Thread: Thuringian bout stones

All of the hone lovers I think know coticule bout stones that are sold in addition to the normal rectangular stones which are mainly used for straight razor honing today. Bout stones are a normally cheaper alternative and with a little experience also good usable for razor honing. About hundred or fifty years ago, bout coticules were more common and mainly in use, at least for the common folks. Rectangular stones were used by professional sharpeners and honers mostly.

Less or even not known is, that also thuringian stones were sold as bout stones in the past.

Following shows a copy of a JGES catalogue for the exhibition in Leipzig 1952. The bouts are called "Thüringer Brocken" in anlogy to the coticules that are called "Belgische Brocken" in german :





And here are some bout thuringians:

The thuringian bouts were also called german bouts, "Deutsche Brocken" which is shown in the following copy of a catalogue of the Deutsche Schleifmittel AG (Henk thanks for the copy!). The Schleifmittel AG was founded 1923 from the companies Escher&Co, Pike and Escher and others.

The german bouts are here promoted as an alternative for coticules for sharpening woodworking tools and butcher knifes (this was at least in Germany the main application of coticules 50 years ago). The german bouts are sold in different qualities. It is mentioned in the description, that ..... the stones could have small flower-like enclaves but that these do not affect the sharpening or honing qualities - contrary to harmfully streaks and veins in coticules.....





Some more bout pictures:

Again a Big "Thank You" and Thumbs Up for all your efforts and all the information you bring on here and anywhere else on all the Thuringian Stones and their History !!!!

It seems obvious that these would exist but I never considered or knew that they did. I've certainly never seen one before. Thanks for posting this!

I have never used one,

A pitty you should do :-)

Nice post, Thank you.

I would like to find one.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

The thuringian bouts were also called german bouts, "Deutsche Brocken" which is shown in the following copy of a catalogue of the Deutsche Schleifmittel AG (Henk thanks for the copy!). The Schleifmittel AG was founded 1923 from the companies Escher&Co, Pike and Escher and others.

The german bouts are here promoted as an alternative for coticules for sharpening woodworking tools and butcher knifes (this was at least in Germany the main application of coticules 50 years ago). The german bouts are sold in different qualities. It is mentioned in the description, that ..... the stones could have small flower-like enclaves but that these do not affect the sharpening or honing qualities - contrary to harmfully streaks and veins in coticules.....





Some more bout pictures:

Awesome stones!! Sorry about posting to this old thread, just cruising through them and saw these... I have a thuringian stone I purchased from thuringian.de it was a good size chunk that didn't quite fit me right so I cut it down to a good size and discovered that it was a hybrid? meaning it seems to have all the layers in it from a dark blue to yellow it's very nice... have a great day..

here is picture of my thuri bout
approx 4.5"x2"x9mm

Griffith Shave has them sometimes.