Thread: Thuringen, and great service, from Tony

Last night I ordered a Thuringen stone from Tony Miller at wellshavedgentleman.com. I had been thinking about it for a few days and luckily he still had one left from his first order. I'm still very new to honing razors, so I'm looking forward to experimenting with the new hone. I'll give whatever feedback I can come up with when I get a chance to try it out.

And I would just like to say a few words about the great service I got from Tony. I ordered the Stone late last night from his website, and when I woke up early this morning I had a personal email from Tony. He thanked me for the purchase, and included some tips on using the stone (apparently it is a fast cutter). He went on to say that he tested the stone at his day job and found it to be flat with a very high degree of precision. Then I called Tony on the phone, and he took the time to chat with me on a variety of topics: TI razors, Thuringen Hones, Strops and different leathers etc. It's just this kind of quick, friendly and personal service that I really appreciate. I'm very happy to do more business with him in the future.

Thanks Tony, you truly are a Gentleman

------Michael

Thanks Michael!

The flatness he was refering to was mentioned in his earlier post on flattening natural stones. I had mentioned tesing to see just how flat lapping will get a stone.

I use a 9" x 12" black granite surface plate from Woodcraft and 220 and 400 grit industrial grade wet/dry paper. I wet the surface plate and the back of the paper to stick it in place and keep a slow trickle of water going over it during the entire process. I first do long strokes the length of the stone and then diagonals to cut down the bulk of the crown in the stone. Once close to flat, I mark the surface with a grid of pencil lines and start doing "crazy eights", a random figure 8 pattern over the plate. Large 8s, small 8s, reverse the stone, more 8s, etc... Once all the lines are gone I know I the stone is flat. Switch to 400grit and repeat. I then round all the top edges to remove the factory ground 45 deg bevels so there are no sharp edges.

When finished I took a random stone, the one Michael just bought and tested it on the Cordax CMM in our shop. The stone was flat within .0006", that is six, ten thousandths of an inch, less than one thousandth. Close enough for government work <g> (and exactly whjat we use the machine for)

The slight trickle of water helps clear the slurry which can build up under the stone and possibly reduce flatness and it keeps the stone from almost gluing itself to the paper <g>.

Thanks to those of you who tried the Thuringens and reported back. I will be getting a steady supply over the next month so we won't have to do the wait list thing again.

Best,
Tony

I'll second the first post. Great service, and a great hone. I just got mine, and I'm still experimenting with it a bit, but I think it's going to replace my coticule. I've been very happy with the edges I've been able to achieve with it so far. I haven't really noticed that it's a faster cutter than my coticule...the edges I'm getting are very similar...but I'm still testing and experimenting with it. So far, so good, and Tony was great to deal with.

It has been a fun stone to play with. Microscopically the edges are very close to the Coticule. No sure if I would call it a replacement, but a definite alternative so far. I am experimenting with different media on the slurry generation including the stone from Tony, one from Japan Woodworker and a Coticule one. I usually don't go more than 10-15 strokes on these unless honing Damascus.

Lynn

Just recieved my stone from Tony,
Quite a fast cutting stone and a consistant surface too. Top notch Tony! I don't posses a microscope so I can only base it on reps needed to get an edge to par and it seems to be as good as my Belgian. After stropping, I can see no difference between them. I will keep the 2 razors (Bartmans) I honed with the Belgian and the Thuringen on the same rotation and stropping to see how the hold out and report back.

PuFF

I was wonder what the grit on these Thuringen stones is.

These will be comparable to the Belgians in grit size and finish. They are garnet rich stones as are the Belgians. A few guys here bought them over the past month and you may find some comments posted.

They will be available again in a few weks when the next shipment arrives.

Tony