Thread: Water hone for penknives ect.

Okidoki then, these are the only two I have so far:





It even has the same grammar mistake/typo "Keep it free oil and grease". The picture seems a bit overexposed, so I expect it to be slightly darker in real life.

I would love to see the slurry on that, to see if it is brownish as mine is.

That's awesome. I hope you got a good deal, I probably paid too much for mine, $25.00
I didn't know my little post about pen hones would end up being so informative.!!

Great information on different hones and stones, thanks.

Originally Posted by Pithor

"Keep it free, oil and grease".

I can no longer imagine a world where the oil is free. They used to be 40 cents to the gallon.
I like this idea.

Originally Posted by sidmind

I would love to see the slurry on that, to see if it is brownish as mine is.

That's awesome. I hope you got a good deal, I probably paid too much for mine, $25.00
I didn't know my little post about pen hones would end up being so informative.!!

I paid a bit less (about $17) but if it turns out that it works great as a finisher, I think we both got a bargain. Bear in mind that vintage Thuringian hones of about the same size (5"x1") go for about $40 and up to about $120 from reputable vendors (I think, although prices seem to have dropped, and those are the ones marked with the Escher cup in a wooden box).

Originally Posted by Pithor

Okidoki then, these are the only two I have so far:





It even has the same grammar mistake/typo "Keep it free oil and grease". The picture seems a bit overexposed, so I expect it to be slightly darker in real life.

Finally found one of these Penknife hones were the grammar mistake was corrected. Unfortunately box isn't in good condition, but more important, hone is in good shape!



Interesting also how the little ornament in the middle of the label changed a little over the times.

I remember once seeing a similar box with hone on ebay.de that had the name Escher printed on it. Looks indeed like Escher bought hones from several sources and rebranded them.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

Finally found one of these Penknife hones were the grammar mistake was corrected. Unfortunately box isn't in good condition, but more important, hone is in good shape!



Interesting also how the little ornament in the middle of the label changed a little over the times.

Do these Hones in generally have these i would call it "rough" signs of cutting on the four sides where the stone is lowered from the honing area? I received a "silver grit" hone last week, which seems to me to be a natural slate hone...and on these four lowered cut sides (which are mostly very fine on many hones, in this case it looks like the stone is a rougher material) but i think this is because of the cutting or grinding...

I think you mean the saw marks on the hone sides. They are typical to a certain extent for natural stones. For thuringian waterwhetstones, they appear sometimes, but also a lot of hones are lapped or even polished at the sides so that you don't see the saw marks any more. Depends on how carefully the hone was prepared by the seller. I think some times in the past when a lot of hones were sold, the preparation of the single hones was less careful.

An interesting issue is, that the soft thuringian waterwhetstones were handcut by the miners in the older days. Only in the larger trading and grinding companies the stones were cut by circular saws in the ending 19th/beginning 20th century. You can see the difference by looking at the saw marks. So you get an indication, how the stones have been cut and - with a little luck and experience you may guess, which company could have done this. But that's another story.

I did not mean the four sides of the hone, if you flatten a hone on the area you work often the sides are lowered (about 3mm). On this area it seems like the stone has a lower grit (other saw or working marks)...on these areas the stone has not been treated like it would be with fine sanding paper...

So the question for me is if these are kind of sawmarks or a kind of a grinding machine...?

That is the picture from the Silkstone...