Thread: Escher Back Labels

There are various Escher back labels that I have become familiar with. Here are a few. There are two variations that I am aware of that have a barber shop scene. Then there is the Celebrated Water Razor Hone label with the Escher cup with E&Co inside it. One of the barber shop labels seems to easily come off when wet. The other, older I think, label will not and are frequently worn. The same can be said of the Celebrated label IME. On the two alternate barber scene labels note the rough hewn appearance of the back of the stones. This is, IME, characteristic of Escher stones whether the labels are in place or not. The pock marked appearance on the backs of the Light green and yellow green stones with their labels next to them is from the shelf material I use to sit them on when I use them.

Jimmy Man I am working on a stand for mine right now,,, Just finally got the thick plexi in my hands..

I am using clear plexi for the base and I am going to epoxy the stone to the base, forever preserving the label... I am deciding how to do the base legs now... Will post pics when I finish it...

It's funny that you are posting all of this right now, because I just started an Escher box project two days ago myself!

The label on the stone that I'm working with was in really bad shape -- dirty and with several holes in it -- and I didn't think it would survive the process of removing it, so I just cleaned it the best I could and coated the whole surface with clear polyurethane. Well, let me say that the end result looks fantastic, and I hope it holds up over time, because the whole back surface of the stone can now be soaked in water and touched without any worries about further damage to the label. Even if it gets a little scratched up over time, you can just sand the polyurethane and put another coat on. Voila, brand new again.

The box that the stone came in was ALSO completely destroyed, but had two really valuable labels attached -- a Pike "Barber's Gem" on the outside of the lid and the traditional Escher label on the inside of the lid. To remove those labels, I soaked the cardboard in water for about 5 hours and used a toothpick to carefully peel the label off the cardboard. Both came off without a hitch.

For the box, I am going to be carving out two pieces of burl maple, one for the lid and one for the base, and pasting the labels onto the top and bottom surfaces of the wooden box.

Anyway, it's a lot of fun, and I hope to have pictures posted here soon! --Jeff

Jeff the poly ought to be fine on the label. I don't soak my naturals. I use a piece of that rubber waffle shelf liner that Lynn uses in his DVD and lay the stone on that. The label/bottom does get wet to an extent but so far so good. I have sprayed mine with Krylon Preserve It seen here. The end lables are coated with clear nail polish and that seems to be working.

Thanks, Jim, for the good word. I will check out that Krylon stuff when I can.

I am surprised, on the other hand, about the clear nail polish. I have actually done a bit of work for a large nail polish manufacturer, and so I know a little about what goes into the product. What surprises me is that it lasts for any length of time on your stones. Nail polish has to be manufactured with components that are safe for human contact, and that generally means that the hardened nail polish is never, ever going to perform as well as, say, a coating that you'd put on furniture or on a car. Most nail polishes are considered to be "long lasting" if they even last 15 or 20 days on the surface of a woman's nail. Of course, the nail is flexible and growing, so you would have problems with just about any coating that you used on it, but it still surprises me that you'd get any kind of acceptable performance from using nail polish on an object like a hone.

Anyway, I will keep you posted, and thanks again for the help.

Originally Posted by JeffE

Thanks, Jim, for the good word. I will check out that Krylon stuff when I can.

I am surprised, on the other hand, about the clear nail polish. I have actually done a bit of work for a large nail polish manufacturer, and so I know a little about what goes into the product. What surprises me is that it lasts for any length of time on your stones. Nail polish has to be manufactured with components that are safe for human contact, and that generally means that the hardened nail polish is never, ever going to perform as well as, say, a coating that you'd put on furniture or on a car. Most nail polishes are considered to be "long lasting" if they even last 15 or 20 days on the surface of a woman's nail. Of course, the nail is flexible and growing, so you would have problems with just about any coating that you used on it, but it still surprises me that you'd get any kind of acceptable performance from using nail polish on an object like a hone.

Anyway, I will keep you posted, and thanks again for the help.

Jeff, the stones don't see the 'action' that a fingernail would. Guys use it , me included, to preserve the labels on the old Simpson brushes that will wash off on the first shave if you don't use it. If nail polish isn't ideal can you recommend something ? I've been using "Hard As Nails".

HA, LMAO! That's who I used to do work for! Good old Sally Hansen.

So, the chemistry of all of the "drug store" brands is basically identical, so there's no reason at all to purchase Revlon or Maybelline instead of SH or vice versa.

Believe it or not, the higher end "salon" brands like OPI actually contain a little bit different set of chemicals, including toluene, which I think is supposed to make for a slightly better finish. The problem is that California went after the large "drug store" brands in the 90s for using toluene (a suspected carcinogen) and got them to remove toluene from their ingredients. For some reason, California never went after the smaller "salon" brands, so I believe that they still use it -- although my information could be a year or two out of date.

In other words, if I was going to try anything, I would try an expensive salon brand like OPI, Essie or Orly. The other drug store brands probably won't be any different from what you have now.

Many thanks for this and your other recent picture rich threads on Escher labels.

toluene is just a solvnet you can buy at the hardware store?

Originally Posted by Mijbil

toluene is just a solvnet you can buy at the hardware store?

It is some powerful, little goes a long way, stuff. I've only seen it as an ingredient within glue, solvent and what have you. IIRC it was the stuff that affected those who squeezed a tube of Testor's airplane glue into a paper bag and whiffed it.