- Thread starter
- #21
So ables sent me more pictures of his stone, and nope not the same stuff. I've had the material in his stone before, very shimmery in a way this stone isn't.
Can't resist the occasional Hone Lot Gamble, a breakdown.
- Thread starter SliceOfLife
- Start date
- Thread starter
- #22
Here’s the 12” and 8” mystery stones side by side, wet, daylight.
12" looks to me like hunterblade's stone in this post (again the same thread):
www.badgerandblade.com
I've had purple orb stones before... this one (the 12") does NOT have the holographic of some (see this video of one I owned in the past), and it's softer.
www.badgerandblade.com
12" looks to me like hunterblade's stone in this post (again the same thread):
What some call Vosgienne - Show off your rock
AG69: Has your Stone a Stamp or Label ? To Doorsch: it had a very faint stamp on the side and a standard la lune label on one of its faces. When I received the stone, the label was partially detached, so I removed it in order to prevent further damage. Just to clarify- this stone is a purple...
www.badgerandblade.com
I've had purple orb stones before... this one (the 12") does NOT have the holographic of some (see this video of one I owned in the past), and it's softer.
What some call Vosgienne - Show off your rock
I need to send you my purple stone so you can tell me if it's one of these or a Vermont slate.
www.badgerandblade.com
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- Thread starter
- #23
Biggest coti is that popular vein that goes creamy yellow/lumpy looking tan/psychedelic blue. (Last pic is the middle layer poking through in the corner)
6” Thuringia was unused as best as I can tell and is hard to Id the color for. Looks bg/lg/yg depending on the light. Which I usually default to assuming is LG.
Big hunk of Hindo confirmed.
Just started lapping the Washitas to be sure there was some "clean"ish material showing. And one (right) feels like a very orange high quality (#1 probably), the other is the “turkey skin” style you find in the uk a lot. My guess is low graded material they sent over there. The chunky washita probably waiting for my belt sander to be back online to get a cleaning.
The tiny bit of label fragment on the 7" Thuri is just barely hanging on... so I'm still deciding best course of action regarding cleaning it up without risking losing it.
6” Thuringia was unused as best as I can tell and is hard to Id the color for. Looks bg/lg/yg depending on the light. Which I usually default to assuming is LG.
Big hunk of Hindo confirmed.
Just started lapping the Washitas to be sure there was some "clean"ish material showing. And one (right) feels like a very orange high quality (#1 probably), the other is the “turkey skin” style you find in the uk a lot. My guess is low graded material they sent over there. The chunky washita probably waiting for my belt sander to be back online to get a cleaning.
The tiny bit of label fragment on the 7" Thuri is just barely hanging on... so I'm still deciding best course of action regarding cleaning it up without risking losing it.
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- Thread starter
- #24
If we needed more proof about the 12" not being Thuri... I honed on it with the 120 grit lapping scars (which I do all the time with Thuri's, they don't care), then polished it up a bit with a coti (all my sandpaper is packed).
With scars, it felt super-soft, very grippy. It didn't really autoslurry, but it pulled a noticeable amount of steel.
After polish, feels much firmer, silky smooth, not a hint of any autoslurry, and maybe 1/3-1/2 the steel pulled.
HHT on a razor honed with the lapping scars was decent, but definitely a step down from Thuri. Shave was very good (but it's the first shave after several days off, so very easy test to pass). Tomorrow I'll HHT and shave off the polished up 12" and get an accurate HHT and shave test impression.
With scars, it felt super-soft, very grippy. It didn't really autoslurry, but it pulled a noticeable amount of steel.
After polish, feels much firmer, silky smooth, not a hint of any autoslurry, and maybe 1/3-1/2 the steel pulled.
HHT on a razor honed with the lapping scars was decent, but definitely a step down from Thuri. Shave was very good (but it's the first shave after several days off, so very easy test to pass). Tomorrow I'll HHT and shave off the polished up 12" and get an accurate HHT and shave test impression.
