SRD Barber Hones\Droescher

Here are a couple of SRD barber hones. If you are not familiar with them, the brown side is man made but the other side is a German Water Hone. They normaly came with a rubber, the one in the pic is not the original.

Both of these boxes are without the lid, but the hones are barely worn with a semi intact label, badly damaged.

The real reason for posting these is that Droescher's in some circles were "relabeled" Eschers. I have heard arguments both ways, so that part, if it is important to you, maybe we will find out more. Both of these I got off the bay for under 30 bucks.

That was quite a while back, but I doubt if you are not picky, they can be had for similar price.

Yeah SRD sold thuringians without backing too. In my opinion it doesn't matter much if they sourced them from Escher or from one of the other companies. But, I sold my Eschers in boxes with perfect labels for $20 more than I sold the equal sized non-Escher thuringians that worked just the same. In other words, I'm not somebody who puts huge premium on a paper sticker.

Thanks Gugi. I remember for a while it seemed like you had quite a few German Water stone family hones.

My point of reference for these hones or any thurry type is pretty shallow and have spent very little time with them other than cleaning them up.

SRD on the other hand was a good company and often sold some premo products. Just an alternative entry for budget minded folks that have been longing for this type and going into sticker shock.

AFAIK, S.R. Droescher (A.K.A. SRD) was a distributor of barber supplies. As such they sold coticules, barber hones, Thuringans, razor strops and of course some very nice razors. I have a Hohenzollern also marked S.R. Droescher. I've wondered if there is a direct relationship between J.G. Escher Sohn and Droescher but I am not sure. :thinking: The Honenzollern hones are real good IME.

There is. Three labels on the same hone:

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Thanks for the pics O.

In that Droescher sold hones that were Eschers for people that find that important, you helped answer Jimmy's question.

On the pics I put up you can barely make out a signature on the bottom right hand side. Unfortunately, I can't make it out. Also on the perimeter of the SRD barber hone, there is a red folial patern stylisticaly similar to the Escher label of your pics.

If I get curious enough one day, I will try a razor or two on them to see how I like them.

Also, I wonder if there was a familial connection with American Droescher the German Eschers.

Oh yeah Droescher sold some really good stuff. I personally like their razors better than the ducks, better quality scales too.
At one point I wondered about the similarity in the names, but I don't think any relation is particularly close. They probably descent from the same tribe centuries back, but then if you look far enough everybody comes from Adam & Eve, or their evolutionary equivalent :)

I just picked up on Saturday a really nice S.R. Droescher 5/8", Germany Razor for $4.00 at a local tractor show . Plastic one piece scales with flowers in the plastic. Scales not real pretty but the blade is to die for. Getting ready to do 10 round trips on my 16K. Shapton then half a dozen laps on the Coti. under running water. The razor has a short monkey tail which makes it look pretty cool The secret is having a real good 10K. edge before going to the Shaptom. It will make all the difference in how the blade turns out, can't wait to do it so here I go! Let you know how it turns out in a bit. I wonder just where these razors were made? Just says Germany & not Soliegen. Who cares? A great razor!!:rock:

Slawman

Pictures, or it didn't happen ;)

I have always found it interesting how similar the Escher and Droescher labels can be.


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I expect that it is no coincidence and those hones are made by Escher.

I seem to recall that a few other non-affiliated companies also made labels that were very similar, with the same color scheme and a barber scene, on their hones. It probably was legal but certainly was sleazy.

Brand encroachment was pretty common back then. The market place was more deceptive then than now, at least in North America.

Talking about similarities: how about this one? A genuine Stukenbrok. Stukenbrok was one of the first mail order companies. Its catalogues are collectors' items and facsimiles are sold on ebay.

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Is it possible the similarities in packaging could also be due to the labels being designed and printed by the same company? Perhaps Escher and Droescher bought labels and boxes instead of making their own.

Yes. It may also be possible that because escher mined them they sold them the boxes with the altered labels too.

Probably more related to distribution than knock-off. There weren't a lot of export channels at the time so manufacturers used any means possible.