Thread: What is known of the MST Muller stone?

If you want a Thuringian, you are almost half way in price to a nice vintage stone. There are a couple, for sale on the bay, right now.

I would buy a known quantity like a bluegreen or yellow green vintage, rather than an unknown, with a proven lack of performance. I have 2 MST that I bought for cheap and several vintage Thuringians, they do not compare in performance.

Or just buy a 12k Super Stone for bullet proof performance, $86.

Originally Posted by FAL

Powdered quartz embedded in chalk from a nearby quarry to the Escher quarry.....

That is true, but that doesn't mean anything!
The MST slates are found in rocks of another geological age, so they are at least several million years away from the rocks of the vintage thuringian quarries. But also this doesn't mean anything. The MST hones are made from slate that is normally used for roof or housebuilding or other useages.
That said - these are not bad hones. Useable in the honing progression as pre-finisher, some of them are also feasable as finishers. But in no way comparable to a good vintage thuringian.
For the price they are sold and if used for what they are able to do, they could be quite a good deal.

Originally Posted by Utopian

BEFORE you order it, please tell us what other hones you have. We might be able to save you some money.

I've only honed on two of them but neither was very impressive. Honestly, in my opinion, you would be better off taking a gamble on a $36 Chinese hone from Woodcraft.

Well Sir, 1K, 4+8K Nortons and a few lesser king and suhiro, picked up at random places. edit: I have some nice Novaculite Translucents that stay on my Jewelers bench, those put on a nice finish, but, they too are on the small side.

Have Not ordered the MST, still hunting a known and larger Thuringian or Escher.

Thanks again to all for their input.

EDIT: After being an Moderator and Admin on some sites, I am wondering why NOT EVEN the WANT TO BUY section of the marketplace is open to New folks??? Does NOT make sense to me. Because of this I may never buy an item or service from the market here.

Pick a stone, Any stone ,
to quote Glen....
If ya dont know the rest, you should really read up on it.
Those words speak volumes.
To watch a honer kokes out and edge from an average rock is something to behold.
MST is no different.
The honer , well I love to learn,as well as get schooled.

Funny thing ;-)

@Fal: great that you made youre own decision based on some given information of experienced people.

Thanks Doorsch, that's why I came here, to talk with you experts and I appreciate all of the comments and those who have offered their help.
We are at times all teachers or students.

I had one of the larger stones from open razor (MST). It didn't cost a lot, but in my opinion, it wasn't even worth the time. I'd only use it for a slate pre-finisher (mine glinted back at you like described above). I'd say it was in the range of a 3k stone in terms of finish, but you couldn't coax a finish out of it like you can some pre finishers.

The trouble with it and other middle cutting hone slates is that they are slow for the finish they offer. There are stones that do prefinish and offer a fairly refined edge (tsushima, washita, etc) and then there are stones that don't (slates, aggressive synthetics).

I just didn't find that the MST stone did anything well, and one could say that you could use it to set up for an escher (and that is true). The only problem is once you're using a razor that is ready for an escher, it can be refreshed on the escher without ever having to step down to a coarser stone again.

And if you're setting up new razors, you probably won't want to tolerate the slowness of the MST for what it returns in fineness. If you're, however, looking for something that's just interesting and different, I guess it could satisfy that.