Thread: What is a differences between y/green and light /green escher?

Originally Posted by CJBianco

Jimmy, I know from talking with you that your light green stone is the special 6x2 size marketed by Escher under the name Barber's Choice. Since barbers preferred the speedier stones (Swaty, etc) for those quick touchups mid-shave or between customers, do you think the faster speed of the light green stone is the reason for the Barber's Choice name as well as the special barber hone size, or is this just a fun coincidence? (Might it have been marketed to compete against the synthetics such as Swaty?)

Thanx,
Me

Christopher, I don't know if it was by coincidence or deliberate. I recently acquired a yellow/green Escher with the normal Y/G end label but with an additional label on the other end that reads guaranteed soft. IMO the Light Green is still faster and about as fine. The Y/G were the most expensive Eschers with the Light Greens next in the $ pecking order. I don't pretend to know what all of this meant back then. I do know that all the Eschers I've had hands on experience with have been great razor hones regardless of color designation. Still trying to scratch the surface of the mystery myself.

I dont know the difference between them, all I know is I want one..!

I'll have to pray to the gods of eBay that a sweet Y/G flies under the radar or something. Or I'll have to do some serious antiquing..!

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

A couple of years ago I asked Lynn, Tim Zowada, and Tony Miller what the differences were in color labeled Eschers. Lynn said."The differences are subtle." His favorite is Blue/Green. Tony Miller said that he wasn't sure but the rabbis who came to him for Eschers (Tony used to sell them) were only interested in yellow/green stones. Tim Zowada said that he hadn't thought about it and that he would look into it and get back to me. I haven't heard from him on that yet.

Talking to two Escher collectors/razor honers who are not members of SRP they both, independent of each other, claimed the "brown" Escher to be the best. I have never seen a labeled brown Escher. The one I have (unlabeled and unconfirmed to be an Escher) is good but not as good as my labeled stones IMO.

In my own honing I have found them all to be good. My favorite is the yellow/green but that may be the power of suggestion more that the performance of the stone. My light green appears to be the fastest cutter. Blue green is great and the dark blue is slow but leaves a very fine edge. As in all honing it is more the Indian than the arrow IME.

Jimmy, I'm sorry I never got back to you. I've gotten lost in the morass of smelting my own steel, and forgot...

The upshot on the Escher's is that they are all great finishing hones. I own everything else out there, and still pull out my Blue/Green to finish all my razors.

As for the differences, and this is only my subjective feeling, I have no real evidence to back this up: The more "yellow" you go in the spectrum, the faster they cut. The more "blue" you go, they are slower cutting and the smoother the finished edge. Yet, they are all smooth enough finishers that Chromium Oxide will easily remove any remaining micro-teeth.

I guess I would summarize by stating, any Escher is a superlative finishing hone. Don't worry about the color. The color argument is mostly relevant to collectors and Schechim. For razors, just lap it with 2000 grit and keep it clean.

Remember it is a finishing hone. You are not trying to move any significant amount of metal. You are just trying to polish out 8000 grit scratches, and those scratches are pretty small...

I hope this helps.

Tim Z.

Thank you, Tim.

I have been using my Dark blue a lot and I have noticed that it's slow but the edge is very very nice on the skin.