Thread: A lot of guys asleep at the ebay controls before...

Is that some sort of Escher or thuringian? Excuse my ignorance but I know squat about naturals.

Yes, the most choice type of thuringian. If that rock had the Escher label instead of the boker one it would have been somewhere between $850-1100. Maybe more as they have hit more.

For clarity, thuringians came under several brands. Escher, droescher, fox, German brandings, etc. The value in the brand is in the selection consistency. Escher/droescher/etc are eerily consistent for natural hones

The big kahuna in its typical garb:

Originally Posted by kcb5150

The value in the brand is in the selection consistency. Escher/droescher/etc are eerily consistent for natural hones

Also, a Thüringer hone without a branded box is just a piece of slate, which is quite hard to recognise from auction site pictures.

And $850-$1100? For a German slate hone in a box? That's just silly money, if you ask me. Thüringer hones are not that rare, no matter what colour. And are there really distinct differences between the edges off different colours that warrant such prices or are they nuances of nuances? Or is it that combination stones are considerably less common?

That said, nice stone, and apparently a bargain. May it serve you well.

Barbers delights have hit stupid prices. They all produce great edges, the biggest difference is hardness between colors. Green and dark blue tend to run firm, yellow softer, blue green halfway, black are supposed to be harder but I never had one. Thuris aren't rare, people do collect the labeled and boxed ones pretty rabidly though. Kind of the same deal as stamped cotis. Is what it is. Slates in general are interesting. As common as slate is, a lot of it makes for miserable hones. Consistency of particulate is the black magic that makes these special.

Sniffing them out unmarked isn't terribly hard if the photos are extensive and you don't deviate from some set rules to take risks. The harder part is deciphering the color of one on a screen because all cameras and display gammas are different. That is a pain, especially if you need a slurry stone of similar hardness to your base stone. If I still had a worthpoint login I could tell you the high water mark but I think one broke $1200usd. Sebastian would know. I say learn the tells and snag a hone free of labels and enjoy, but to get one with provenance for less than loose unlabeled value is fantastic.

I had a tiny piece of what I suspect was a fox and it was stupidly soft. It's just preference. If you have a lot of softer temper steels, probably better off with a green or db. These two toned were considered the cream of the crop for whatever reason. I have an Escher boxed bd and it is tremendous but a thuri when all is said and done. The only one that may he markedly different is a Faso, but again, I never had a reconstituted thuringian, Sebastian would be able to fill that data gap. They are supposed to be good. Quite expensive though and I don't trust old binders

Actually i think "yes these stones are worth a lot of money" but you need to difference here between a normal user who just wants to hone/touch up his razors with a thuringian Stone and one who really collects these stones.

Owning a full labelled Escher my personal view is that any damage taken to the label (and here is also mentioned to seal the label with any sealing substance) will lower the price and the collectors value...

I understand the approach to own a labelled stone and seal the label that the stone can be used in any way...on the other hand you get unlabelled stones quite easy from different sources so i normally recommend to use a unlabelled stone if you want to use the stone....

If somebody needs then a labelled Escher and needs to use it, then he should seal the label...but the edges wont be light years above then on other thuringian stones just because Escher is written on the stone.

Talking about the Barber Delights i can only tell that these were always the best Quality available...very clean stones, very homogenious structure, very fine and very soft

Here is a magnification shot of the surface which shows how fine and clean this stone is: