Thread: Chinese Hone

Hi

I'm looking for a finishing stone to use after my 4000/8000 norton. I've found this 12000 natural stone at classicshaving.com:

Natural Polishing Water Stone (12,000 Grit)

What do you think about it? Have you tried it?

I'm also thinking about a "belgian coticule" stone or maybe a Naniwa 12K stone.

I'm just going to throw this out there.

chinese site:straightrazorplace.com - Google Search

I have a Chinese 12K. I think it's a good stone.

Thnx for the quick reply, so it seems both work but the coticule is way faster than the chinese.

I've used them and sold what I had. Not going to say "bad" things about them, but you would more than likely be much more pleased & get more consistent results with a Naniwa 12K or Shapton GS 16. Eschers are about as good as they come, but the collectors are driving the prices up to plum-crazy prices.

Are they worth it? Learn one of the synthetic finishers then decide if you want to try one. Natural stones are a little more difficult to learn as each stone has it's own "personality". Then decide....

A coticule wouldn't be much of a improvement over your Norton 4/8...

I agree with Shooter, There can be a lot of variances between Coticules. The C12k is slow. If I had to pick one, I'd go with the Naniwa 12k.

Originally Posted by shooter74743

A coticule wouldn't be much of a improvement over your Norton 4/8...

I'd have to disagree, qualifying my different opinion with my own experience. I have used several, and while I can not estimate their grit accurately, they all provided a significantly smoother shaves than my Naniwa 8K, which is not a Norton 8k but similar. Granted it depends which coticule you get, but they certainly can improve an 8K's edge. Some people here finish on them alone. I prefer the Escher.

So what is an "Escher", I'm not familiar with that term.

An Escher is a brand of natural hone mined by Escher and Co in Thuringen, Germany. They are no longer produced. They are alleged by some (including myself) to impart the best possible finishing edge on a straight razor.

I should add they are highly collectible and not only within the straight razor community, various groups of people seek to acquire them, from collectors to Rabbis for slaughtering Kosher meat. This has increased their price from about 5 dollars when they were originally sold, to in excess of 100 times that nowadays and this is not due to inflation alone.