NOS Thuringians on ebay

Printable View

03-10-2008, 06:19 PM
Russel Baldridge

NOS Thuringians on ebay

Found a guy selling these stones and claims that they are newly cut from vintage pieces of the same stuff vintage thuringians/eschers were cut from. So essentially they are nos, just in a round about way.

they are 8" x 2" x 3/4" or 20cm x 5cm x 2cm, so they are bigger than most all Thuringians I've seen and are less than the ones sold as new stones, with a slurry stone included. So I don't really know what to make of them.

Good or bad?
Worth the price for the size even if they're new?

here's the auction: http://cgi.ebay.com/2-Original-Thuri...QQcmdZViewItem
03-10-2008, 06:36 PM
JGS

I just bought one of these....Call me crazy; the HAD is working.

Can anyone give me an approximate Grit rating on this stone?
It would save me some trial and error as I fit it into the hone rotation of steps.

Thanks!
03-10-2008, 07:08 PM
Russel Baldridge

I only ask if these are worth it because there has been some speculation about the quality of the "new" Thuringians, and was wondering if these are the same thing, or really NOS and of higher quality as the guy claims.
03-10-2008, 07:40 PM
ccddo

So tempted.....
03-10-2008, 08:00 PM
bjrn

I think these are the same that Manufactum and toolshop.de sell (for a lot less).
03-10-2008, 11:09 PM
heavydutysg135

Quote:

Originally Posted by Russel Baldridge

I only ask if these are worth it because there has been some speculation about the quality of the "new" Thuringians, and was wondering if these are the same thing, or really NOS and of higher quality as the guy claims.

These are the same "new" thuringians that have been listed by many different vendors. Many people like the stones, but they are not of the same quality/composition as the vintage.
03-10-2008, 11:10 PM
heavydutysg135

Quote:

Originally Posted by JGS

I just bought one of these....Call me crazy; the HAD is working.

Can anyone give me an approximate Grit rating on this stone?
It would save me some trial and error as I fit it into the hone rotation of steps.

Thanks!

They should be about 8K
03-10-2008, 11:48 PM
ccddo

how would these compare to a belgan yellow?
03-11-2008, 12:44 AM
coully

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjrn

I think these are the same that Manufactum and toolshop.de sell (for a lot less).

I believe you are right bjorn, the 'Reep oil away' seems to ring a few bells as I looked into one of them a year or two ago...

regards,simon
03-11-2008, 02:09 AM
Russel Baldridge

I was under the impression that the others were newly mined, not cut from old stock. But then again I didn't research them when they were being discussed.
03-15-2008, 02:16 PM
Kees

Quote:

Originally Posted by bjrn

I think these are the same that Manufactum and toolshop.de sell (for a lot less).

You're right, however: Manufactum no longer sell them.

Unfortunately Mueller sell them to their retailers without checking the stones first so you may get one that has hard inclusions which make them useless for honing a razor. I send approx. 25% of the stones back for a replacement before I put them on ebay.

BTW: I wasn't the vendor of this particular stone.
03-16-2008, 02:26 AM
JGS

Ah; well....

I will let you guys know how this goes.
03-16-2008, 02:28 AM
JGS

So these would rate lower on the grit scale than a yellow couticle?

Anyone use this stone with a slurry?
03-16-2008, 07:02 AM
Kees

These are coarser than the vintage Thuringians, similar to the coticule I have. The surface is a bit coarser than that of the coticule but results are similar, some razors seem to do better on these than on a coticule.

If you look at the slurry of these under the electron microscope it looks identical to the slurry of a vintage Thuringian. However the vintage Thuringian has a smoother surface.
03-16-2008, 09:39 PM
JGS

Thanks!...

I am slowly sorting things out. I have two Japanese natural waterstones and I believe that I was using them in the reverse order that I should have.

The "soft" stone puts a nice polish on the "hard" one. I wish that there was a way to tell if they are both a higher grit rating than my yellow couticle...the progression seems fine so far when I asume that they are.

I am finally getting some nice consistent shaving edges.
03-18-2008, 05:32 PM
Russel Baldridge

You should be able to tell which stone is finer by how polished the blade is, look at it under magnification, anything is better than nothing. And yes, I believe as a general rule for japanese stones, harder is finer.
03-21-2008, 12:05 AM
JGS

Recieved the stone today...nice size.

I appears to have a coarser composition than the yellow couticle. Gritty almost.

We shall see. I will give it a go this weekend.
03-21-2008, 11:42 AM
bjrn

Have you lapped it yet? The toolshop Thuringian I got was quite flat, but the surface felt really coarse before lapping, much smoother afterwards.
03-21-2008, 03:39 PM
JGS

No; I have not yet lapped it...

Do you use a slurry with this stone?
03-21-2008, 08:36 PM
Kees

Quote:

Originally Posted by JGS

No; I have not yet lapped it...

Do you use a slurry with this stone?

If you wish. I only use a little, and nothing in the final stage of polishing.
03-21-2008, 08:37 PM
Russel Baldridge

Well, I picked one of these up as well, wanted to reserve judgment on it until I was able to try it out.

So I took an old Sheffield wedge that I've used to test nearly all of my hones (tang says "Geo. Manby & Co. Late with B. J. Eyre & Co. Sheffield" probably late 1800's) and gave it a few passes on the 4k Norton to start with a clean slate. I then moved to the 8k Norton with slurry, finished with just water. I lapped the Thuringian before attempting anything, it took about 30 min. I started the passes on the Thuringian with a pretty thick slurry, and it cut very well, not too fast but not slow at all. Then cleaned it off and made a few passes with only water, felt very smooth, checked under magnification and repeated until there were uniform striations.

Result was very nice. I would definitely rank this as an equal to the new Coticules as the scratch pattern was almost identical.

But there's more. I've been doing some tests with using various hones dry, and this is where I was very surprised. The "new" Thuringian put a mirror finish on the old Sheffield steel that was indistinguishable from that of my Chinese 12k. This hone bested my vintage Coticule!

I didn't believe it at first, so I went back and did the same progression again, only I used the vintage Coticule to finish instead of the Thuringian. Results were great, but then I did a few passes (well more than a few, enough to make a difference) on the Thuringian dry and the finish improved visibly. And there was almost no distinguishable difference between the finish of the Thuringian and the 12K!

I have been going back and forth for the last 3 hours between the new Coticule, the vintage one, the Thuringian and the Chinese 12K and am getting consistent results that go from worst to best: new Coticule, vintage Coticule, Thuringian, and Chinese 12k barely coming in first over the Thuringian.

I'll try it with some different blades to confirm these results, but for now this is where it stands. though it was a little pricey considering Kees has the NOS ones for less $, which I'm anxiously waiting to receive and test as well.
03-21-2008, 09:18 PM
JGS

I also covered my bases and bought one of Kees. Let me know what you think?

Thanks!
03-22-2008, 06:40 PM
Russel Baldridge

Forgot to put in the above post that I also did a progression of stones that ended with a translucent arkansas, but the resulting edge was nowhere near as fine as the four finishing stones I did mention, so it was quickly ruled out. A nice stone for sure, but not comparable enough for the test I was doing.