Originally Posted by
Pithor
As far as I'm aware those on Timbertools are imported from Germany, mined in the Thüringer area, and I've heard that they are good finishers. They are, effectively, the only source for 'new' Thüringian hones. However, as mentioned here, Escher was a company name. Marketing them as Eschers is either ignorant or deceitful.
Being natural stones and all that, I don't quite understand why these get disqualified as easily as they seem to and are deemed inferior to 'vintage' Thüringer stones, which are from the same area, same type of slate and probably formed around the same time. Not to mention that, if there is a variation between thüringer hones, the vintage ones wouldn't be uniform either.
It might even be possible that these MST thüringians are from the same mine/rock as some 'vintage' ones.