Escher/Thuringian love. show of your rocks

[Matt O]

The 10-1/8x2x1+ arrived and it is a really really neat Escher!

I thought it was green based off of the sellers photos, and after I cleaned it up…I am firmly in the Blue-Green camp! When it’s wet you can see that the stone wants to be green, but it has really neat faint blue stripes and hues!

It feels awesome under the razor, resultant scratch pattern is beautiful!

Comparison to various Thuringians:

 

[SliceOfLife]

Fits right in your family there.

 

[Matt O]

Fits right in your family there.

Thanks! The shave was pretty top flight…very very pleased!

 

[Empire straights]

Thanks! The shave was pretty top flight…very very pleased!

I've got a yellow green in the mail and in interested in trying it out. They are starting to grow on me..... finally.

 

[Empire straights]

Yellow green/ light blue with a light blue slurry stone. Iused it to touch up a razor. Shave was pretty nice.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Reminds me of the minty LG/YG Ambicut I owned awhile back. Pretty stone.

 

[Empire straights]

Reminds me of the minty LG/YG Ambicut I owned awhile back. Pretty stone.

Thanks. It left a surprisingly keen edge for how smooth it was.

 

[hatzicho]

The 10-1/8x2x1+ arrived and it is a really really neat Escher!

I thought it was green based off of the sellers photos, and after I cleaned it up…I am firmly in the Blue-Green camp! When it’s wet you can see that the stone wants to be green, but it has really neat faint blue stripes and hues!

It feels awesome under the razor, resultant scratch pattern is beautiful!

Comparison to various Thuringians:
View attachment 1783167


View attachment 1783168View attachment 1783169View attachment 1783170View attachment 1783171

Quite unusual texture for a Thuringian. Nice stone!

 

[Matt O]

Quite unusual texture for a Thuringian. Nice stone!

Thanks Peter!

I am just so pleased with it, and that I was able to snag it!

Here is a photo of the sticker that was on the back…it’s clearly an Escher sticker, but its sad shape is probably the only reason this stone’s price didn’t go into the stratosphere…and out of my reach!

 

[Empire straights]

Thanks Peter!

I am just so pleased with it, and that I was able to snag it!

Here is a photo of the sticker that was on the back…it’s clearly an Escher sticker, but its sad shape is probably the only reason this stone’s price didn’t go into the stratosphere…and out of my reach!

View attachment 1791897View attachment 1791898

& @hatzicho

Did Escher put out Schwedensteins? I haven't a clue. I think I like my Schwedenstein stone better than all my thuringians and I've got a decent walk through most of the colors(I think light blue is my favorite thus far). My green Schwedenstein in one of those razorbox/stone/strop boxes is one of my favorite finishing stones. I wish I could find them easily. It's one of my favorite finishing stones for knives and razors. This is the only one I have and I love this stone but the box is warping and actually twisting the stone and I don't want to risk breaking it from the box(im surprised it hasn't cracked) im scared to flatten it too much but I'd love to have a bench stone of this same green Schwedenstein. It feels almost like a well done thru edge that saw 40 laps on a translucent. It's wonderful. Sorry the pic isn't great but I bet Peiter knows the stone(and it's exact birthplace and entire history, but that's neither here nor there) and if love to get a lead on some more of this material.

 

[duke762]

Here is a photo of the sticker that was on the back…it’s clearly an Escher sticker, but its sad shape is probably the only reason this stone’s price didn’t go into the stratosphere…and out of my reach

Way to go Matt O. I'm more interested in users than complete label beauties. Mine is uglier than yours but it has a heart of gold. Mine looks grey with God awful, green slurry and about 10% label. Just what I was looking for, an ugly 8' user. Now I'm saving my money and waiting to find a user level blue one just like it. Just because blue, is one of the few colors I can see well.

I'm new to this stone family and highly impressed. Gamma mentioned using an Escher before an Ark and now that I have one, it's been a life changing stone for me. Is a busy son of a gun around here.

 

[Matt O]

Way to go Matt O. I'm more interested in users than complete label beauties. Mine is uglier than yours but it has a heart of gold. Mine looks grey with God awful, green slurry and about 10% label. Just what I was looking for, an ugly 8' user. Now I'm saving my money and waiting to find a user level blue one just like it. Just because blue, is one of the few colors I can see well.

I'm new to this stone family and highly impressed. Gamma mentioned using an Escher before an Ark and now that I have one, it's been a life changing stone for me. Is a busy son of a gun around here.

Thanks! Stickers and stamps are nice, but they don’t blow my hair back for the most part! It’s sounds like you are getting well resourced with the stones! Congrats!

I like having some options.

 

[SliceOfLife]

Yeah, it's an usual look for a Thuri for sure... but those are my favorite Thuri's. I've got a DB with gold-colored freckles on the back so heavily it almost looks brown... and a LG/YG with amazing wave character.

There are other non-pattern indicators of Thuri's I look for and that stone has those (as well as that label).

