Thuringian hones, prices and sources

Got a mail from the Toolshop today stones have been shipped this morning :happy108

 

Well the stones arrived at work this morning :happy108 But the Japanese Waterstone is smashed into little pieces it looks like it has been drop kicked against the wall a few times sad029 so now have to take it to the post office and make a claim and wait:angry032 for a replacement stone

 

Sorry to hear that, mate

 

Well, my HAD finally led me to getting into the natural stones. I got one of these stones, in the 20 X 5cm size, to add to my current collection. I'm hoping it works faster than my usual finishing stone -- Chinese 12K.

The order took just under two weeks from day of order to delivery at my residence. That is reasonable to me based on the distance and international nature of the order. Unfortunately, the shipping charges were more than the hone itself! However, it is a reasonable total as compared to potential prices on eBay like Klaus mentions.

The stone has a soft velvety texture to it. I suspect this stone is (and will feel) softer than the Chinese 12K. It is definitely a natural product, as can be observed in the photos below. One side is fairly flat, but the other has a definite facet along one corner (the dark line shows the area that is on another palne from the rest of that side). Looks like I'm gonna hae to schedule time for some serious lapping!

I'll post more when I get some use with it.

 

Cool,

Sorry to see the one side is so far off. You could just lapp the flat side I guess though.

Very interested to hear your thoughts, I have been considering these for about a year or so,but never pulled the trigger due to the shipping charges.

I didn't know they were Mueller stones either, I think the gent in Poland also sells them.



Neale

 

NO! The one the Polish fella sells are distributed by MST and they are _not_ thuringian hones. They're also considerably coarser and are not the best finishing stones out there.

Looking forward to hearing about your experiences, Chris! :happy088

 

Cool, great to know Klaus! Glad I never bought one then

 

Don't get me wrong, they're good hones, too, but just not as good as a Thuringian

 

I got one of these and I would say it's OK for tidying a bevel but not so good as a finishing hone - it's simply not fine enough. Mine has inclusions that aren't too much of a problem - a ceramic takes care of them easily to flat-off the surface again - but I cannot compare it at all to a Chinese 12K for hardness or finishing. It doesn't even smooth as well as a BBW. Having said that, it is excellent for the transition between a DMT 1200 and something finer and does have a good 'feel'.

 

I've honed two blades with this stone now, and have some initial impressions. The blades were different enough in composition apparently (e.g., Rc - based on how they felt & reacted to the stones). They were both recent eBay acquistions, so I honed them up from nothing basically. I used a DMT 1.2K, Norton 4K, Norton 8k, and then the Toolshop.de watersone.

The stone is definitely soft. This is the first stone I've used with a true slurry. I was surprised at how easily the stone created the slurry; I suspect this is not unusual though. The stone also gives a lot of "feel" when honing. I tried using a slurry and no slurry during honing. Is it normal to see a difference between using the stone with the slurry vices not? Again, the slurry forms quickly, so maybe there's no difference if you use a lot of honing passes.

Right now, I think my stone is somewhere in the range of 6K - 10K. Again, this is an initial impression. I'm basing it on the scratch patterns I observed using a RadioShack handheld microscope @ 100X with a secondary light source (handheld flashlight). The scratch pattern on the first blade appeared coarser than the Norton 8K; this blade (John Jay Velvet Shaver) feels to be softer Rc wise. The second blade (Geneva Cutlery) showed a finer scratch pattern from the Toolshop.de waterstone. I used more passes without a slurry on it too. But, it still wasn't as fine as the usual scratch pattern from my Chinese 12K.

I shaved with the John Jay Velvet Shaver, and got a nice 3-pass shave. However, even after all of the prepatory stropping (canvas & leather) plus the post-shave stropping, I'm seeing a distinct scratch pattern -- more so than I would see with the Chinese 12K.

Questions, comments?

 

It is a very slow working hone, you might need 50-100 passes. Yes, these hones create a different looking bevel when used with or without slurry. Many raise a slurry first, do their passes and then add a few more without slurry.
The reason why the scratch-pattern looks coarser than the 12 is for the reason that it IS coarser than the 12k, around 8k would be a safe bet.

 

Hmm, that's disappointing. I was hoping to use this in lieu of my Chinese 12K, and that it would do so faster. Looks like this is wrong on both counts!

Well then, I guess this stone will just be another option for refining my razors' edge before final polishing.

 

Just because it's not as fine in the created scratch pattern it doesn't mean the edge will be noticeably inferior to the one created by a 12k. It's still a great hone, believe me

 

I realize that, and I did get a nice shave off that hone anyway. The edge did feel softer than coming from the Norton 8K, and I feel that was an improvement.

I just had other ideas about the stone before I got it. Based on how it really works, I now just have to organize it into my repertoire for honing.

 

Hopefully Kees won't see this thread. I have three escher/thuringian stones and the Muller thuringian is definitely the softest and coarsest of them. I like the hone, it's just not a favorite and not a final polisher for me.

 

I guess I'll be looking for an Escher now.

 

The posts about what's good and what isn't has me a little confused. I have some questions.

- Are the stones Klaus linked in the first OP good Thuringian stones or not? I'd love to get the large one. I'm looking for a moderately priced Thuringian stone as a polishing stone.
- If the stone above is a no-go, what about the "Belgian Style" sharpening stone? Is it a real Belgian Yellow Coticule or not?

Thanks for any help.

 

Yes, the hone on your first toolshop-link is the real deal and no, that belgian-type-thingy is *not* a coticule. No one knows exactly what it is. I have one and use it only for my kitchen knives...

 

Thank you for the help and the source. This Thuringian will come in very handy.

 

Glad to help wherever I can