Thread: New Escher hones

Originally Posted by SkyDiver

Well the transaction went through and the "Original Thuringer Wasserabziehstein - Beste Qualitat" arrived today.

I agree, in that I am not impressed with the quality for the price, but I have not tried it yet either. Only one side is smooth and the other has 3 ridged steps.

IME it is not uncommon for Eschers, Thuringans to have a rough hewn bottom side. Lap the smooth side and give it a go. You might be pleased.

Yes, every single escher hone I've had has had one uneven side, covered by the label. Makes perfect sense too, there is no need to invest any effort to lap yet another side as it doesn't give any advantage other than a higher manufacturing cost. And it's covered by a label which many people like to keep. The labels also wrap a little bit around the sides, so if you don't want to get rid of those little pieces of paper the sides are also pretty useless no matter how well they're finished (too lazy to go check on mine at the moment).

So, just use the hone on the flat side (I always check that it's flat since it costs almost nothing to do and the benefits are big) and don't worry about the other ones.
Spend enough time to learn how to use it well and then you'll know whether it was worth the money or not.

I agree about the another side of the stone.
Only you have to worry about quality of the stone.
Lately i even don't care about shape of the honing stone. i hone on everything which will fit in my palm.
gl

The only sticker was on the wrapper and not on the stone. I figured just one flat side is all that is 'needed'. I should be getting my DMT fine/coarse bench stone today, so I'll lap it and give it a try.

It seems I have become a 'rock collector' with what I believe to be a good start... Norton Waterstone starter kit, 8x3 select coticule, 8x3 BBW, 8x3 Translucent Arkansas, now this 5x1.5 Escher/Thuringan, with the fine/coarse DMT bench stone coming, along with two universal bench stone holders.

I have a number of other stones I've used on knives for decades, but the above listed I bought just for razors.

I'm still quite the 'puppy' when it comes to razor honing, and I notice immediately when I have good results verses poor results. I keep getting reminded that I need to know when it is time to go to the next step before actually moving to the next step...

This 'knowing when' to move on is one reason I like the Dilucot method, as the next step is to continue thinning the slurry working toward just water.