Thread: First Hone Purchase: The Ebay Guessing Game

Well, last week I found that I had burnt through a substantial portion of the lapping film I purchased (so that I could quickly and cheaply sharpen up my blades and start learning to hone), so I figured it was time to get something a little more permanent. Lusting for a coti and fancying myself cool and clever (note: sarcasm), I sifted through ebay until I found a few miss-labeled coticules, waited 'till bidding aaaaaaaaand found that I was far from the only cool and clever person in existence. Those puppies don't even sell for less than the properly listed ones.

Anyway, desperately needing hones of any kind, I found a really terrible listing- with bad pictures that seemed to vaguely describe two hones, one of which was probably a double-grit. The surface of both looked smooth, so I decided to (for the price) bet on natural and bid. I figured that since I needed hones I could find a use for them no matter what I rolled.

ebay listing pic, note, the long one is the double grit:


Well, they arrived the other day and the double-grit was........... most certainly not a coti (Looks like a pike or norton). My silliest and most fanciful dreams dashed, I turned my attentions to the other stone that I had previously ignored. It was a dark blue, almost black, and I figured hey, maybe this'll be something. After playing with it a bit, I discovered that the stone was absolutely soaked in grime, and after a good bit of sanding, scrubbing and soaking in grease remover (these steps repeated many a time), I had unveiled a stone of completely different character. It was now a light brownish green, or perhaps a greenish brown, with some shiny speckles and color variances spread throughout. It's actually kinda pretty, and I half fancy it might be a natural. It seems to be a finisher, but i'm not very experienced in these matters.

Anyway, I'd appreciate your help in identifying it. Or at least attempting to. The stone is hard, and I do not think it is meant to be slurried, though I have included slurry pics below (taken during sanding). Additionally there is still some oil spotting left. It's almost gone, but not quite.



The dark splotches (near the ends) are oil stains, as far as I can tell anyway. It's a pity it doesn't have well defined sedimentary layers:


Here are some pictures wet and with slurry (taken while sanding):



Anyway, if it's not anything special it's not a big deal. I have this on the way to me :

I can't help on IDing the stones you've received but I can tell you that I've heard, from a reliable source, that easy off oven cleaner will effectively remove oil from stones. I haven't had occasion to try it myself but it was suggested that the can with the blue label is oder free and the one to get.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I can't help on IDing the stones you've received but I can tell you that I've heard, from a reliable source, that easy off oven cleaner will effectively remove oil from stones. I haven't had occasion to try it myself but it was suggested that the can with the blue label is oder free and the one to get.

Thanks for the tip, my stone still reeks of the cleaner I was using.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I can't help on IDing the stones you've received but I can tell you that I've heard, from a reliable source, that easy off oven cleaner will effectively remove oil from stones. I haven't had occasion to try it myself but it was suggested that the can with the blue label is oder free and the one to get.

Can't see why that would not work. I have used no name oven cleaner to draw the oil out of wood gun stocks. Repeated doses of cleaner and flushing with water seem to work there. A little bit of warming the stone might aid also in getting the oil to release.

Bob

Put the stone in the dish washer and put on a very hot cycle with plenty of detergent.

Jamie

The second thuringian is nice. Congratulations

Originally Posted by celticcrusader

Put the stone in the dish washer and put on a very hot cycle with plenty of detergent.

Jamie

Wow, that worked really well. The stone is much much lighter in color now, more of a light greenish gray. There are still some oil spots, but I'll keep working those. Thanks! I'll post pics later tonight.

Originally Posted by Frameback

The second thuringian is nice. Congratulations

Thank you, I may have overpaid for it, not knowing exactly what the lines are between thuri, escher private label and escher. I'm excited about it none the less. As long as it hones well I think I'll be happy with it.

Originally Posted by UrEnki

Wow, that worked really well. The stone is much much lighter in color now, more of a light greenish gray. There are still some oil spots, but I'll keep working those. Thanks! I'll post pics later tonight.


Thank you, I may have overpaid for it, not knowing exactly what the lines are between thuri, escher private label and escher. I'm excited about it none the less. As long as it hones well I think I'll be happy with it.

If its a thuri and you got it in a no name auction you most likely didn't over pay as they go for more then coti's normally

Anyway, if it's not anything special it's not a big deal. I have this on the way to me :
[/QUOTE]

Congratulation to that hone. Thuringians with this label are quite rare ones.

The hones were traded by the company: Deutsche Schleifmaterialien Gesellschaft. The initials of that company were the letters DSG, written into one another.

The company was located in Steinach/ Thuringia and existed in the early 20th century. The quarries where these stones have been mined are the same as the quarries of the Escher labelled stones. All the quarries of the known thuringian waterwhetstones have been located in the woods around the small town Steinach in Thuringia, Germany.
The quarries have been exploited in the 19th century by whetstone makers, mostly one or two people together with their families. They sold the stones to the big trading companies like Escher, Deutsche Schleifmittel AG, Luthard and DSG, etc. These companies finshed the precast stones they got from the whetstone makers, labelled and sold them around the world. In some years of the 18/19th century, there has been a strong separation between mining and trading of the whetstones. For some years the miners were even not allowed to sell their stones to the public. This was only done by the trading companies. With the ending 19th/ beginning 20th century, the big trading companies began to rent or buy the bigger quaries and mined and sold the stones on their own.

Like all the thuringian stones they may vary a little bit in quality, even the Escher stones do. But the Escher company always was strongly watching about the quality of the stones they sold.

The chance is good that this labelled DSG stone is of very good quality too.

Please send some detailled pictures when you got it and report on the honing capabilities. Enjoy!

Originally Posted by hatzicho

Congratulation to that hone. Thuringians with this label are quite rare ones.

The hones were traded by the company: Deutsche Schleifmaterialien Gesellschaft. The initials of that company were the letters DSG, written into one another.

The company was located in Steinach/ Thuringia and existed in the early 20th century. The quarries where these stones have been mined are the same as the quarries of the Escher labelled stones. All the quarries of the known thuringian waterwhetstones have been located in the woods around the small town Steinach in Thuringia, Germany.
The quarries have been exploited in the 19th century by whetstone makers, mostly one or two people together with their families. They sold the stones to the big trading companies like Escher, Deutsche Schleifmittel AG, Luthard and DSG, etc. These companies finshed the precast stones they got from the whetstone makers, labelled and sold them around the world. In some years of the 18/19th century, there has been a strong separation between mining and trading of the whetstones. For some years the miners were even not allowed to sell their stones to the public. This was only done by the trading companies. With the ending 19th/ beginning 20th century, the big trading companies began to rent or buy the bigger quaries and mined and sold the stones on their own.

Like all the thuringian stones they may vary a little bit in quality, even the Escher stones do. But the Escher company always was strongly watching about the quality of the stones they sold.

The chance is good that this labelled DSG stone is of very good quality too.

Please send some detailled pictures when you got it and report on the honing capabilities. Enjoy!

Thanks for the info! I know there was some confusion with these stones as a few came with escher labels as well as DSG ones.

Anyway, mine arrived today (no escher label, but certainly wasn't expecting one), and it's beat to hell. It's got loads of cut marks on all sides, two dips on the top, and a dip on the bottom, where the previous owner tore the stone out (leaving some of the stone behind) and then began honeing on the useable part remaining. Additionally, the hone itself is a parallelogram, but not a square. Suffice to say, it's gonna take some work.

On the plus side, it has to be a very, very soft stone. I'll post pics when I get home later tonight.