Alien hones.

[Memorael]

Took the time to take these pictures figured someone could ID the ones that aren't. The green one is a cutlers green hone, and I used to think that the last two were thuringians but I have come to a conclusion that they aren't as they don't assimilate the same as a escher I have they are actually really different, been playing with them and the darker one gives an awesome finish better than my best coticule yet not as harsh as a 16k shapton.
The other small one has three distinct strata in it, and has some spots on the lighter side really small spots. They both came from england and they both have saw marks on them. The green one is a cutlers green and the other two I have no clue what they are they are both really fine finishers smoother than coticules really hard though not as hard as a arkansas and have striations on the sides. Any clues? anyone?

[McWolf1969]

The second stone, from the top, looks like a yellow/green escher, that just recently sold on ebay.

Vintage German Water Hone For Straight Razors E & Co. - eBay (item 290358917112 end time Oct-18-09 22:30:48 PDT)

Mac

[Pyment]

The second stone, from the top, looks like a yellow/green escher, that just recently sold on ebay.

Vintage German Water Hone For Straight Razors E & Co. - eBay (item 290358917112 end time Oct-18-09 22:30:48 PDT)

Mac

You sure? I was thinking Coticule.

The 2 on the bottom look like Ark Translucents.

That Last Pic makes me think Tom O'Shanter

[Memorael]

You know I think you might have just hit the jackpot. It even has the same saw marks on it.

[Oldengaerde]

The eBay hone does look similar, I agree. It was on my list too, but I'm still not sure what to think of it. I would have loved to win it just to find out what exactly it is.

For posterity: it measures 5 1/4 inches long, 1 1/2 inches wide by 3/4 of an inch thick and surprisingly went for almost 360 USD.





Assuming hone and label belong together, which isn't necessarily the case (without need even to doubt the honesty of the vendor), the original size would have been about a third longer, 7 inch. That seems to have been a common length for Thuringians, but I haven't seen an Escher labelled one before. Incidentally: if it broke or was sawn, it acquired its new length a long time ago, judging from the cupping, which is in the middle of the present length.

Also, the width is typically ~2.5 cm at 10-12.5 cm long ones, 4 at up to 18 long, 4.5 by 21 cm (the more common blue-labelled 'Celebrated Water Razor Hone' is this size) or 5 cm in the 22-27 ones. That makes the proportions of this one stand out a bit. What size is yours Memorael?

As for colour: to me the hone side looks rather drab/ecru and quite unlike the Escher-yellow-green I know. Still, this can just be the lighting in the picture. The same applies to Memorael's hone/pictures.

The speckling that can be seen in the fourth picture is uncommon for Thuringians too, but Ts with tiny dark speckles occasionaly do occur, in which case the dark dots are mostly accompanied by tiny spots in the shape of thin wriggly line segments, like minute worms.



To cut a long story short: I haven't got a clue what you've got there, but those hones certainly do look nice!

[Memorael]

Funny enough the stone I have is the same size I believe, I don't have it with me right now but it certainly is very close in size if not. This leads me to believe that either these particular hones were cut that way in which case both hones are the same type and mines is missing the label, it would make sense somebody removed it since its basically a different hone on each side or the one sold on ebay has a label that doesn't belong to it.
The hone is a yellowish greenish color and almost gray on the other side more like blue grey, and in between theres a lighter color. Heres more pix too:
Picasa Web Albums - rael - ESCHER???#

[adrspach]

I have simillar ho to that bottom one and thought that it was W...ita hone. If not it would be nice surprise to me and even more for one of colleagues here who received one smaller example as present.

[Memorael]

Not to disapoint you or anything but my hone is a bit different. I have one hone similiar to yours and they are not the same. That hone if I am not mistaken is really hard I mean like almost impossible to flatten type of hard, and it has some brownish spots right? The bottom hone in the pictures is a greenish grey hone no brown spots.

[adrspach]

You are right. It was realy hard to flatten. Do you have positive ID for this hard stone?

[Memorael]

The overall consensus seems to be washita or some form of novaculite. Its a good hone though, does yours cut fast? I remember mine being quite agressive almost like a 1k a bit finer maybe 2k.