Thread: A Tale of Two Eschers?

Many of us have a prized Escher hone which we use to polish the edges of our beautiful razors. I have had the fortune of owning several of these. Recently I purchased one which is very different from the others. It is a large stone that has a label that says only E. & Co. and doesn't mention the word Escher. The label is blue in color which again is different from other Eschers and it has a trophy cup on it. The stone also has a small label on one of the ends which says Dark Blue with E. & Co. written under it. I have a small E. & Co. stone that I bought from the forestry professor that has a similar label, also blue in color and with a trophy cup on it. I have another stone which says Escher & Co. on the main label and has a barbershop scene on it. It also has a small label on one of the ends which says Blue Green and has E. & Co. written under it. Kees has an Escher & Co. stone with a barbershop scene on the main label that has a small label on one of the ends that says Yellow Green and has E. & Co. written under it.

I also have a hone with the J. G. Escher & Sohn label on it and no label on either end. I have seen and owned several hones like this one and have never seen a label on one of the ends. I am interested in the history of these stones because I collect them. So here is the question, are these two different companies, did one evolve into the other as Kees has suggested to me or what do you think or know? My Dark Blue stone appears to be soft like a Fox & Co. Yellow Green stone that I own but I'm not sure how it compares to the Blue Green stone. I have been told by a German collector that I have dealt with that the J. G. Escher & Sohn stones come in four grades. I believe that these end labels on the Escher & Co. stones are intended to communicate grades for these stones. I know that the Blue Green grade is a bit lower than the Yellow Green grade, but where does the Dark Blue grade fit? Is it the lowest or the highest grade? I suspect that it is the lowest of the three grades mentioned but I really don't know. Maybe instead of grades the labels are intended to communicate special purposes. I would appreciate hearing from the group on this one. Maybe if we pool our collective knowledge we will all learn something!

Rich,
From my limited testing (of several of the actual stones you wrangled away from me <g>) the color relates directly to softness or hardness. Yellow green and light blue grey seem to be quite soft, dark blue grey (green?) seem a bit harder. Personal preference for hardness would create an individual 'grade" as some simply prefer soft or hard.

I suppose the Escher deal back then was similar to today. There was one or more big holes in the ground in or near Thurinen Germany that these came out of. maybe Escher quarried their own, maybe not. Maybe Fox did, maybe not. I would guess that it was like today. One company owns the quarry and proceses the stones for resale by Muller, MST, etc.... Each reseller may have specific requirements for color, size, quality, etc... and probably other products come out of the same hole. These resellers likely distribute to other retailers like Manufactum, Toolshop.de, Heirloom Razor Strop <g>, etc... that have THEIR own requirements as to grade as well.

We have seen these same "escher" family of stones with many labels too...Fox, Droescher, Boker, etc....

Tony

Hmmm, quite the mystery. Now if this were ribbons rather than rocks, your stone would be right up there. Do they make purple rocks? If not your stone might REALLY be up there.

Bruce

Originally Posted by Tony Miller

Rich,
From my limited testing (of several of the actual stones you wrangled away from me <g>)

Wow, Tony - did you sell the Fox? and others?

Anyway - on topic: at first I thought that E & Co and JG Esher & Co are different companies - but now I have changed my mind and believe they are at least related in some way. While I don't collect the hones, I like to have several of them for comparison purposes. Unfortunately, I have used the dark blue only once or twice, and the *true* yellow / green isn't even lapped yet so I cannot comment on performance, which is what I'm after.

I do suspect that they will work differently for various razors, though. Hard vs. soft: I thought that soft is the best, until I got my Japanese hone. It's hard but works wonders on some edges (not all, though)

Cheers
Ivo

Ivo, when you can, I'd like to hear your thoughts on the relative hardness/softness of the E. & Co. dark blue, blue green and yellow green stones.