Thread: Please help me Identify my Hone

Hi,
Afer a long Saerching for another Thuringian/Escher in my Collection i won this Hone in an Ebay Auction
last Week in Germany:

Its a very fine hone, even similar to the Celebrated Water Razorhone, but more homogenous in colour (dark grey/green) and grit. There are very very less Pyrite Enbeddings and the Hone ist a whole Softer than my green/blue Water Razor Hone, there are some different layers visible very very slightly.
The Dimensions are aproximately 21cm in Length (8 1/2") and 6,5cm in Width (2 3/4"), the Stone is about one inch thick.
As you can see, the slurry is light grey to dirty white, the feeling while honing is somkind of greasy, far away from the hard cutting feeling of my Coticules, and far away to from the Feeling of my other Thuringian.

I Bought in from a Seller in the Palatine, but there a several Stones of the Same size and Box that hab been Sold in French Ebay and in UK.
Does anyone know what Stone it could be, or does anyone one a similar and could help me identify my hone?
Thank you very much & Best Regards,
Helge

Hi Helge,

same answer than in the german forum. Looks hardly like a thuringian.
Here are some pics of mine:



Mine is definately a Thuri.

Don't know if the special form is for honing something exceptional. Doesn't really make sense to cut the edges in this way if you want to hone a straight razor.

I've got one shaped like that somewhere, lapped it and it seemed a bit harder than other Thuringian stones I have. Will have to revisit it. Why are you so sure that yours does come from there, Hatzicho? Not questioning your judgement (looks like it to me from those pics), just curious. Is it harder than others that you've seen?

AlanII,

this stone was one of my first thuringians ever - years ago. I received it from the daughter of an old german barber.
It is indeed a little bit special, it is not as soft as yellow or ligth green ones and feels also a bit different in honing to the grey-blue ones. But it is clearly a slate stone and from the honing capabilities, the slurry as well as the surface structure and the amount and size of quartz particles you see through a microskope clearly an upper-devonian age thuringian stone.
It was long time my favorite finisher.
My thoughts on this hone is, that it may not come from one of the three large mines in Steinach/Thuringia, but one of the smaller quarries that existed in the area around and that have been explored later in the 20th century. But that is of course only guessing and hard to prove by comparing samples from the old mine dumps to the hones.
Also I still don't have an explanation to the special form of the stones. It seems to be really waste of material to cut the edges in this way.
Could be a special application or a unique selling point. Maybe someone else has an idea!

I recently rediscovered a hone similar yours. I got the hone in Germany in 1972 while in the US Army. I used it to sharpen knives and about 4 years ago when I started my straight razor adventure I could not find it. About 2 weeks ago I found it. It measures 12x2x1. I remember reading on a label or box that it was German and to use water only. With water only it feels like there is oil on the stone. It is a remarkable finisher. Very fine edges with no microchipping. I have been touching up all of my razors since rediscovering it.

I really wish I had a good yellow green Escher to compare to my hone. It is equal to or superior to some very good jnats.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

AlanII,
snip

OK, thanks for that. Now I really have to dig mine out and give it a go.

Originally Posted by hatzicho

AlanII,

this stone was one of my first thuringians ever - years ago. I received it from the daughter of an old german barber.
It is indeed a little bit special, it is not as soft as yellow or ligth green ones and feels also a bit different in honing to the grey-blue ones. But it is clearly a slate stone and from the honing capabilities, the slurry as well as the surface structure and the amount and size of quartz particles you see through a microskope clearly an upper-devonian age thuringian stone.
It was long time my favorite finisher.
My thoughts on this hone is, that it may not come from one of the three large mines in Steinach/Thuringia, but one of the smaller quarries that existed in the area around and that have been explored later in the 20th century. But that is of course only guessing and hard to prove by comparing samples from the old mine dumps to the hones.
Also I still don't have an explanation to the special form of the stones. It seems to be really waste of material to cut the edges in this way.
Could be a special application or a unique selling point. Maybe someone else has an idea!

May I ask what replaced this hone as your favorite finisher?

An even better thuringian hone!

Funny but look, i found a second one, the left is new, the right is that i started the Thread with