Thread: Who knows David Kein?

In September 2002 there was an article in a local thuringian newspaper about the shochet David Kein from New York, who loves to sharpen his knifes that he use to slaughter animals on hones of the company J.G. Escher & son.





He described in the article that he found an Escher stone 32 years ago on a flew market in Brooklyn and from this time on he used only Escher stones for sharpening his knifes for kosher butchering.
He had a lot of contact with people in Sonneberg and Steinach to research the history of the hones and to get more “material”.
And indeed I met and spoke some of this people who did remember David Kein and his interest in thuringian waterwhetstones and who sent him some hones.

David Kein further explains in the article that he got a different knife for each animal and that he prefers Escher waterhones to all other whetstones, namely Arkansas, Japanese stones and newer thuringians, such as Müller waterwhetstones from Germany. Only the Belgian coticules come somehow close and have a good quality.




He also give stones that he collects to other younger shochets that are in education. At the end of the article he gives a call for Escher hones to all people that read this newspaper and still own one of those fantastic stones. He also left his address in the article, Brooklyn, New York to send him the hones.

Maybe somebody from the States or a SRP member from New York has heard about David Kein or maybe even know him or one of his students.

I think it would be interesting to discuss the usage of Escher hones for sharpening kosher knifes and also hear about his experiences and knowledge about the hones.