 

[hatzicho]

Yeah I also love these textured thuringians. I named them Cloudy Thuris.
Here is a larger one with a texture comparable to Matts. Fits quite good on my anvil:

Here one that looks quite like a Dalmore blue, but it is a thuri:

The texture mostly appears in transition layers from one color to another. Thuringians are mud hones, they were build millions of years ago on the bottom of a deep sea, were mud was settling down. If there was some movement of water on the ground, the homogenous material build up was disturbed and the texture arises.

One of the nicest might be this one:

Stay sharp! hatzicho

 

[SliceOfLife]

Scrolled bottom to top and was gonna post "Those look like awesome stones... might even be crazy Thuris someone got from Peter and Resold to you..."

Get to the top and it IS Peter.

Yeah those are lookers. My 10" is a little like the bottom one. That middle one is crazy. Like every color swirled together. Should be in a Museum.

 

[fransken]

Hello, I have bought this apex ideal it’s a thurigian at the top. I have find nothing other about it. I have seen one for sale on worthpoint but didn’t find one anything else about it. What is the bottom side grit from that stone ?

 

[SliceOfLife]

@hatzicho I believe he's discussed this stone in the past.


I have a 2 sided Ideal, but it's a different model, and I think mine is synth/reform on both sides.

 

[hatzicho]

& @hatzicho

Did Escher put out Schwedensteins? I haven't a clue. I think I like my Schwedenstein stone better than all my thuringians and I've got a decent walk through most of the colors(I think light blue is my favorite thus far). My green Schwedenstein in one of those razorbox/stone/strop boxes is one of my favorite finishing stones. I wish I could find them easily. It's one of my favorite finishing stones for knives and razors. This is the only one I have and I love this stone but the box is warping and actually twisting the stone and I don't want to risk breaking it from the box(im surprised it hasn't cracked) im scared to flatten it too much but I'd love to have a bench stone of this same green Schwedenstein. It feels almost like a well done thru edge that saw 40 laps on a translucent. It's wonderful. Sorry the pic isn't great but I bet Peiter knows the stone(and it's exact birthplace and entire history, but that's neither here nor there) and if love to get a lead on some more of this material.

View attachment 1791941

Well Escher did never sell the green Schwedensteins – as far as I know. The late Escher & Son company only mined and sold the black mottled stones somewhere between 1930 and their end 1953.

The green Schwedenstein hones are located in the same rock age than the black ones, but do not come from the same place, were not even quarried in an own whetstone quarry.
They were found as byproduct of the quarries that have been operated to produce slate pencils.

The thuringian mountains had been very famous in the past for producing slate pencils and blackboards and for a long time period the quarries in Steinach/ Thuringia had even been the global world market leader for these products.
The slate quarries to produce pencils and blackboards are much larger than any thuringian whetstone quarry. And also, this industry had been much more important for the thuringian area than the really small whetstone business.
So the green mottled hones are found in intermediate layers between the slate layers that are suitable for pencil production. Here are some examples of Schwedenstein directly from the quarry and commercially sold in the past.

This also explains why a lot these hones were found on these small razor storage boxes, which are equipped with a hone and leather for honing and stropping.
The boxes in which the slate pencils had been sold, look quite comparable to these razor boxes.

Stay sharp! hatzicho

 

[Empire straights]

Well Escher did never sell the green Schwedensteins – as far as I know. The late Escher & Son company only mined and sold the black mottled stones somewhere between 1930 and their end 1953.

The green Schwedenstein hones are located in the same rock age than the black ones, but do not come from the same place, were not even quarried in an own whetstone quarry.
They were found as byproduct of the quarries that have been operated to produce slate pencils.

The thuringian mountains had been very famous in the past for producing slate pencils and blackboards and for a long time period the quarries in Steinach/ Thuringia had even been the global world market leader for these products.
The slate quarries to produce pencils and blackboards are much larger than any thuringian whetstone quarry. And also, this industry had been much more important for the thuringian area than the really small whetstone business.
So the green mottled hones are found in intermediate layers between the slate layers that are suitable for pencil production. Here are some examples of Schwedenstein directly from the quarry and commercially sold in the past.

View attachment 1796029

This also explains why a lot these hones were found on these small razor storage boxes, which are equipped with a hone and leather for honing and stropping.
The boxes in which the slate pencils had been sold, look quite comparable to these razor boxes.

View attachment 1796030

Stay sharp! hatzicho

I have one of these boxes and I love the stone in it.

 

[duke762]

I've been cruising the Bay due to exposure to a an ugly, green, Escher that has stolen my heart. I've been sniffing around listings for Escher's or even a Thuringian for the right price. I wanted a legit one so I scored this (stolen sellers picture because I suck at pictures). I think it's legit due to the box. I'm thrown off by the patterning in it. I've been studying this thread and I'm not seeing that defined swirl in the stone in others I've seen here. Are they glued into the box?