Thread: Escher

Originally Posted by Srdjan

When I started about 5 years ago I lived in the UK. If I make it back, I'll be bringing my dark blue Escher and maybe we can arrange a meet up. I had no idea there were so few of "us" in the UK! [emoji27]

Sounds good

Originally Posted by JOB15

Yeh sure but I don't do grease,, I wanna live long time .

Who makes these colors up. They are grey or blue to my eyes.

Not really it really depends what you have in youre hand. I got several stones which really look more green then gray or blue

This is the only labelled 'grun' (green) Escher I've ever seen. A member here had it on the bay. I don't recall his name. This was a few years ago.

The color labels aren't so much absolute as relative. The labels describe the stones' relative appearances vs. each other more than they do the absolute color - basically shades of gray. So a dark blue will look more like a bluish blackish gray, a blue green will look like a slightly greener and lighter shade of that gray, and a yellow green will look even a lighter greenish gray. Peter had a PDF showing the different variations floating around somewhere.

Today I received my Escher .

This one is an old Escher and it is Green.
It took an age to lap and it did my back in . I used 600 grit paper on the sides and bottom . Just to give me a fresh surface to hold as I am the new owner
I slightly bevelled every edge with a DMT plate and lapped the top with the Shapton Diamond plate. The stone was the opposite of dished out . The middle was proud which corresponded with the arched underside.

When it arrived there were zero sparkles and it was just pure matt but after lapping and holding it at angles under my bedroom light bulb I can get some tiny reflective particles . Not like the blue one but there are some their .

I've taken some pictures with my microscope showing both stones and the edge after 50 laps on the Green. The Green stone did auto slurry.
Before that I did a few laps 8/16k Shapton to start afresh .
Last week I shaved off 30 laps on the blue and it was an amazing shave.



Green Escher

Blue Escher

Shapton 16k

Green Escher.. Looks the same as the blue did under scope.

Originally Posted by JOB15

Yeh sure but I don't do grease,, I wanna live long time .

Who makes these colors up. They are grey or blue to my eyes.

Thuringians exist between yellow-green-blue in all possible color variations. In total more than hundred layers have been mined in the old thuringian quarries. All these layers have been classified by most companies in 4 quality levels: yellow green - light green -blue green - (dark) blue.
Some companies simply distinguish green and blue, others listed additional colors like light blue to the above mentioned 4 levels. The most common layer is one that simply looks grey. It was classified as light green quality.

So what is the best colour?

People say yellow green. However if dark blue is finer then surely that wins?

That's individual preference!
The differences between the colors are reallly small and I would say, only really experienced honers can feel the difference.
However, examinations in the 1960's have shown that the yellow green quality is the finest based on the upper particle size of the abrasive quartz particles. Also the yellow green stones are mostly the softest - I think that's why a lot of people like them most (the softness gives that buttery feeling when honing). If you like a harder quality - than the light green or the blue ones are better for you. A special vein is the blue green. I personally like this most tohgether with the yellow green ones that are coming from the combination layer yg-blue.
But it also depends on the steel of the razor you are honing. Some harder steels seem that they don't like the yg quality according to my experience.

As ashamed as I am I thought I would update you on my Esher quest.

We are not allowed to name and shame on this forum so all as I can say is that you should be able to figure this one out.

I purchased about 5 Eschers/Thuringians . Two of them were expensive , my Labelled Escher, Blue Green and my Vintage Green Thuringian Escher?.
Since I had my blue /green I decided to sell the rest and recoup some cash. Especially from the Vintage Green as I paid £250 for it from the biggest seller I've seen of these stones, he is also an expert in these stones and told me it was a fine finisher.

I listed and sold all of them apart from the vintage Green Thuringian Escher?. A buyer contacted me telling me that it wasn't worth what I was asking . He pointed out some reasons for this ,including me stating Escher? as it was sold to me.

I decided to open a case for a refund because of the Escher? in the title.
The seller wrote an essay on why he wouldn't accept the return and stated that I had lapped the stone taking 1mm off every side (linking and referencing this thread where I explain how I lapped the stone), so the stone was not in the same condition.

I felt a little guilty at asking for a return because I had upset this guy who I would probably buy more stones from in the future and I could always sell this stone on.
The bay told me I would need a letter from the manufacturer saying it was not an Escher..

So the case closed and I lost.

I sold the stone to a guy in the states. A nice guy , a collector/seller.
He immediately wanted a refund.
He took pictures of my stone next to some of his green stones, proving it was not green . He also told me that it was a Muller stone only fit for pre finishing as he had been some one who had tested muller stones in the past.

I gave him the money back and paid for return postage.

I have contacted the original seller who has only replied once to me saying that he would not cheat me.
The stone has a grit rating of about 8k , I would place it at.

I don't know what to do with this stone. I have no use for it and I cant bear to look at it. I also keep testing it but it just degrades the edge.

My fault for not testing it fully when I first bought it but it goes to show that you can not trust everyone and reputations don't mean a lot in some respects or some cases, like this one.

Originally Posted by JOB15

I have contacted the original seller who has only replied once to me saying that he would not cheat me.
The stone has a grit rating of about 8k , I would place it at.

I don't know what to do with this stone. I have no use for it and I cant bear to look at it. I also keep testing it but it just degrades the edge.

My fault for not testing it fully when I first bought it but it goes to show that you can not trust everyone and reputations don't mean a lot in some respects or some cases, like this one.

I have no idea who this seller is, but since he said that he would not cheat you, then hopefully you have asked him to make this right. If he too has a problem with your having lapped it, then he still should refund at least 90% of your purchase price in exchange for your return of the hone.