Thread: Got a box of 25 stones, need some ID help (cotis, and thuris, and Norton? Oh my!)

Had a once in a lifetime find at a garage sale last week! Short version is that I now own an additional 25 stones and 40 straights
(including a W&B FBU, 9/8 near wedge... But that's another topic)

I'm hoping to find some help identifying a few things here, starting with the hones.

Overall pics of fronts, backs, and sides and info I have so far below
Questions and additional pics below that

1. Exide 87x50x7mm - smells/feels oily
2. Franz Swaty 130x52x13mm "Three line" barber's hone
3. Norton 130x55x15mm - red/black combo stone Update: i think this is the infamous "crazy axe hone"?? Will get some closeup pics later
4. Congo No. 4 - D. F. Politi & Co. Boston Mass 112x51x15mm - New in box/wrapped, missing lid. (see more below)
5. American Hone Co. Olean, NY - "Moss" 70x50x15mm
6. Possible Escher? (see more below) 178x37x19mm
7. Possible Thuringian? (see more below) 127x62x20mm
8. Coti 86x51x25mm (see more below)
9. Coti 196x68x30mm (see more below)
10. Unmarked natural stone 122x62x20mm Gray with a greenish tint, very fine, pretty dished. No clue on this, will lap it eventually to see if it's anything decent
11. Rubbinit 600 (broken) 124x40x17mm
12. No markings 150x50x15mm Dark grey, looks synthetic, feels medium-fine
13. No markings 100x50x10mm Reddish-brown synthetic, looks/feels similar to the Swaty
14. American Hone Co, Olean NY 87x49x8mm Light Gray with oily residue on top
15. No markings 150x50x20mm Red/black combo stone, smells oily
16. identical to 15 - Update: gifted to a friend
17. No markings 120x50x8mm Red/Black combo stone, smells oily
18. No clue - there is definitely something stamped on the side, but it needs a good cleaning, i can't make out what it says. 200x53x19mm Feels like it may just be a fine carborundum - Update: Solved. After cleaning up the side i could partially read the original stamp ".....ndum Hone no 105". So this is, in fact, a Carborundum Hone. A single grit SIC oil stone.
19. Unmarked hard Arkansas (darker than the 2 Norton labeled ones below) 122x46x24mm - Update: gifted to a friend
20. Norton Hard Arkansas 122x49x24mm
21. Norton Hard Arkansas 126x50x10mm
22. Unknown synthetic 115x73x14mm Light grey, light weight, marked "C400 R V". It's certainly a coarser stone, though I wouldn't have guessed as low as 400 grit, but I can't imagine what else that could mean
23. Don't know, don't care lol Just a soft, medium grit, brown stone that's dished to hell and back. It'll end up in the shop for rough, imprecise sharpening tasks
24. Mystery stone 83x50x14mm (see more below)
25. Unknown - has a label, but can't read it. Stamp on the other side is just for the distributer. 112x52x15mm Tan/Brown combo stone Update: I'm wondering now if this is a Frictionite no 00, after partially lapping it. I'll have to take some new pics

#4

Not sure what this is, but it's brand new, still wrapped in paper, with the above two notes wrapped with it.
Only have the bottom half of the box (dark blue), no lid.
Haven't found any info on it yet, only thing I've found so far is that the small paper above matches a paper someone has with a frictionite stone....this clearly isn't that, but maybe it's an American Hone Co stone of some sort?

#24 Mystery Stone 83x50x14mm


Really not sure on this one. I thought it was a small coti slurry stone at first, but it was very grimy.
When i went to lap it, it stinks! The dark side smells like...patchouli maybe? The light side smells similar, but with sulfer mixed in.
The long sides look 100% like a perfectly straight glue up or synthetic combo stone, but the short ends are very uneven at the transitions.
One end shows it was obviously cut down from a larger stone, by hand, with a hacksaw, sloppily.
Both surfaces full of micro-cracks.
Pics shown partially lapped, to show discoloration (lighter center is fresh lapped, dark edges are original color)
I'm thinking some old synthetic stone, but the foul smells make me leary about what may be in it...?

#6 & #7
Thuringian/Escher?


I've never handled an Escher before, but the coloring on this reminded me of reading about them in the past.
Then i noticed that this scrap of a label left on the end of the skinny one looks identical to the border found on some of the Escher labels I've seen online. Particularly, this old German label here
Escher's and Thuringian's Found in the Wild
Am I reaching? Or is that a reasonable guess?

The reason I'm thinking the wider stone is "related" is that these two stones have a very similar look/feel to eachother, and the pattern to the layers from the side view look strikingly similar.

The long skinny one is lighter with green hue leaning towards the warmer (yellow) end of the spectrum, while the wider one is slightly darker with a green hue leaning towards cooler (blue).

It's my understanding that Eschers were just a branded version of select Thuringian slate. Based on that, I'm thinking the skinny one with the label scrap could be an actual Escher, and the wide one with no label residue would (in theory) just be an unmarked Thuringian slate?


