Thread: Belgian Yellow Coticule or Thuringen

I would appreciate the opinion of people as to which hone would be the best option, the Thuringen or the Coticule?

Regards

Terry

I have both and I am finding it hard to say one is better than the other. Cost is a good leveler, Thuringens are lower in cost and perform well when compared to belgians imo.

Go with the Thuringen

Though Hunsrueck is the correct name for the one I have. Still and excellent hone and very fast cutting.

PuFF

Both will do an excellent job and when finished with 0.5 chrome oxide the edge will be a pleasure.

Where can I find the Thuringen?

Zomax,
I have both the Thuringen and Hunsrueck / Eifel water hones enroute now. The shipments have left Germany and should arrive soon.

Once here I'll make a post in the Vendor section clarifying the differences between these as soon as I have some more tests done here in the US on new samples.

Basically the Thuringens come from Thuringen Germany which is where the Eschers were quarried. A stone of the same geologic makeup, the Hunsrueck Water Hone is quarried in Western Germany, near the Ardennes in Belgium but is slightly harder.

The Thuringen is finer and slower, the Hunsrueck is faster but slightly more coarse.

Just for clarification for those who have purchased these from me already, there was confusion on the origin of these as translated from my supplier. The dark grey/black stones I called Thuringens were actually quarried in the Hunsrueck/Eifel region of Germany, not Thuringen. I will have other stones actually from Thuringen as well.

Obviously the name does not change the performance but if anyone has any issues with this mixup on what these were called, or sold as, I'll gladly take the stones back. Just let me know.

thanks,
Tony

Looking forward to being able to order one of the Thuriningen's .

Thanks for the information Tony.

Tony....
You're a tough man to get a hold of....
What you described sounds a lot like my 12,000 grit Japanese Water Stone that I got from Woodcraft last year. What's the difference in
the two?
A friend of mine takes the waterstone and wraps newspaper around
it and then hones. It must be the stock page he uses.

Zomax,

I have the Woodcraft stone and find it painfully slow. Not sure what the cutting medium is in that one but the Hunsreucks are much faster, especially whan used with a slurry. The Thuringens claim to fame is its association with Escher. These have long been favored and these are from the same local and same makeup. Performance of either of these stones is very similar to the Belgians as well.

You'll have to explain the newspaper/stock pages joke.

Tony

I purchased a Thuringen/Hunsrueck stone from Tony a couple of months ago and I'm very pleased with it. I use it after the Norton and follow up with chromium oxide paste on a bench hone. I've gotten superb results with this set up. I'm not the most experienced honer by any means so take it for what its worth.

Jordan

I am, of course, biased towards the belgian coticules but let me give my opinion anyway. I have honed hundreds of blades and those include straight razors, knives, plane irons, scythe blades, leather knives, lawn mowers, etc. I also make knives as a practicing bladesmith. The result of all of that experience with different steel and edge geometries has been a hone collection that now exceeds 400 in number. My feeling is that people should experiment with different stones. Yes, I like the belgians but I also have thuringens, eschers, those german green/blue stones ("The Celebrated Water Hone"), tam o'shanters, water of ayr, arkansas, Canada stones, artificial stones from many companies, diamond pastes, 3M papers, cork and leather belt sanders, etc., etc.

They are all used at various times for different purposes.

The question of "which is better" is unfortunately not a simple one to answer because there are so many variables in steel, heat treat, angle geometry, rockwell hardness, etc. It's also not easy to figure out what kind of strop to use. I like a natural, oak tanned, American leather strop to follow the coticule with but others like a pasted strop with a specially treated leather.

The fun of honing and getting a "perfect edge" is a worthwhile endeavor in and of itself. A life spent doing that would not be a wasted one. Besides, you can hone all day if you like but you can only shave once a day....