Thread: ARE THERE NO NEW NEW HONES?

Originally Posted by alx

My son worked with a sushi chef that used the back of a porcelain dinner plate, the rim or foot portion where it's not glazed to refresh his knives. This was just a light touch every so often and not an actual sit down and sharpen session.
The world is full of old dishes, you could have a sharpening plate from every country. alx

My brother is a pretty serious meatcutter/trapper, and he said the best edge he's ever seen on a knife comes from an old "ceramic" (no idea of the real material) insulating tube he pulled out of the wall of a house he helped tear down. The only problem is, it's only about 1\2 thick and 3 inches long.

There's one other thing about these hone discussions that bugs me-when they opened the mine where the Escher's were mined from people who had tried both (I hope) said they weren't the same, others liked them, Now being a natural hone some would necessarily be better than others,but no one has ever said (to my knowledge)
that they had a bad Escher which being a natural stone also doesn't make any sense, as they would have had some that were better than others,and being that they bring some hefty prices why aren't they still being mined,the place where I ordered my Thuringen from said that a new deposit on the west side was yielding some yellow-green stones that were softer like the original Escher's Sorry for the rambling but the whole thing can be very frustrating

Well, Escher was a company that sold Thurry's. It would stand to reason that Escher would be pretty selective in the material they would process and retail, so that is probably why they are all pretty darn good. The same seems to be true of all vintage Thuringians.

What I would speculate is happening with the new Thurinigians (I have no idea if this is true or not) is that the QC on their end is not so good, so there is more variation in quality with regards to what they sell. This can include lower grit hones and inclusions that can damage the edges.

I think I read here, in older threads, that the Escher mine was used as a modern times trash dump and is now a national park. Please correct me if wrong.

Acquisition of non-existent hones(NHAD).

The HAD is strong is this one.

I own a Frankonian hone, which comes from current mining. Not a lot of information out on this one, but I find it leaves a tad smoother edge over my escher with similar sharpness.

If you already own an escher or vintage thuri, it probably isn't going to do much for you. Lately though I've been reaching for it over my escher for finishing (along with my new Asagi).

As Evritt writes: the quarries were filled with rubble after WW 2.