Thread: Thuringian Usage

Originally Posted by geauxtig3rs
Perhaps I'm not sure what would be considered easy or difficult slurry. I'm still quite new to this. Here is a picture.

http://i.imgur.com/BLWwdh.jpg
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My Thuringian is a very deep dark Charcoal in color with dimensions of 6 1/2 x 1 1/2 inches.

I am totally pleased with its performance. Best shaves of my life.

'Escher' branded varieties came with a 'rubber' or slurry stone as we call it with instructions advocating its use. Contrast this with other Escher hones with came fitted in a wooden box like the one in the OP, and other non-Escher Thuringians which were sold without a slurry stone. Which is correct? Given that one variety recommended it yet another is silent on the matter, there is no way of ascertaining which mode of use was preferred when the stones were quarried. To complicate things further, some experienced members here prefer slurry, yet others prefer without while some are impartial.

I can tell you that you can still get a great edge without using anything other than the stone and water, provided the razor is at least 8k finished before hand.

Originally Posted by Scipio

I can tell you that you can still get a great edge without using anything other than the stone and water, provided the razor is at least 8k finished before hand.

This is what I have seen to be the case.

Last night with just about a dozen x-strokes, I got it to nearly silently pass HHT on a full hollow grind. I'm very interested to see if I can manage any better. This is my favorite acquisition thus far in my entire collection.

I have 3 thuringians and they all produce great edges. I use a Cnat slurry stone to raise a slurry on mine, a DMT card would do the same, as long as what you are using is harder than the thuringian you should be fine. I use mine with a creamy slurry after my coticule and it gives a wonderful edge. That is a very nice stone you have there, I like the cased ones. Some are faster than others and can be used without slurry. I have one that is pretty fast and cuts well without slurry but I have another that is a blue green and you can't feel it cutting at all.

It is a very old Thuringian, but not as good Escher.

Originally Posted by strawinski

It is a very old Thuringian, but not as good Escher.

I have a Escher and few other "regular" thuringians. One of the "regular thuringians" is the same color as my Escher and it produces the EXACT same edge as the Escher. This thuringian should produce very nice edges just like a Escher would. It just doesn't have a pretty label on it.

So there are good and bad Thuringia. However, there is a trick to check it. make the following.
sharpen the razor to 8000 grit. Take the Thuringian make the cut on one side and 15 x over kreutz. Now it must be shown on the site, such as the Thuringian has sharpened. That is the test. see no traces due, throw it away. or you have a carbondum. sell it. this is the test for all thuringian.


ich love it my translator....

Such stamps are not real Naniwa in Germany.
on ebay there are frauds. Buy only in specialist shops.

TO properly use a Thuringian stone or an Escher stone you need to take the edge to maxium sharpness, then use this stone with a slurry and test how many strokes you need. Make thirty strokes, test shave, increase if needed, etc.

For me the label doesn't make any difference to how a hone works, because I never run the edge over the label. I like these hones and I've played with may be 30 or so of all kinds of sizes and brands or no brands. From my observation the vintage ones have been much much better than the current production. Among the vintage ones there are small differences, but they don't seem to correlate much with the color, so I don't care if it's dark blue, blue green, yellow green, etc. After I test it I can decide how much I like it compared to others and that's all that matters.

I think out of those 30-ish I've ended up with just 3 - 1"x5", 1.5"x7", and 2"x10" the size is the main distinguishing characteristic, only the big one has an Escher label on it and comes in a wooden box.

I usually use them with just water, but I've done slurry on few occasions where the edge needed more work.