Thread: Not a coticule... I think?

Last weekend I met a gentleman at an antiques market who had a shaving brush for sale on his table. The brush was in poor condition, but we started talking about shaving equipment. He said he had some items at home and if I would like to stop by the next day I could. Indeed, I went to see him and it turns out he was a barber for many years. In his 80's now he has been retired for some time but was a barber in Miami Beach, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire.

I had a terrific time talking with the man and his wife! Went spent a full hour and a half sitting at their dining room table talking barber stuff and other fine points of life. I can't say enough about how nice these folks were. He said he even shaved a few famous people in his time down in Florida.

Unfortunately, he has been unable to use his straight razors for 20 years due to health issues. In the end I was able to purchase a couple razors, one of his old brushes, and the hone he used for many years. It's the hone in question that brings me to this thread. All he told me is it was his "razor hone" but not what type of stone it is.



I thought it was a dirty coticule at first glance. It's 6 x 2 3/4 x 1 inches and appears to be a natural combo. But, it's not the right color and the bottom doesn't look like BBW. It's more of a greenish grey. Here it is lapped.


Here it is next to a grey thuringian and a coticule for color reference.


And with slurry. The slurry is a whitish light grey.


Could it be a thuringian?

Thurigan would be my guess, from right on the edge of two layers. I think Peter had some similar in one of his threads.

I would guess Thuringian, I have a layered Celebrated Water Hone that is almost exact color match.

Does it match any of the standard sizes for Thuri's?

Looks like an unbranded Thuringian that I have. Especially with the slurry on it

Aha, a "natural combo" Thuringian it looks like

Awesome story as well, I treasure the razors and stones with a story attached. Doesn't get better than that.

slurry looks like similar to what my small thury bout has

Thanks for the replies, I'm feeling confident it's a thuringian. I'm not sure what all the standard sizes are for thuri's, but this one is right about 6 x 2 3/4 x 1. I like hand-held honing so it feels perfect for that. The slurry feels very silky, very nice. It was an absolute delight to hear the gentleman's stories, share experiences, and ask him questions. I told him how much I appreciate the history attached to these items, especially the hone, and promised a good home for it... which it shall certainly have.

That's a superb cut between the layers of a yellow-green /dark blue thuringian...both sides will work roughly the same the yg should be a bit finer and slower.
Congrats!
Nice stone...you rareley see them cut like that.

OK, thanks. Then I should go ahead and lap the dark blue side as well? It appears that side was never lapped for use before.

I would lap the dark blue to see how it performed compared to the other side. However once I knew which side finished the best I would probably only use that side.