Thread: Vintage Thuringian

I've been playing around with my vintage Thuri lately and wanted to figure out what color of Escher to compare it to. The stone is grey... SO I built up some slurry, wiped it off with my finger and smeared it on a piece of plain white paper. After drying i was left with a yellowish green smear. The stone has quite an earthy smell to it and after lapping with a dmt 325 it gets a noticeable sheen to the honing surface. The edges it's producing are buttery and smooth and nicely keen; not as keen as say my jnat but easily as smooth and with some practice probably smoother. I'll post pics of the stone and smear tonight with hopes of a Thuri buff piping up and telling me what I've got.

By no means am I trying to say this is an Escher but might be of similar quality.

Dimensions and pics to follow!

All Eschers, thuringans are shades of gray. The various colors are a hue that is subtle. A practiced eye may be able to ID a stone color wise from a photo. Many examples in this archived thread here .

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

All Eschers, thuringans are shades of gray. The various colors are a hue that is subtle. A practiced eye may be able to ID a stone color wise from a photo. Many examples in this archived thread here .

I've looked at that thread.... 30 times since I've gotten this stone and, if the colors are correct in the pictures, this stone lines up in line with the 'yellow' mentioned in the OP's pictures.

Originally Posted by brooksie967

I've looked at that thread.... 30 times since I've gotten this stone

Glad to hear that you are not obsessing over it ......

All Eschers are Thuringiens, All Thuringens are not Eschers

Much more important then the color are the general characteristics of the stone,,, Checking fo Inclusions would be number 1 in my book , then how she slurries, and how that slurry reacts to the razor..

Color is the least important attribute,

Originally Posted by gssixgun

All Eschers are Thuringiens, All Thuringens are not Eschers

Much more important then the color are the general characteristics of the stone,,, Checking fo Inclusions would be number 1 in my book , then how she slurries, and how that slurry reacts to the razor..

Color is the least important attribute,

HUA, definitely not claiming this is an Escher, just wanted to compare it to the color scheme.

As far as includions, none to be noted. Slurrying with the slurry stone is slow but the slurry produced is creamy and yellow. Slurrying with a dmt credit card is much much faster of course.

The stone seems to auto slurry as well, producing a... slimy kind of feel... if that makes sense.

The slurry, when honing, has the look of thick cream with a distinct yellow hue to it.

Originally Posted by brooksie967

The stone seems to auto slurry as well, producing a... slimy kind of feel... if that makes sense.

Yep makes perfect sense, and that is really all I would care about, it sounds like a good stone

Honestly I use my Thuri WAY more often then my Escher, I like the feel of the stone, and the size of the stone, it produces edge that I doubt many if any could tell the difference with shaving, I know I can't

I used to recommend the credit card sized DMT 325 for slurrying but someone, Disburden IIRC, reported that the diamonds come off and mix with the slurry. I used one to good effect for awhile but soon acquired matching slurry stones and stopped using the CC sized DMT. So I didn't have trouble with the diamond shedding for the short time I used it but it is something to look out for.

No problems that I'm aware of in using the full size diamond plate to create slurry, other than the weight. Builds forearms though.

Glen, you mentioned colour not being important at all. After reading that thread dealing with the colour of Eschers it seems like there is at least some kind of agreement that the colours do have an impact on quality.

Now, with that said, I personally have nothing to compare it to but love the edges this stone is producing; especially on the older sheffield steel.

Am I safe to assume that the difference in quality of thuringian hones, based on colour, is slight enough that it would really take someone with vast knowledge of them to notice the difference? OR as with all naturals, is there such a great difference in capability of the stone that some truly are not finishers? I would relate this to coticules and what I've read about them: some are finishers and some are not. Again I've never had any experience with a coticule that was not a finisher as my only one is from My Dutch Uncle and quite proven.

Originally Posted by brooksie967

Glen, you mentioned colour not being important at all. After reading that thread dealing with the colour of Eschers it seems like there is at least some kind of agreement that the colours do have an impact on quality.

No that is not what I said, Color has no importance on your stone, it had an "Importance" to the guys that were grading the Eschers into different groups in their mines..

You seem to keep saying the same thing over and over and then saying that it isn't what you are saying..

You are trying to grade your stone using Eschers old standards and then you keep saying

Originally Posted by brooksie967

By no means am I trying to say this is an Escher but might be of similar quality.
HUA, definitely not claiming this is an Escher, just wanted to compare it to the color scheme

Edit: I thought about that a bit more too, the "Importance" that the guys from Escher put on the Colors as grading might have been just a wee bit of Marketing also....