Thread: my Thuringian Quest...

Here's a few Thuringians I have acquired over the last few weeks. I have been questing after some after I learned I have some family members from that area on my dad's side.

Hones next to a 6/8" W&B for size perspective.



The little one came in a box, label intact as shown. It's a pretty neat little fella, and it gives a pretty good shavin' finish. I got him first.



I would rate it as minimally finer than my fine coticule when I honed a razor(Dubl Duck Special No.1) approx 75 laps. 25 with slurry, 50 water only, and examined under microscope at 60-100x.

This larger one, I just got in the mail today. It's a Muller water stone, and people have talked about them on the forums off and on.



It's noticeably coarser feeling, and much softer to lap than the little one. It's not uniform in color, and has some inclusions. They seem to be softer than the stone, or the steel so far... so no worries yet.

I would rate it as minimally coarser edge finish than my fine coticule using the same process above, but with provided slurry stone.


They both feel different than other stones.

Kind of a mix between the clay-like grab of my Japanese hone and the smooth-but-sort-of-chalky feel of the Belgian hones.

Anyhow, I think they are pretty neat and thought I would share.

I've got those exact same two hones! My Muller looks nothing like yours though. Yours appears to have a non-homogenous texture to it. My Muller doesn't feel like some of my finer Eschers when honing but its pretty close. I guess that's the luck of the draw when you are buying rocks.

Is your little one glued into the box? Mine was but it isn't any more. I prefer to use it in my palm without the box in the way. I really like the little guy.

Tiny Tim isn't glued in. It used to be from the way it looks though. I used it on a few warped razors, and a few shave ready ones to test it out. I like mine too.

I was hoping I could get a larger version with this Muller stone, but ebay was unkind.

That's OK, I can work it into my progression between my belgian blue and my coticule. It seems to work pretty well so far, and I messed around with it a bit more after my first post. I can coax a pretty fine edge out if it actually.

Still nowhere near my Nakayama... but hey.

Are you coming to the Mid-Mo get together? I think I remember you didn't want it at the end of the month because of your anniversary and then it got set for the end of the month. Hopefully your wife will be understanding, or at least tolerant. If you are coming, and if I manage to make it this time, then maybe we can compare Mullers....and Thuringians, and Nakayamas, and coticules!

HI Joe
these are great stones . After Nakayama you still buying hones? Welcome to addiction brother.Small one should perform great feels like harder then rest of escher's.
Thank you for sharing pictures

Originally Posted by hi_bud_gl

HI Joe
these are great stones . After Nakayama you still buying hones? Welcome to addiction brother.Small one should perform great feels like harder then rest of escher's.
Thank you for sharing pictures

Well of course! I mean, after you get one Nakayama, you have to ask yourself, maybe some other Nakayama might be better. Then of course if you get another and find that it is better, then you have to wonder if there might be one that is even more better. On the other hand, if you get another and find that it is not better, then that means that your first one was better, which still means that some are better than others and maybe the NEXT one you buy might be even more better!

In addition, though I have several Eschers, I don't have a brown Escher like you have so obviously I need to keep an eye out for one of those because they might be better than my Nakayama, or at least better than one of my Nakayamas, or if not, maybe some other brown Escher might be better than any of my Nakayamas and I still haven't tried Shaptons and who knows what some nutjob on this board is going to announce as the next best hone and can I really keep hiding rocks from my wife or tell her the truth about how much I paid for a ROCK but then again there may still be another Nakayame that is even better but then again Glen pointed out that maybe the key is the lower grit hones for bevel setting and maybe I need more hones in the 1K range and Jimmy was only missing 4 of the hones on Glen's list and I don't have any tattoes at all and it might be that if aliens came with better rocks from their planet that they might only give them to honemeisters with tattoes but they might not work as well as Bart's coticule for bevel setting but for a final polish I hear that DMT is going to come out with a 31K diamond plate right after they finish the 4k plate to fill in that gap and then it's likely that I'll have all the hones I need until Lynn comes out with another DVD.

Originally Posted by Utopian

I've got those exact same two hones! My Muller looks nothing like yours though. Yours appears to have a non-homogenous texture to it. My Muller doesn't feel like some of my finer Eschers when honing but its pretty close. I guess that's the luck of the draw when you are buying rocks.

Is your little one glued into the box? Mine was but it isn't any more. I prefer to use it in my palm without the box in the way. I really like the little guy.

Mueller Thuringians all have some pyrite inclusions and a slighty non-homogenous texture if looked at closely. The slurry however of a vintage and a Mueller Thuringian are identical when studied under the electron microscope.

I have a little Celebrated Water Razor Hone like that one. It's a fabulous little hone! Although getting it out of the glued box proved to be a bit of a stuggle at first....It take a little while to get used to, seeing it's only about 5"x1", but I love it.

After reading a few posts about using dish soap in your honing water, I tried that with the little thuringian. It works VERY well. Being such a small and narrow hone, I find it hard to keep the water on top, also since it's very non-porous. But with the little bit of dish soap added the water stays on top very uniformly without forming little bubbles like water on a duck's back.

Originally Posted by Kees

Mueller Thuringians all have some pyrite inclusions and a slighty non-homogenous texture if looked at closely. The slurry however of a vintage and a Mueller Thuringian are identical when studied under the electron microscope.

I. WANT. PICTURES.

If you have access to an electron microscope, can I come stay at your place and analyze my hones and razors? It won't take long, I promise.

Why not we all make visit for a couple days KEES lab.That will be great fun no sleeping just testing hones.