Frankonian Hone?

[Joe Edson]

Eh, at that price I'm not willing to take a risk on it myself. My experience is that peoples opinions on stones vary a lot, even among the most experienced. And I certainly wouldn't drop $100+ on the review of a dozen razor honers. I've gotten burned a few times in the past by trusting guys saying "X hone is a great finisher" or "As fine as Y" or whatever. There are a few guys who you can see go way above and beyond what the average for testing is, and I'll trust data from them, but if I don't already know a guy, and have inspected and shaved off an edge he's honed, then frankly I've learned to assign exactly zero worth to his opinion of a stone for finishing razors. There's a flip side to this. The whole Coticule argument earlier this week. People with hundreds of stones used making comments that were completely removed from reality because they refused to learn the stones properly, and then backing their statements solely with their experience. It's like a guy who owns a Ferrari dealership and test drives all his standard transmission cars, but can't shift, so he declares that Ferrari's can't go above 50mph (or whatever they'd top out at in first gear) and points to how many he's driven as his proof.

I don't mean to insult anyone with this stone, you may be excellent honers and the hone may be just how you describe. It's simply a matter of caution for me based on my experiences where other people (not you guys) reviewed stones without really having the experience to properly describe them, then I bought them and was stuck with a stone that didn't do what it had been bragged about to do, and I didn't feel right reselling to someone else who'd expect that from it. I'd say this sort of thing has happened more recently in the brush forum over low priced brushes than here though.

That's a good take. Frankly, now that I'm really learning my escher/thuri and coti's there really is no need for another stone. I get good shave worthy edges from the coti and am really learning that my escher gives a noticeable improvement in sharpness following.

The only stone I'd be looking to get at this point is maybe a J-nat, though there are just far too many variables with these things it seems. Would love to get a Charnley forest as I think they are a beautiful stone, but won't pay the ebay prices they are going for.

I should really sell that Frictionite 00 I picked up on the cheap on eBay for the CRAZY prices they are going for now.

 

[Blue58]

I was just kind of kidding as I don't know anyone who can cut stones. Wouldn't imagine it would cost too much though if Olivia gets back to me I'm going to ask if maybe they can sell em that small or possibly can get one cut in half.

Hopefully I'll get a response next week. From what I've read it sounds like she is connected to the mine somehow so maybe they can do smaller cuts at a more reasonable price.

Edit: Also just noticed that if you click on the more information link right under the stone on her webpage, this is what it says "To be used after the Escher, gives a wicked edge. More info to come"

I must say that just intrigues me more.

Find a good rock shop in your area they have rock saws and its usually not expensive. Since it is slate it wont be hard to cut and should only take a few minutes to do.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Olivia owns shaveready and I believe she gets the stones from her brother to sell.

All I can tell is that it's slate. Frankonian makes me think from france somewhere maybe? I've never heard of it before. From the tiny pic they have it could be Thuri, could be Yellow Lake, could be any of a dozen other Slates that don't typically show obvious patterning. Best bet is to contact them and ask where they get those stones from and what they can tell you about them. Then share this info with us.


Maybe check out this forum? Google found it and looks like "Olivia" is a member there. Seems a number of people there have these stones.

http://www.shaveready.com/showthread.php?p=3690


I've only found one other reference to it, saying that it's a German Natural stone. (From Frankonian Region of Germany it seems)

edit: Found a few mentions of it almost exclusively to shaving forums. Appears to be a new German Natural finishing hone that started getting mined recently. Other than "Finisher" I can't find any reports on it. If it is actually as high a grit as she claims (and it may well be, the closeups I've found look quite similar to Thuri's) it should be a nice alternative to the stupidly overpriced Barber cut Thuringians (~6x2.5's)

 

[gugi2]

Ms. Olivia has a good reputation, both for her soaps & her talent with thher various hones.

Depends who you ask I guess

 

[honed]

Depends who you ask I guess

Doesn't it always

Please elaborate!

 

[Scotchhound1969]

Anyone know what this Frankonian Hone is?

http://www.olivia-seife.de/shop/hwherren/steine.html

I feel myself coming down with a case of HAD and stumbled across this finisher. Any info on it?

I purchased and tested one of Olivia's Frankonians, about a year ago. The hone was about 6x3x1/2 dimension-wise.
My impressions/opinions, on the one hone that i tested, was that it performs very much like a Dark Blue Thuringian/Escher. The feedback from the hone is pretty nice...it has a silky/slick feeling to it, which i liked.
The stone is also quite hard, compared to the standard gray and yellow/green Eschers, but slurry is easily generated with a diamond hone and i did like the shaving edges off of it.

Hope that helps,

Mac

 

[Joe Edson]

I purchased and tested one of Olivia's Frankonians, about a year ago. The hone was about 6x3x1/2 dimension-wise.
My impressions/opinions, on the one hone that i tested, was that it performs very much like a Dark Blue Thuringian/Escher. The feedback from the hone is pretty nice...it has a silky/slick feeling to it, which i liked.
The stone is also quite hard, compared to the standard gray and yellow/green Eschers, but slurry is easily generated with a diamond hone and i did like the shaving edges off of it.

Hope that helps,

Mac

Thanks Mac. I recently purchase a JNAt, Charnley, and Shapton 30K so hopefully that settles my HAD for quite awhile.

I am intrigued by this stone and maybe someday in the future I will go for it.

 

[Disburden]

Thanks Mac. I recently purchase a JNAt, Charnley, and Shapton 30K so hopefully that settles my HAD for quite awhile.

I am intrigued by this stone and maybe someday in the future I will go for it.

There is no stopping HAD that is why it is the most potent of our disorders and the most costly. Soon rocks will take over your home and it will look like outside inside your living space with plants and rocks. Slurry will turn up in the oddest of places and when it gets on your fingertips you will smell it like it's sent from heaven.