Thread: Müller's Thuringian vs. Chinese Natural Hone

Ok, so I promised I will do a comparison between my Chinese Natural hone, (Posted in this thread - http://straightrazorpalace.com/hones...discovery.html ) and my Müller's Thuringian, which, according to them, is very similar to the old Eschers.

I started off by lapping the Thuringian side by side with my C-Nat, and then I compared the color of the slurry water after lapping, I compared the feel of both hones, and I honed 2 razors (a Henckels and a Dovo) on both of these hones, using slurry produced by the hones themselves. Both razors honed on both hones, not 1 each per hone. So effectively I could assess the edge of both razors. 1 Razor is Stainless Steel (Henckels) and the other Carbon steel.(Dovo)

For the Thuringian, I used the slurry stone that I got with it, and for the C-Nat, I used a DMT 325 grit credit card size plate.

I used both hones as finishers, diluting the slurry to plain water as I went along, and stropped both razors the exact amount of strop strokes on both cotton weave and premium suede leather with this strop that I made a few months ago - http://straightrazorpalace.com/strop...ing-bliss.html.

When dried, the slurry produced by the Thuringian is a very light white-green/grey color, and the slurry from the C-Nat is a white/grey color.

Lapping felt very similar, about the same hardness and consistency to both hones. I lapped them both with a DMT 8C 325 grit plate.

The Thuringian has a bit more speckled variation to the look of the top surface, whereas my C-Nat has the brown striation lines running along it, with the rest of the surface very pure.

Well, the honing similarities were incredible. If I were to close my eyes while honing, I would not be able to feel the difference in the 2 hones. Both give a really nice feedback feel of the edge being brought to perfection when honing. They are both the type of hones where you just slide the edge over the hone, and you can't help but smile as you feel the ultra fine grit in your fingertips and you hear it whispering in your ears while the metal is being polished.

When it came to clean water with no slurry left, I could feel the C-Nat still giving me more of a nice silky feedback, whereas the Thuringian gave me a bit more of a "slippery" feedback.

Both razors (after both hones) were effortlessly slicing floating arm hairs about a 1/2 inch off the surface of my arm.

After properly stropping, I shaved off them for the last 4 days (2 Hones X 2 Razors) to check the edges.

Well, I have to say, the Thuringian did impress me a lot, because I have not been able to get a similar edge that compares almost directly to my C-Nat from many other natural hones before, but my little C-Nat still is king of the hill, especially for its price.

Unfortunately, this is the closest comparison I have ever felt between 2 different natural hones, so I am still unable to say that one of the 2 hones completely trump the other one.

I am still a little bit more in love with my C-Nat hone than the Thuringian, but they really are both excellent finishers.

are the thuri's still available?? and if so a link to where you bought it??

Burt, the way you describe the Thuringian is spot on. I've actually seen on a label or two claiming they will produce a "fine slime" when shaving. So, Slippery sounds correct.
What you should do, is put the C nat away for a while, and concentrate on the Thuringian. You know how the C nat performs, well. Get used to grabbing the Thurry now. I think the more you use it, the more you'll like it. My Escher for instance, always performs better with a slurry, diluting as I go. I normally finish on plain water, but was recently told to finish on slurry, so I'll give that a go....

Originally Posted by paco664

are the thuri's still available?? and if so a link to where you bought it??

Have a read here - Original Escher Stone - Sharpening Stone from Germany

Originally Posted by zib

Burt, the way you describe the Thuringian is spot on. I've actually seen on a label or two claiming they will produce a "fine slime" when shaving. So, Slippery sounds correct.
What you should do, is put the C nat away for a while, and concentrate on the Thuringian. You know how the C nat performs, well. Get used to grabbing the Thurry now. I think the more you use it, the more you'll like it. My Escher for instance, always performs better with a slurry, diluting as I go. I normally finish on plain water, but was recently told to finish on slurry, so I'll give that a go....

Hmm, it sounds like a plan to me Rich, I will definitely give the Thuri a go and finish off with slurry, not diluting it completely. Funny, I was thinking about this the other day during our experiments with the CrOx on the C-Nat. I was wondering if slurry left on the hone would act in the same way as what you and I have found the CrOx does... I'll have to give it a go, heck, maybe I will even try our CrOx technique on the Thuri just for the fun of it. Thanks for the input and tips Rich!

Give it a go, and if I'm not mistaken, Sham finishes on slurry with his Escher's...Now, I could be wrong, but that's what I heard....

When I was playing with Jimmy's Escher, I got the best results using it finished on slurry. With my new one (was told it was an escher, but there's no label), I have had great results finishing the same way...

A Müller's Thuringian is not the same as a vintage Thuringian or Escher and iirc the new Thuringians from Timbertools are not even mined in Thuringer.

I'm sorry richmondesi, but an Escher without a label is merely a (vintage) Thuringian. They can be both as good, the only real difference is the label adds collector's value and often makes the stone worth twice as much.

Originally Posted by Piet

A Müller's Thuringian is not the same as a vintage Thuringian or Escher and iirc the new Thuringians from Timbertools are not even mined in Thuringer.

I'm sorry richmondesi, but an Escher without a label is merely a (vintage) Thuringian. They can be both as good, the only real difference is the label adds collector's value and often makes the stone worth twice as much.

Yes, I'm aware

The guy who sold it to me said it was an Escher. I personally couldn't care less either way because it's a very nice finisher