Thread: (White?) Tam O' Shanter Finisher

although it was not labelled as a tam o' shanter, i was not the only one interested in the stone when it showed up on ebay. so, it wasn't exactly a steal... however, i was extremely pleased when i opened the parcel. the stone is of a very bright colour, evenly covered with very small dark spots and some faint swirls, solid and quite thick. the back side is unevenly shaped. i think the hone must have been glued into a box.

as it seems to be a very fine stone i decided to use it as a finisher. i honed a swiss "E. Eichenberger, Basel" on it. i have never been very happy with this razor. its steel is extremely tough, very resistant to abrasion and difficult to hone (to me...). i started with a 5k naniwa edge, then on the TOS with thick slurry (atoma 1200), diluting to almost zero, stropped and shaved. to my big surprise the resulting edge was much better than expected. although the shave was neither super close nor extremely smooth it was quite acceptable, especially since the razor has always been a beast to hone.

and a few pictures:


the new TOS between a TOS/WOA dual hone and a small darker TOS


back side of new TOS and dark TOS


new TOS wet, upper left corner dual hone TOS wet


close up of new TOS (through 10x magnifier)

regards,
hans

Nice stones here are some of mine...

A jewellers Stick which i would call a white TOS:


Plus darker variants with bigger spots:

More, MORE, MORE, HAD at Work!!!!!

Originally Posted by FAL

More, MORE, MORE, HAD at Work!!!!!

Haha Fal :-) ok some more...

Tam o Shanter in a Dark Blue:

Here the definately white Tos:

cool, thank you for the pictures, sebastian. looking at them, it seems like my TOS could be called "white" as well.

regards,
hans

Well, Now I want one, not that I need one though... Thanks Doorsch

doorsch Why do you think that it's a "White TOS"?
I've seen only 2 white TOS:
there is first if them in Grinding and honing part 3 p.45 (and the same example due to picture of the label there Choosing & Using a Straight Razor - pt3, Hones | The Shaving Room)
and
one on ebay:





And it looks like color means nearly nothing (see G&H 3 p.50) - both of them are grey and there is no significant difference in color between simple TOS and "white".
So there are:
simple TOS (celebrated hone, fine TOS, etc.),
dark TOS (darker and rougher, no specific label found)
blue TOS
white TOS

One friend of mine said that white TOS is different in work: it's softer, faster and finer than all kind of "fine TOS", "for razors" and etc. Unfortunately he has sold his example and I have not even seen it.

Originally Posted by Botanic

[b]
So there are:
simple TOS (celebrated hone, fine TOS, etc.),
dark TOS (darker and rougher, no specific label found)
white TOS

One friend of mine said that white TOS is different in work: it's softer, faster and finer than all kind of "fine TOS", "for razors" and etc. Unfortunately he has sold his example and I have not even seen it.

i don't quite agree: officially (=labelled by the manufacturer), there are TOS, Fine TOS and White TOS.

as many TOS of all colours are not labelled, it is ok in my opinion to call such a stone dark, blue, white, green, light, etc. as a description of its appearance.

and anyway - as i don't hone my razors on labels - what counts is the stone's performance: my "white" TOS is finer than my dark TOS and finer than my labelled F.TOS, it is harder than the other two TOS, and also slower than the other two TOS. when you read the label of a W.TOS you'll see that it is described as "slow cutting", so i am not sure if your friend was talking about a labelled W.TOS.

regards,
hans

Originally Posted by Botanic

doorsch Why do you think that it's a "White TOS"?
I've seen only 2 white TOS:
there is first if them in Grinding and honing part 3 p.45 (and the same example due to picture of the label there Choosing & Using a Straight Razor - pt3, Hones | The Shaving Room)
and
one on ebay:





And it looks like color means nearly nothing (see G&H 3 p.50) - both of them are grey and there is no significant difference in color between simple TOS and "white".
So there are:
simple TOS (celebrated hone, fine TOS, etc.),
dark TOS (darker and rougher, no specific label found)
blue TOS
white TOS

One friend of mine said that white TOS is different in work: it's softer, faster and finer than all kind of "fine TOS", "for razors" and etc. Unfortunately he has sold his example and I have not even seen it.

My statement was just based on plain comparison and performance:

- the white one is much finer
- the structure looks much more different and finer, the dots are much smaller

As there is no label left this is just a personal interpretation not based on the quarry owners original "labelling".