Things are looking good here now! And it does look like a nice haul. That purple one with the green spots could be Vermont slate, Welsh slate, Lune-ish. I'm on a Hindostan kick right now having visited the region recently, so I'm eyeing that with interest.
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- #26
Just got on my PC and noticed you fixed the thread for me. Thank you Phil.
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- #27
Feels like a fine one. I've had one before that was fine enough to shave with and not hate life, and this feels similar.... but certainly not a GOOD razor finisher. I'd say maybe 5-6k JIS level shaving. I don't have a ton of experience with them... maybe a dozen or so, but strikes me that closer and straighter lines indicate a finer stone in my experience. Sandstones in general I'm not in love with just because of the feel of them under the tool.
They're an easy lap, but I don't use them much and this one needs a lot of cleanup, so it may wait until my belt sander is up again, same as the washita.
Sounds like my experience too. Sort of a fine mid-range hone. While in the Hindostan region of southern Indiana, I passed by the Indiana Geological Survey in Bloomington to look at their collection of Hindostan stones. While I had always referred to them as sandstone before, the geologist there and locals I met in the field further south referred to them as siltstone.
- Thread starter
- #29
So I cleaned up the 7" DB escher. And three things:
1. The 12" isn't as soft as I was thinking... it'd just been way too long since Id had to lap a beat up Thuri. Most of my lappings lately have been Washitas. It's significantly harder than Thuri (Still quite soft, but not relative to Thuri).
2. The 8" Is definitely purple. Side by side with the 12", it looks blue. Side by Side with the Blue Thuri, definitely purple.
3. It MAY be a BG? Looks DB to me, but some do get pretty close, and the label looks more like BG to my eyes than DB. Appears to be a SRD or DSW end label.
1. The 12" isn't as soft as I was thinking... it'd just been way too long since Id had to lap a beat up Thuri. Most of my lappings lately have been Washitas. It's significantly harder than Thuri (Still quite soft, but not relative to Thuri).
2. The 8" Is definitely purple. Side by side with the 12", it looks blue. Side by Side with the Blue Thuri, definitely purple.
3. It MAY be a BG? Looks DB to me, but some do get pretty close, and the label looks more like BG to my eyes than DB. Appears to be a SRD or DSW end label.
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timwcic
"Look what I found"
Dollars to donuts the 12" is the same material as this stone @kcb5150 posted in 2019.
Did I Find A La Lune Razor Hone?**UPDATE**With A Second New Purple Stone
Got another Lune this evening! Grey, never used, with the label. With out this thread I would have passed since I have quite a few and use them very little, but it reminded me how much I like them... We need pictures
.. And the 8" is the same material as @timwcic posted in the same thread.
Did I Find A La Lune Razor Hone?**UPDATE**With A Second New Purple Stone
Got another Lune this evening! Grey, never used, with the label. With out this thread I would have passed since I have quite a few and use them very little, but it reminded me how much I like them... We need pictures
So if either of you have a good idea on the identity of those stones, I'd love to hear.
Right or wrong, I still consider mine to be a La Lune or in the French family. I have not used it in a while but I remember it was much better using oil than water. Water was uncomfortable and ragged on the face. Second from left in pictures. Going to dug it out. It was a pleasure to use
BTW, heck of a score
What color is the stone second from the right?
timwcic
"Look what I found"
It’s predominantly purplish with browns and maroons
Ok Thanks
- Thread starter
- #34
Yeah, the crazy thing is those brown/maroon stones (that some of Doorsch old posts say are Vosgiennes) are dead ringers for an old very cool paddle stone I had that said it was for everything under the sun... kitchen shears/scissors/penknives/etc/etc/etc. And I remember that stone being pretty coarse, Washita-ish. I KNOW I posted that stone here awhile back. Had a black label and I spent HOURS playing with different lights until I could make out what it said (It was a whole paragraph of text). Behavior was nothing like people describe Vosgiennes as, but damn it looked IDENTICAL to them. Wish I kept it. I eBayed it and I only got like $10 if I remember. Hell the cool label was worth more than that.
