Thread: Stone ID Request

Hello, everyone. I'm usually pretty good at ID-ing natural hones, but this one is perplexing me a bit.

I purchased it on eBay thinking that it was an unlabeled Barber's Gem (Escher or Pike), given the size of the main stone (5x2-1/2), the style of box, the color of the box (light green), the usual Escher slurry stone in the lighter Y/G color, etc.



After cleaning it, I'm not sure anymore.




















The main stone is 5" x 2.5" like the usual Barber's Gem, but it has a very light swirl pattern (which is hard to photo). The main stone also has that brown figure line which doesn't affect honing at all, but it's not something I'm used to seeing on old Escher / Thuringians. (I started to lap the underside, but decided to stop mid-progress, as you'll see in the photos.)

The well-worn slurry stone is the usual very light Yellow-Green which always seems to accompany many of the darker Escher stones, but it has tiny brown specks along with a touch of that matching brown that is also found on the main stone. (This slurry stone also has a bit of that hard-to-photo swirl / layered pattern like the main stone.)

Both stones are soft like the lighter color Eschers, and together they put a fairly fast and very fine edge on a razor.

I seem to recall some of the blue-green Eschers having a bit of light swirl pattern sometimes, but the brown specks and figure lines throw me for a loop.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance.

Regards,
Chris