Thread: Escher Identification

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

IME, with quite a few labeled stones ......... AFAIK I've had all of the colors at least once, a Y/G is not really yellow, and a B/G is not really blue. Light green is a slightly different hue from yellow green.

Photos can be deceiving. but with experience the various colors can be identified if you see them in person. They are all varying shades of grey.

The dark blue is the exception IMO. They are usually quite a bit darker than the grey stones, and do have a bluish tint to them.

Thanks Jimmy - that answers my question, comparing it to my other stone, which I thought was a dark blue/grey as you mention, this stone is in fact black/blue, very much darker than the other stone...going to give it a try this weekend...that's the only way to tell as they say, use the darn thing!

Interesting, was doing some looking around, and the label on this stone is the older label, before the Escher and Co red and white labels we usually see.

And from the website, "RazorandStone", there is a thread that I believe identifies this stone as a Black Escher with a question mark. Interesting, is there in fact a Black Escher? I've never heard of one before.

The same stone is in the second pic on the 27th post, which is hopefully linked here:

Testing Black an Escher stone - Page 3

Also a post here on SRP about the Black Escher, but I can't make out the label clearly enough:

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...ck-escher.html

There was a thread years ago on 'The Brown Escher', which turned out to be one of those La Lune French hones IIRC.

BTW, I've heard of brown Eschers from a collector, but I could never get him to come up with a label denoting that color.

Recently there was an Escher marked 'Grun' = Green ......... only one I ever saw, and it was end labelled.

AFAIK there hasn't been a labelled 'Black Escher' though Mike's was black, and my Hohenzollern was also black.

The bottom line is, as my grandma used to say, "Handsome is, as handsome does." So if it is a good hone the color is just icing on the cake.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

There was a thread years ago on 'The Brown Escher', which turned out to be one of those La Lune French hones IIRC.

BTW, I've heard of brown Eschers from a collector, but I could never get him to come up with a label denoting that color.

Recently there was an Escher marked 'Grun' = Green ......... only one I ever saw, and it was end labelled.

AFAIK there hasn't been a labelled 'Black Escher' though Mike's was black, and my Hohenzollern was also black.

The bottom line is, as my grandma used to say, "Handsome is, as handsome does." So if it is a good hone the color is just icing on the cake.

Going to try it this weekend, right after I stop trying to complicate simple things....again.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

AFAIK there hasn't been a labelled 'Black Escher' though Mike's was black, and my Hohenzollern was also black.

There are JGES labeled stones that are later model man-made escher stones. They are black in color. I believe Hatzicho posted about these some time ago.

Originally Posted by scag315

There are JGES labeled stones that are later model man-made escher stones. They are black in color. I believe Hatzicho posted about these some time ago.

The reference was posted here :-)
http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...er-stones.html

http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...hone-test.html

Well Phrank,
as already mentioned in the other thread, the cup clearly identifies the stone as an Escher&Co. labeled hone.
In older threads we discussed a possible time difference between the both known labels "cup" and "barbers scene". The truths is that both labels had been used simultaneously even after the Schleifmittel AG had taken over the Escher company in 1923. The different labels also marked a certain quality difference between the Escher&Co labelled hones. The cup hones were marked "prima" Quality, the Barbers scene hones were marked "extra" and have been the premium quality.
You can see the price difference in both types in the following sheet. The Barber scene hones have had 15-20% higher prices.



If there is really a big quality difference in both types - I cannot confirm. The only thing I observed from the hones I have in my collection is, that the barber scene hones all are very homgenous in color whereas some of the cup hones do change/mix color or are cloudy. But I have also a very good yellow-green hone with a cup label.
It can also be that the hones have been purchased by Escher from differrent quarries/ Whetstone makers and therefore have different prices. Also I do not know, if the early Escher&Co. company had the same qualification between the labels.

To the black Escher hones I have already written something in another post that I couldn't find at the moment. So here again some informations:

The black thuringians could be one of the late mined stones by the J.G. Escher & Sohn company. They had a quarry for blue/nearly black hones from the mid 1920 till mid 1930 before they finally mined the mottled black stones.

It could also be a very special black Thuringian of the company J.G. Escher & Co. Please keep in mind here, that Escher & Co and Escher & Sohn had been two different and totally independent companies since the end of the 19ths century. They also had different sources and quarries where they got their hones from.

Here is a picture of a labelled black J.G. Escher & Co with a size of 12 inch.



And here are some pictures that compares the different hones and show the different colors. Especially in comparison to the typical dark blue hones you see the difference. The dark blue hone looks always lighter and with a green/blue tint (even if it looks like a blue-green in the pictures, it is definitely a dark blue!).

Thank-you very much hatzicho for putting together this very informative post, much appreciated!

I gave it a try last night, and will be doing a shave test later today, which is the most important afterall.

Cheers!

edited to add: I did see the posts/ threads you were referring to, but did not see a similar label to the one I posted about, that is why I engaged in some....