#8 & #9
Large and Small Coticules
I have very limited experience with coticules (i own one other), and am hoping that someone more knowledgable can help me with identifying these two.
I have my best guesses for each below the pics, using info found in this pdf doc that i found through another forum :
http://bosq.home.xs4all.nl/info 20m/grinding_and_honing_part_4_belgian_whetstones.pd
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The obvious flaw here is that the article only discusses a handful of types....but coticule.be isn't exactly set up for easily searching by identifiable criteria


Small coticule, natural combo - 86x51x25mm

I'm thinking maybe La Nouvelle based on the sharp transition lines into the Rouge de Salm, and the overall smoothly colored surface, with just the lightest hint of blue-ish/grey marbling in places.
But I'm not very convinced, based on the darkness of the color

It seems rather large for a slurry stone, but the heavily tapered ends would imply that's all it was used for, and I'd have no intention of changing that.

At any rate, i love that extra little strip of coticule layer down in the Rouge, gives it some nice character


Large Coticule, natural combo AND glued layer -
196x68x30mm

First off, let me just say this stone is a beast! Lol
Clocks in at 2lb 10oz, or 1,185 grams
Based on that pdf, I'm guessing this to be a thick piece of La Dressante, containing both the La Dressante au Bleu and the La Dressante Upper Layer mentioned in the doc.

This side shot will show why. There are two distinctly different colored layers in the coticule layer, lighter on top and darker near the transition line.


The surface has very faint white streaks in it that didn't show up very well in the photos.
The parts that look like cracks are black and reddish-orange veins (can't be felt when honing)
The slurry is very creamy, and seems to hold up for a while.
Tested first on an old sheffield steel chisel, and it cut very fast on a thick slurry, turning black after just a couple strokes.
Tested on a W&B razor it seemed reasonable fast on slurry, very slow on water, left a comfortably smooth edge with the unicot method (even considering I'm WAY out of practice on honing, and didn't have a huge amount of experience using coticules in the past)
Stone gives quite a lot of feedback, in both feel and sound.
Pics show it only partially lapped, haven't flattened right to the very ends yet... May not waste the stone by doing that anyway, there's still plenty of surface area there for now.


If you've made it this far, thanks for taking the time to look!
Really hoping for some help on the ones that are pictured individually, but open to any info anyone has on the rest as well!

Thanks in advance

That's an incredible haul!

Awesome find. I'm with you on #6&7. Long skinny looks to be a yellow/green, and the short wide might be a Blue/green barbers delight. ( looks similar to mine )

Yes Escher is a labeled Thuri by the Escher company. That said the narrow stone actually seems to have a remnant of an Escher label. Some of the stones had the end of the label folded over the edge and that red seems pretty spot on.

Dual tone, wow. Nice find.

#24 looks like a coti cut down to be used as a barber hone.

I have one that looks pretty much like that, but without any nasty aroma. Wonder if they used some kind of oil on it.

#7 is very likely a "Barbers Gem". Very few Thuri's are wider than 50mm or two inches. That and it is two toned makes it highly likely. Great find!

Thanks all!

Originally Posted by outback

Awesome find. I'm with you on #6&7. Long skinny looks to be a yellow/green, and the short wide might be a Blue/green barbers delight. ( looks similar to mine )

Definitely looks very similar!
The dimensions are definitely much different from a lot of the long skinny ones I see in most threads. I'm hesitant to say an Escher Barber's Delight without any remnants of labels, and because of the rough cut back...I thought those were usually more of a "select" stone, finished on both sides? (i should get a pic of the back)

Originally Posted by alex1921

Yes Escher is a labeled Thuri by the Escher company. That said the narrow stone actually seems to have a remnant of an Escher label. Some of the stones had the end of the label folded over the edge and that red seems pretty spot on.

Dual tone, wow. Nice find.

Thanks for the confirmation. I mean, I'm feeling pretty darn confident about that label scrap, but didn't want to think I was just seeing what I wanted to see lol
As for it being a two tone, the back on the skinny one is pretty rough too, looks like someone used it for some pretty damn rough breadknifing...likely on tools or knives, it's way too much gouging for razors.
Haven't decided yet if I'll lap the backside or just leave it and enjoy the single side.
Sealed the ends and back with poly today though, to keep those little remnants on the ends in tact.

Originally Posted by DZEC

#24 looks like a coti cut down to be used as a barber hone.

I have one that looks pretty much like that, but without any nasty aroma. Wonder if they used some kind of oil on it.

That's definitely a possibility still, but I dunno, something about the cracking pattern and smell gives me a synthetic feeling in my gut...but again, I'm no expert

Originally Posted by Toroblanco

#7 is very likely a "Barbers Gem". Very few Thuri's are wider than 50mm or two inches. That and it is two toned makes it highly likely. Great find!

Another possibility, but the reply to Outback above is relevant here too.
Was also wondering if it might be one of the Droescher branded stones? I seem to see more of those in these wide/short ratios

Big bunch of rocks. Nice find for sure.

Those Norton axe hones fetch big dollars down under, the last one I saw go to auction was from an outstanding member from SRP in Australia and ended up here in New Zealand.

Yeah, I've been looking into that one over this past weekend. Was having a bit of trouble finding too many recent sales of them, wasn't sure if that was because of scarcity, or if that fad was dying down?
I haven't listed anything on ebay in like 15 years, but might have to dust off my account for this one lol

The further I get into researching everything here, the more I'm blown away... Someone really put together one helluva collection here!