Edit: found my pics of the stone I'm talking about: The "Welch Razor Hone". I've had two of them. One was not a razor finisher, the second was a mediocre one at best. I had completely forgotten that at the time I posted it, Doorsch even suggested it was a Vos.
www.badgerandblade.com
And yeah, I agree Tim, I've had a few of this purple stone (striped 8" one) in cuts like yours (Barber-cuts) in the past and always figured them for a French slate of some kind. Sadly my non-Thuri slates rarely stick around very long, so side by side comparisons don't get to happen as often as they should.
Edit: found my pics of the stone I'm talking about: The "Welch Razor Hone". I've had two of them. One was not a razor finisher, the second was a mediocre one at best. I had completely forgotten that at the time I posted it, Doorsch even suggested it was a Vos.
Thoughts on this natural
My thoughts on this natural: Paul, learn how to hone and then use this somewhere in your progression to see if it makes you any better? Hey Brooksie967, could you like teach me? I hear you're the flavour of the month on the homing er honing forum.
www.badgerandblade.com
And yeah, I agree Tim, I've had a few of this purple stone (striped 8" one) in cuts like yours (Barber-cuts) in the past and always figured them for a French slate of some kind. Sadly my non-Thuri slates rarely stick around very long, so side by side comparisons don't get to happen as often as they should.
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Yeah, the crazy thing is those brown/maroon stones (that some of Doorsch old posts say are Vosgiennes) are dead ringers for an old very cool paddle stone I had that said it was for everything under the sun... kitchen shears/scissors/penknives/etc/etc/etc. And I remember that stone being pretty coarse, Washita-ish. I KNOW I posted that stone here awhile back. Had a black label and I spent HOURS playing with different lights until I could make out what it said (It was a whole paragraph of text). Behavior was nothing like people describe Vosgiennes as, but damn it looked IDENTICAL to them. Wish I kept it. I eBayed it and I only got like $10 if I remember. Hell the cool label was worth more than that.
Edit: found my pics of the stone I'm talking about: The "Welch Razor Hone". I've had two of them. One was not a razor finisher, the second was a mediocre one at best. I had completely forgotten that at the time I posted it, Doorsch even suggested it was a Vos.
Thoughts on this natural
My thoughts on this natural: Paul, learn how to hone and then use this somewhere in your progression to see if it makes you any better? Hey Brooksie967, could you like teach me? I hear you're the flavour of the month on the homing er honing forum.
And yeah, I agree Tim, I've had a few of this purple stone (striped 8" one) in cuts like yours (Barber-cuts) in the past and always figured them for a French slate of some kind. Sadly my non-Thuri slates rarely stick around very long, so side by side comparisons don't get to happen as often as they should.
Here's my welch razor hone, the purple one is a fantastic stone. The Vosgiennes looking one is harder and trickier but works fine for me with oil as a finisher. I have tried hard to research these two hones. I also now own a few purple slates I believe are welsh, none of them match this purple welsh razor hone. Maybe different mines but the fact that both if these hones often are referred to as french is jsut more puzzling.
You can see how the lines are white from one way and black from another view point.
Screenshot of Modine discussing the same stone IMO, That disappearing squigle line is very distinctive:
French Hones - Page 5
Guillaume, that's definately a purple La Lune/Special Stone. They are very fine, enjoy!
sharprazorpalace.com
I've had the same experience with la lunes but I've found that if I use water and leave a very light slurry it takes out the harshness.
- Thread starter
- #37
So Shave #2 off the 12". Different razor and with the stone lapped beyond 160grit (polished with a coticule, to be precised).
