37432899___Straight_Razor_Place_Library__Comments
[Name] Escher [Grit (approx.)] 12k [Typical use] Finishing [Comments] 
The stones made by the Escher & Sohn company in Germany have gained an almost legendary status among razor honers. So much so that they, like Kleenex or Coca Cola, have become the name applied to a whole genre of their type. Mined in the Thuringia area of central Germany, these metamorphic stones are composed of an abrasive quartz embedded in chalk. The famed Escher stones came in different colors with yellow green, blue green, light green and dark blue being the colors denoted in labels by the Escher company. Other hones made by Escher with different labels were, The Celebrated German Water Razor Hone,Barber's Delight,and Barber's Choice. There may have been others that are not known by this writer. Another well known Thuringan hone was the Hohenzollern. These were also found in yellow/green, blue/green and dark blue and are considered on a par with the Escher by the few honers lucky enough to have one of these vintage hones. In more recent years the Muller company continues to harvest hones from the same area. There have been varying reports on the quality of these with some users having very good performance while at leat one vendor, finding occlusions within a large percentage making them unsuitable for honing razors, discontinued his sales of them. These hones are fine finishing stones. The labeled Eschers suggest using them with a slurry and they were supplied with slurry stones of the same material. Some honers find it effective to begin with a slurry and dilute as they go down to clear water to finish while others use the hone with water only. One way or the other these are wonderful finishing stones for honing razors to a sharp and smooth edge. If there is a consensus on the equivalent grit to a synthetic stone it seems to be in the area of 12 to 15k.
Hones - comparison table - Straight Razor Place Library
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