Hey folks,
I have been pursuing information on natural stones - Japanese stones, Chinese stones, Belgian stones, German stones... I have always been a fan of natural stones. Call me old-fashioned (even though I'm only 28), or maybe just a lover of nature and what she offers, but I prefer something that was dug out of the ground to something created in a factory.

Having said that, aside from my one double-grit barber hone which I started off with, I do own a norton 4k/8k as it is recommended as a very reliable and predictable performer for taking a restored/dull blade off 2000 grit sand paper to near-shaving comfort. I do use it sometimes, but I think one day I may replace it with a Belgian blue. Upon recommendations and raves on this forum, I also invested in a Belgian Coticule, and am quite happy with it so far. It does do a very good job bringing my razors to a comfortable shave level. I was originally under the impression that the Belgian Coticule was the be-all-end-all stone. Even though it was rated as ~8000 grit, it's rhomboid garnets polished the edge of a blade to what some people liken as a 10,000 - 12,000 grit finish.

Most people who have a coticule use it and love it. But I think I've got some sort of sickness, because I'm always wondering if the grass is greener somewhere else. I know there are Chinese 12,000 grit stones to chase the coticule. There are Japanese stones which are rated even higher. There are 15K shaptons, even 30K shaptons, but now we're out of natural stones. There is chromium oxide & pasted paddles, but now we're out of stones... It's hilarious, and my girlfriend doesn't understand my obsession (sometimes, neither do I). Even though my shaves are better than my gillette mach3, even though my soaps smell better than the goo-in-a-can, even though I look forward to shaving now as opposed to skipping a day or three here and there - I'm still in a pursuit of something... And right now it's not about more razors, or a softer brushes, or a sweeter-smelling soaps or aftershaves, it's about a better sharpener.

Now I've been hearing more information, and it seems there is a contender against the Belgian Coticule - the German Escher. The escher (and also Droescher/Thuringens/Boker) hones seem to also use rhomboid garnets to cut the steel like the coticule, but it has been suggested that the density of the garnets is a little greater than the coticule. Since the belgian blue has a lower garnet content than the yellow coticule and is rated as a lower grit, I only assume the escher is rated as higher grit than the coticule if it has a higher density of garnets.

Also, the substrate that the garnets are imbedded in is softer in the coticule I hear. Some people say that softer stones are good for harder steel to prevent microchipping, but I think this is debatable, and Lynn has said that the only steel he had trouble with microchipping was damascus. The slurry (which acts as a lubricant making the blade slide easier to the side across the stone) comes out easier in a softer stone without any kind of dressing from a prep/rubbing stone, and will polish the blade to a very keen edge, but create a cloudy look, instead of a mirror finish. This is because new particles keep emerging from the stone, the particles don't get ground down into smaller size. It also means that the stone needs more care to not have it become concaved or convexed, so more attention to flattening it is needed.

For these reasons, I wonder if a harder stone might be better suited for a razor, and maybe the Escher produces a finer edge than a coticule? Now you might ask why bother, why not finish up after a norton 8k with a coticule and maybe move on to a chinese 12k, or chromium oxide, or something else... and I say, why would I, if one stone could finish it for me?