HHT massively improved. Silent falls now. Shave still comfy. Definitely closer. I'd say with this one shave as measurement, it's ballpark on par with a Thuri shave. Will give it a few more shaves before I definitively judge it; but pretty happy. "thuri-quality" slates aren't exactly nonexistent. I'd say maybe 5% or so of the actual vintage (not modern paving stones cut into hone-shapes) ones I've gotten in barber or Thuri cuts were. Generally I don't keep them because even with Thuri results, they're usually inferior in other ways. Slower, worse feedback, need surfacing, certain razors don't seem to like them, etc... And I own 10x2" Thuri, so why bother keeping a 7" or 5" or whatever hone that is a subpar facsimile (even if it's only slightly subpar).
This stone has pretty good feedback. Speed will take a couple more hones to really judge (I've only touched up finished razors so far). It definitely needs surfacing (proven that already), which Thuri's really don't for me. But given the huge size... I'm happy to put up with some deficiencies if the shave actually is Thuri-tier across all razors.
Given that it seems mildly absorbing and pretty soft, I'll probably skip testing it with oil. Maybe detergent/glycerin at some point, but with the similarities to Thuri, I'm thinking it'll stay a waterstone for me.
HHT massively improved. Silent falls now. Shave still comfy. Definitely closer. I'd say with this one shave as measurement, it's ballpark on par with a Thuri shave. Will give it a few more shaves before I definitively judge it; but pretty happy. "thuri-quality" slates aren't exactly nonexistent. I'd say maybe 5% or so of the actual vintage (not modern paving stones cut into hone-shapes) ones I've gotten in barber or Thuri cuts were. Generally I don't keep them because even with Thuri results, they're usually inferior in other ways. Slower, worse feedback, need surfacing, certain razors don't seem to like them, etc... And I own 10x2" Thuri, so why bother keeping a 7" or 5" or whatever hone that is a subpar facsimile (even if it's only slightly subpar).
This stone has pretty good feedback. Speed will take a couple more hones to really judge (I've only touched up finished razors so far). It definitely needs surfacing (proven that already), which Thuri's really don't for me. But given the huge size... I'm happy to put up with some deficiencies if the shave actually is Thuri-tier across all razors.
Given that it seems mildly absorbing and pretty soft, I'll probably skip testing it with oil. Maybe detergent/glycerin at some point, but with the similarities to Thuri, I'm thinking it'll stay a waterstone for me.
- Thread starter
- #38
So took a third razor to a finish on the 12". This time coming off 8k.
After ~2x the time I'd spend on a Thuri, HHT was still mediocre; figured it wasn't finished. Took it back and treated it like I would a trans/SB ark (but with water instead of oil). Result was good but not great HHT... pretty grabby to the hairs. Took it back to the stone with lighter pressure for another 5 min and HHT wasn't changed.
Still shaved. Close, decently comfortable, but definitely not as nice as the last shave... though I think that's one of three things.
1. Stone is very slow (it is), and I still haven't maxed the razor out. If this is the case, it'll be very much like an ark in use... needs some pressure to really progress the edge... in that case, I'll try and beat a razor into submission with some pressure on it. I'll test this for shave 5 if the next possibility doesn't turn out to be correct.
2. The razor for this shave just has a low limit. It kind of felt like "eh" steel on my face and on the stones... just generally reminded me of some razors I've felt no need to keep in the past. Capable of a very good shave, just not a top tier one. I'll test this by swapping out the razor but using the same techniques for shave 4.
3. Stone is picky about the razors/steels it gets along with. May test this out for shave 6 by taking the razor from shave 2 back down to 8k and refinishing on it.
This is really exemplifying why I like Thuris... If this stone was a Thuri, I'd have 3 shaves like shave #2, and it'd already be on my shelf waiting until I needed to touch up a razor... not spending weeks trying to figure out what variable is keeping it from delivering what I got in shave #2 in all the other shaves. That's why Thuri's are so darn nice.
After ~2x the time I'd spend on a Thuri, HHT was still mediocre; figured it wasn't finished. Took it back and treated it like I would a trans/SB ark (but with water instead of oil). Result was good but not great HHT... pretty grabby to the hairs. Took it back to the stone with lighter pressure for another 5 min and HHT wasn't changed.
