Well, I sold it. Here on the classifieds, it went up and then it sold and got reclassified off the member classifieds quickly. Knee jerk, maybe. I told my wife I would never buy an escher because she knows how many stones I already have, and she knows how much they cost. So last night when she caught a glimpse of a stone she never saw before, I said "yeah, that's an escher, I just sold it". She was pissed!! Not pissed that I sold it, but that I had ever bought it in the first place.

I did have one last shave from a fresh edge, one that I had honed as I was taking pictures of it to sell. This time dry, which resulted in about the same keenness as light pressure wet, though the stone prefers much more to be used wet and releases less stuff if it is used wet, and none with light pressure wet.

I will give the stone one thing, and that is it is definitely capable of more than I thought at first, and while I can still get edges a little bit more keen from my japanese hone, it is uncanny how closely I shaved on purpose this morning and how I have no irritation from it. Not even in the places that sometimes give me trouble if I shave close (the little pockets of hair just left and right of my chin and just above chin level). No barber would've used half its thickness if it was a bad stone, though, I suspect all along it's really just a matter of learning the stone. And it was definitely barber used, no tool or knife use would've left the surface swayed like it was before i lapped it, but without any marks on it.

But I have learned other stones already, and keeping a $400 stone around that I don't use every single time, and that could fall and break...it all just tipped toward selling it.

It's always nice to give everything a try, though. It cost me a few bucks to try it in the exchange of buying and selling, but now I know something I was curious about.