Thread: Nice Escher, but $475?!

Originally Posted by dylandog

Those pictures looked odd to me. Way too yellowy. Even the label looks like it's been soaked in gatorade. Yellow-green eschers are so sought-after that I almost thought someone had used a camera filter to get that effect... But the seller didn't sound particularly hone-savvy so I doubt it.

Anyway it sure went for a bomb.

Like a couple of other posters here I'm not convinced the Y/Gs are special among vintage Thuringians. I have one and love it, but I don't see any difference as a finisher between it and the dark blue Escher I used to have. The Y/Gs seem to be softer, and therefore a bit faster if you're using a slurry and doing some workhorse sharpening. I can see this making them popular with barbers back in the day. Nowadays most guys use Eschers as finishers only, and have other hones for workhorse sharpening. Used this way, I don't think there's an appreciable difference between yellow-greens and thes slightly harder dark blues.

I haven't tried the other colors (well, I did have a black one but didn't use it very extensively), but in general, I'm sort of skeptical about the differences in fineness among the color-grades of vintage Thuringians.

After Bart came up with the bevel setting by using a heavy slurry on a coticule I started trying to duplicate that on an Escher. My fastest cutter is a light green with the Escher end label. I point that out to specify that 'light green' is what Escher designated the stone, not my adjective. I don't know what anyone else might achieve with one of them but for me the Escher is a finishing stone. Not a bevel setter or intermediate sharpening stone. I have tried all of the colors and IME all are good. Some may be faster but they all give the same fine, sharp and smooth edge but only as a finisher.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

After Bart came up with the bevel setting by using a heavy slurry on a coticule I started trying to duplicate that on an Escher. My fastest cutter is a light green with the Escher end label. I point that out to specify that 'light green' is what Escher designated the stone, not my adjective. I don't know what anyone else might achieve with one of them but for me the Escher is a finishing stone. Not a bevel setter or intermediate sharpening stone. I have tried all of the colors and IME all are good. Some may be faster but they all give the same fine, sharp and smooth edge but only as a finisher.

This sounds about right.

In general I think that back in the day, speed was highly prized in naturals. Hence all the hyperventilating over Turkish oilstones.

Nowadays when the market is flooded with inexpensive superfast synthetic waterstones, speed is less of a big deal; what hone freaks splash out for is rareness, beauty, fineness.

Originally Posted by Utopian

The bid history on this auction reinforces one simple concept...

SNIPE!

If you bid early all you do is guarantee that you will pay more than you would have if you avoided bidding until the last few seconds.

Either the bidders are not members of shaving forums, or they just don't give a damn and are childish enough to get into silly bidding wars, because many many people (including me) have said this exact same thing many times and yet, there are still razors on eBay right now with over 3 days left that are already at 90 bucks. And those same early bidders didn't just bid and decide that if they lost they wouldn't come back. They bid, then get outbid, then come back and bid, then get outbid...until the item goes for more than it would have if they had just left the damn thing alone.
I don't know if that's necessarily the case with this Escher, since they are pretty highly sought after and consistently go into the high 300's and low 400's (the past 5 or so bigger Eschers that I've seen have)

Hmmmm....maybe all it means is that the price of Eschers could be back up to the level they were a few years ago? This price for such Eschers was commonplace at that time. Then the prices seemed to go down fairly quickly.

If anyone is shocked by the seemingly high price for a hunk of rock used for honing, I'll advise very strongly that you don't start looking into the wide world of Japanese natural stones!!!

Chris L

If you look at the member count of this forum alone, it's doubled since I joined. New guys read about how wonderful Escher's are, and Coti's, J-nats and the like. I don't see prices coming down anytime soon. Which is fine by me as a collector.
I figure I'm sitting on a gold mine, or my kids are....

Also, If I want something, I don't worry about price, and I'm not well off by any means. I'm a Civil Servant. If you do, you wind up regretting buying stuff. If you have the means, Always get what you want, Don't settle IMHO....

As far as Escher colors go, If you collect, it's nice to have one of each, if possible regardless of how they may differ from each other. I think Sham did an experiment and came up with some interesting results on Escher colors and how they perform. He may have even tested the NOS Thuringians at Mueller's Timber Tools....

Originally Posted by zib

Also, If I want something, I don't worry about price, and I'm not well off by any means. I'm a Civil Servant. If you do, you wind up regretting buying stuff. If you have the means, Always get what you want, Don't settle IMHO....

That is my philosophy too as long as business is good. When it isn't I have to back off but I agree with you Rich. If you got it, spend it.

Originally Posted by zib

I think Sham did an experiment and came up with some interesting results on Escher colors and how they perform. He may have even tested the NOS Thuringians at Mueller's Timber Tools....

Do you know where this study/review is? I'd love to read it...

Jimmy, Zib, I agree 100%! You cant take it with you after all. Thats why I'm probably going to pull the trigger on those Naniwa stones I've been looking at!

Originally Posted by dylandog

Do you know where this study/review is? I'd love to read it...

I'm not aware of that study/review. There are two by Russel Baldridge ... one on the Muller Thuringan here and another on a vintage Thuringan here . After reading Russel's review I took my Mulller and followed the same procedure that Russel used and my results mirrored his. Here is a great archived thread on Escher colors with a lot of eye candy.