Still shaved. Close, decently comfortable, but definitely not as nice as the last shave... though I think that's one of three things.
1. Stone is very slow (it is), and I still haven't maxed the razor out. If this is the case, it'll be very much like an ark in use... needs some pressure to really progress the edge... in that case, I'll try and beat a razor into submission with some pressure on it. I'll test this for shave 5 if the next possibility doesn't turn out to be correct.
2. The razor for this shave just has a low limit. It kind of felt like "eh" steel on my face and on the stones... just generally reminded me of some razors I've felt no need to keep in the past. Capable of a very good shave, just not a top tier one. I'll test this by swapping out the razor but using the same techniques for shave 4.
3. Stone is picky about the razors/steels it gets along with. May test this out for shave 6 by taking the razor from shave 2 back down to 8k and refinishing on it.
This is really exemplifying why I like Thuris... If this stone was a Thuri, I'd have 3 shaves like shave #2, and it'd already be on my shelf waiting until I needed to touch up a razor... not spending weeks trying to figure out what variable is keeping it from delivering what I got in shave #2 in all the other shaves. That's why Thuri's are so darn nice.
- Thread starter
- #39
Shave #4 off the 12". This razor finished MUCH faster than #3, but still slower (maybe 30-40%) than a Thuri would finish it. So yeah #3 is looking like a meh razor's fault. I also honed that razor some more, and it was indeed maxxed out for Shave #3... we just hit the limits of that razor off this stone... probably a razor I won't be keeping.
On to shave #4:
HHT good. Ballpark Thuri level, maybe the tiniest notch behind, but nothing I'd bat an eye at normally.
Shave very good... arguably Thuri-tier, but definitely different from Thuri.
Frankly... it shaved like I always expected La Lunes to shave based on descriptions from the guys who like them. I would say it's as sharp or maybe the tiniest bit behind a Thuri in sharpness... but it has that "near-wire" feel and noise to the edge that I could see guys who learned to shave on synthetic edges interpreting as "sharper"
I've never owned a labeled/ID'ed purple La Lune... and the metallic-black ones I have owned are nothing like this stone... which makes me doubt this is purple La Lune material... but the best way I could describe it is "How most guys who like La Lunes describe La Lunes".
Probably a keeper just because of the size... and definitely a good finisher... but I'll probably wind up sticking to Thuris (faster, easier to use). That said, I'd call the shave roughly equal to a Thuri (but very distinct).
I may give it a detergent/lather try next, just to see if it changes anything. But I'd be surprised if it does. Feels like I've found what this stone is capable of.
On to shave #4:
HHT good. Ballpark Thuri level, maybe the tiniest notch behind, but nothing I'd bat an eye at normally.
Shave very good... arguably Thuri-tier, but definitely different from Thuri.
Frankly... it shaved like I always expected La Lunes to shave based on descriptions from the guys who like them. I would say it's as sharp or maybe the tiniest bit behind a Thuri in sharpness... but it has that "near-wire" feel and noise to the edge that I could see guys who learned to shave on synthetic edges interpreting as "sharper"
I've never owned a labeled/ID'ed purple La Lune... and the metallic-black ones I have owned are nothing like this stone... which makes me doubt this is purple La Lune material... but the best way I could describe it is "How most guys who like La Lunes describe La Lunes".
Probably a keeper just because of the size... and definitely a good finisher... but I'll probably wind up sticking to Thuris (faster, easier to use). That said, I'd call the shave roughly equal to a Thuri (but very distinct).
I may give it a detergent/lather try next, just to see if it changes anything. But I'd be surprised if it does. Feels like I've found what this stone is capable of.
I have what is almost certainly the purple type of Salmen's Yellow Lake / Llyn Melynllyn and it's reasonably hard for a slate (harder than the Blue-Grey YLs for instance), so you can probably rule that out. The green in it is different from yours too.
