Thread: Can an Escher be used without water or dry?

I have lapped many thuringians and never had a problem with them losing any smoothness from it.

Thuringians are "SMOOTHNESS" in person, undependent how much you lap away ;-)

Well as others already said, it doesn't make sense to use a thuringian dry, without water. The water on the surface and in the pores of the stone matrix prevent that small metal particles move into the pores and cause blockage. If the pores are mainly blocked by metal particles or also the slurry of the stone, the blade is slippering over the stone without having permanent contact to the surface and abrasive material. Also oil is not a good idea on a thuringian. The oil moves into the pores and stays there together with the metal particles, that are removed from the blade. So the surface is getting stump.
Using slurry or not on a thuri belongs to personal preference. I have talked with a lot of old hollow grinders in the past years about how to use thuringian and other hones. None of them has ever used slurry on a thuringian waterhone. I am also sure that even in the early days, the only challenge of the slurry stone that was added to the thuringian hones was to clean and reactivate the hone surface and not to produce a slurry.
Also for that purpose the old grinders never used thuringian slurry stones. The traditional material for cleaning and refreshing a natural hone surface was a pumice stone, natural or artificial.

I have a couple of old S.R Droesher, yellow/green fine, Thüringen hones glued to a wood base with a leather strop on the bottom side. Like the one below.

Using a lot of water would wet the strop, so I suspect they were intended to be used dry, with shaving cream or just enough water to wet the face.

S.R Droesher was a distributor for Escher stones and some SRD stones had both names on the label.

The barbers I knew up in North NJ, back in the 'i80s, all used lather on their hones. They were using coticules, but all used the lather from the 'Lather King' machines.

I actually like to hand hone on my Escher so that the last few strokes are on a drying hone. One of those "works for me" things I guess...but then I like a very light slurry too.

I think that this Escher hone is best to use with a little water, it should be keep clean and lapped if needed. Over honing can occur if too many strokes are used on this hone. I think a razor that has not passed a 8k stone has no business on it, furthermore a dull razor will mess it up quick. I appreciate everyone's input, I have a lot to learn but i can say the 2 years I've been using a straight razor has been a great experience, and I will never go back to the boring old disposables. Collecting razors,hones and strops is a passion and a bit addictive.

I bought an Escher from an estate and it was severely bowed. I lapped it with a 300 diamond plate then with the opposite side of 1000 which really made it very smooth. I have played with it with a slurry progression and more recently under running water. I found the last procedure the best and with the least amount of strokes. It really gives it a great edge and a very smooth shave. In the case of the Escher, less is better. My Ark takes a lot more laps to achieve a smooth edge.

Originally Posted by Bomac42777

I think that this Escher hone is best to use with a little water, it should be keep clean and lapped if needed. Over honing can occur if too many strokes are used on this hone. I think a razor that has not passed a 8k stone has no business on it, furthermore a dull razor will mess it up quick. I appreciate everyone's input, I have a lot to learn but i can say the 2 years I've been using a straight razor has been a great experience, and I will never go back to the boring old disposables. Collecting razors,hones and strops is a passion and a bit addictive.

Interesting, several of us have tried to overhone on Escher...and failed.

Originally Posted by ScottGoodman

Interesting, several of us have tried to overhone on Escher...and failed.

Can agree on that, it Never happened to me to overhone with one, but sure it might be the best way to stop when youre ready and not proceeding additionally 100 strokes if those are not really needed...