The celebrated water razor hone

Here's a new acquisition from the bay.. "The celebrated water razor hone." A vintage thuringian, near as I can tell. Sure looks and feels like the other I have. A very nice stone indeed. Haven't put her to the test yet, but I pulled it out of the box it was glued in and lapped it up.

The inside label of the case it came in. In person, you can pretty clearly tell at the bottom it said "Made in Germany", but someone scribbled it out in pencil. I have no idea why :confused:
Attachment 24579
Dry. It's 5"x1".
Attachment 24580
Wet.
Attachment 24581
Next to another vintage thuringian I have (it's 6"x1 3/16")
Attachment 24582
The box closed.
Attachment 24583

Nice grab there. I had a chance to use one once, and it would be great to have one of my own to play with.

I have a couple of those. They are excellent hones. I would suspect that the reason "Made in German" was crossed off was because the owner was not a fan of Germany. Perhaps he was a war veteran or a Jew?

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Originally Posted by Utopian

I have a couple of those. They are excellent hones. I would suspect that the reason "Made in German" was crossed off was because the owner was not a fan of Germany. Perhaps he was a war veteran or a Jew?

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I was thinking the same thing... I wonder if that's really why? Makes it a little more interesting IMO.

Nice hone. I've heard that hones with that mark were made by Escher but I'm not sure. The label on the one I'm referring to was different. One way or the other it is a nice size for warped or smiling blades.

yeah, these are vintage thuringian stones. I have a boxed one like yours mined by Escher and had a couple of others with the regular label that you have (in various colors which I don't think matter much).

should be very comparable to your larger one, but do tell us what you find.

Here is a picture of mine

Congrats! That's a very nice find.

Here's a picture of mine when I just got it (prior to cleaning and lapping) next to one with the Escher cup label: Attachment 24587
Attachment 24588

Edit: Gugi beat me to that one... ;)

Thanks for sharing gugi and Oldengaerde! Oldengaerde, that first one looks to have the same label as this one, just a different color (unless mine is just faded).

Jimmy, I think I recall seeing some other labels when I searched that had more or less the same wording as mine, but had the "E & Co." symbol in the middle. I would think if this one were made by escher it too would have the symbol. Since it has similar wording but no symbol, I assume it's not an escher brand, and I kind of just take it as further confirmation that there were multiple distributors of thuringians, and escher was just one of them. All coming from the same mine, I kind of doubt escher's stones were, on average, much different, if at all, than a hone like this, but alas, I don't have any eschers of comparable color (actually I have no eschers at the moment) to see for myself.

Oldengaerde, since you seem to have both, have you noticed any difference in performance between the two?

Rather novice at razor honing, doubt everything I say about performance on razors.

Nevertheless, I think I can safely say that the Escher one is both finer and harder. The colour difference is also striking, especially when wet: the Escher is near jet black, whereas the red-labelled one is only slightly more grey than yellow-green labelled Eschers. They're the bottom and top one in the scans over here.

Apart from that, the similarity is striking: the boxes are equally sized and constructed exactly the same way (just the hinge differs: two or three nails)(note though, that the joints in Gugi's one differ slightly), the stones differ less than a millimeter in height, breath and lenght, and have similar cutting marks.

Just remembered I had pics of one that is at first glance similar, but differs quite a lot. The box is constructed in a simpler way and not as well finished. More importantly, the hone is very different: softer still, bicoloured, producing greenish slurry. Haven't used it on anything yet.

Attachment 24589
Attachment 24590

Mine looks just like yours, that is to say: it has the orange label, stone color is the same etc.

It gives a very fine edge, and the size is great for warped/smiling razors. A very cool hone overall, and having the box makes it even cooler.

Good find.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oldengaerde

Just remembered I had pics of one that is at first glance similar, but differs quite a lot. The box is constructed in a simpler way and not as well finished. More importantly, the hone is very different: softer still, bicoloured, producing greenish slurry. Haven't used it on anything yet.

Attachment 24589
Attachment 24590

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Hey, be careful! That green slurry looks a lot like ectoplasm from Ghost Busters! Where did you get that hone?!

Put this hone to the test tonight. It feels very similar to my other vintage thuringian (as I expected). On the topic of the feel of these vintage thuringians, man, I love the feel. It's so velvety and smooth to hone on. Not like any other hone I currently have. I also love the smaller size of both of mine. The perfect size to hold in your hand and get down to business. I honestly don't think I'd much like a wider one.

It could be my head or whatever as I did no scientific testing at all yet, but it did appear to cut slower than my other one. I've never really felt the need to do more than 30 laps on my other, but with this one, I pushed it to almost 100 before I was satisfied. Then again, it could have just been some harder steel on this particular razor. FWIW, the colors of the two look very very close, but if I had to call it one way or another, I would say that this new one has a touch more of a yellow/green color to it, but seriously, barely.