Thread: Vintage Stone ID

I found these while cleaning out my Grandfathers home. He was the local Barber from the 1920"s to late 1940"s.

The yellow/purple one is probably a Coticule, the other one might be an Escher/Thuringian

Welcome Darmar,,, you have a few coticules & a 3 line Swaty barber hone,,, the others are hard for me to determine. Clean them up & some side photos of each would help.

Go to our library section , at the link provided & you can read about hones & see photos of hones similar to the ones you have. Spend some time in the hone section & you will identify most all of them.

Category:Hones - Straight Razor Place Library

Don't know about the top two pics, but the third one down looks like a hard Arkansas. The yellow/blue are coticules. The next to the bottom pic has the remains of a label that has German writing, maybe an Escher.

DARMAR,

Welcome to the forum!!

The 3 line Swaty is a fine Barber's Hone....one of the best in the opinion of a lot of members.

The last 3 images with the deteriorated label on the back could very well be an Escher. Are the measurements approximately 5" to 5 1/2" by about 2 1/4 to 2 1/2 +/-"? Preserve the label and you can search Escher or Escher Labels here Advanced Search - Straight Razor Place Forum and find images and info for comparison. If it's an Escher, you'll have one of the best natural finishing stones available. Hope it is an Escher!

Your Grandfather would be very pleased to know that his Grandson has discovered his tools of the trade and has taken an interest in them. Congrats on finding these heirlooms!!

Regards,

Howard

How do I clean these and what do I use to clean them? Thanks

Always start simple, then move on to a more agressive clean, if needed.
Start with some dish soap & a mild nylon nail brush. Then take some more photos for us & we can go from there,,,,

They do not look that bad.

The 2 purple stones in photo 4 look like they may possibly be Vosigine, very nice finishers, or Belgian Blues. A good cleaning and lapping will tell.

Spray with a 25 percent Simple Green solution and scrub with a nylon brush, then soak in 25 percent simple green and water, replacing solution every few days will get them clean without damage, if they have had oil on them. If no oil a couple cleanings and scrubbing may get them clean.

Then lap with a DMT.

You will lose the labels, you might want to wait on the possible Escher, cleaning the label with a Q tip and 50 percent Simple Green and water, to see of you can read the label.

If you can clean the label enough to read, you may want to seal the label to the stone to preserve the provenance of the stone and its value.