Just so you aren't tempted to backslide, and waste more time, in the future. BTW, I've heard several members here use nothing but Arkies, with great success.
Might to look into doing that. Definitely enjoying the two arks and getting antsy for the other to join the family.
Speaking of soft Arkansas, Used my no name soft ark today to try and even out my bevel. Worked pretty well, I did try different techniques to increase cutting etc in the form of different slurries and strokes. All in all was good. Bevel evened out so I stayed with the naturals and moved to a nagura progression. Hey why not! Everything was going good until I accidentally killed the edge...Doh! Back to the middle and ran out of time... Has a nice frosted looking edge just not sharp... Progress! A pic of the soft Ark, nice stone. I was told It came from an SRP member a while back, no other info.
a coti can be very finicky. My half hollows and larger grinds work very well on it, but only some of the quarter hollows take good edges from it. All of the full and extra hollows refuse to cooperate on the coti. There are also vastly different from one coti to another, more so than a lot of other naturals.
yeah, as much I tried I cant get em to work for me. The coti is a 4 x 2 x 1/2 naturally combined with the BBW camfered and leveled and the solo BBW is 6 x 2 x 1/2. Slurry stone as well. All came from The Perfect Edge. Loving not having to do slurries with Arks. That definitely wasn't an easy thing for me to learn to gauge during honing.
My Soft Ark will be here Monday or Tuesday. I'll get pics of the family when it gets in. I went back at the GD 66 and spent considerable time on the hard and surgical stone. It slices warm great. Took some long beard strands that were annoying and freehand cut those at about a 6/10. I'll find out tomorrow how that blade will hold up shaving. Fingers crossed!
Well got some good news! After going back to the hard ark that was lapped 220 one side 400 the other, doing some stropping in the middle and then spending some quality time on the surgical, the GD 66 is back into action. The edge still needs a little work to get where I'd like it but it's a step in the right direction!
Should I spend more time stripping the blade to get it a little smoother or go for a little more on the surgical to refine the edge?
Concentrate on the bevel, and when set, let the edge be as good as you can get, before the Surgical. The surgical will not correct any deficiencies, only enhance a near perfect edge. It's a very slow stone, but usualy not much time is needed. Only 30-50 strokes, on each side for me.
Thanks for the advice! What grit SiC would lap a soft ark? I've read 80 on some sites but that seems a little excessive.
I only have a Surgical Black Arkie. I did one side with the 600 and the other with the 1000. I do own other Arkansas stones, but I have had them passed down through family, and they are between 40-60 years old. Ive only used them for hunting and kitchen knives.
I believe others have used lower grits, and worked their way to the desired grit, to speed up the lapping process. Trust me, use lower grits first, and work up. Unless you want a workout.