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How do I recognise Escher and Cutlers Green

Today I had two hones in hand which reminded me some pictures of Escher hone. I want to ask those who know to chip in and while they are at it if they can disclose same points about mysterious Cuttlers Green stone. Especialy clear pictures would be appreciated. Thank you
 
I am tommorow talking to one of the old Sheffield cuttlers and then i am going to N. Wales (yes Welsh Dragon Tongue is calling) and will look for more info there. If I will be lucky I am going to post it here.
 
I wish you the best of luck. The DT has a few fans arounds the shaving forums and is an absolute bargain at the price.
I don't know anything about the cutlers green hone exept it is from Snowdonia and it did exist. If you manage to get any info I'm sure I can speak for many forumites in passing on our gratitude to you.
good luck M
 
I was not that lucky in my quest in Wales. All people who possibly could help were not there. At least i bought myself a nice 10x3x1" DT with a slurry stone. For those who were trying to e-mail the Indigo Jones and had problems with a slurry stones for their DTs there is appology from them as they did not understand what and why you wanted it. Once I explained verbaly and physicaly what I want it was all clear and two days later I had my made to measure hone ready.
 
I spoke to the guy who is cutting the hones for us, amongst other building type projects he has on his books (kitchen worktops, sills and stuff), he is trying to get his head around all the hone orders he has been having. He is well shocked at the international interest in the stones.
BTW he want's feedback about the stone as he is clueless about it's modern day old fashioned use:biggrin:
 
I have to agree with you. When I was talking to him I had to physicaly show what I want for the slury stone. He asked me if I want free slurry dust which he brought for me. I took it but foun even it goes through many filters there were still present quite rough pieces and therefore I ditched it before I would damage my razors.
 
The Charnley Forest you know now from all the photographs in the previous posts on this subject.

I noticed that in those posts you took information but supplied nothing.

Interesting!
 
Today i spent 2 hours just trying to get 2 of the stones flat. Still not finished. One of them was concave and the other one was exactly oposite. I need to take off anout 1.5mm more to have it flat. Then lapp it with finer grit. Was it you English who was replying to yne of my posts where I showed pictures of one of my hones? Just to remind there are the pictures. The rest will be when they are presentable as at present they are all gunky.
 
I know it sounds heavy, but if you have an orbital sander, it can really take out much of the work.

You can start with 80 grit to level the surface and then the rest is easy. Well easier.

On the Cuttlers Green stone, I had a stone that was around the 6000 grit level and also hard like the CF. It was a light almost jade green color with light white flakes throughout the stone. It was not dissimilar to a blue coticule in many ways, probably a bit too brittle and very difficult to level. Not as good as the coticule but cut to the same type of edge. I think this may have been the stone you are referring to. I don't really think it is worth seeking out as the blue coticules are a great mid way stone that are presently readily available, well priced and good quality.
 
How do you recognise an escher?

ESCHER is the name of the Company that supplied the hones. So Eschers have to be clearly labelled with the Escher label. It is a paper label. They are usually quite expensive unless you are fortunate to find one in an antique shop or buy it from someone who doesn't know its true value as a razor finishing hone.

The color of the stone varies in shade from grey to blue grey to blue green to green to yellow green. They get denser as the color goes from grey to yellow with the yellow green being generally considered the finest. The stone is softer than a coticule, denser and heavier, smooth to the touch, usually of a consistent color and should be blemish free. It is clay like and the slurry is cloudy. The grit is around the 12000 mark. You will find many photo's of the hone if you search on the shaving forums. Sometimes they are sold on e bay and the shaving forums and you can still buy the same stone without the Escher label that comes from a German supplier called MST.

Many shavers find the edge off an Escher stone to be smoother than that from a coticule. I agree, but think that it achieves the smoothness at the cost of loosing some of the sharpness. I find the type of smoothness that I like comes from a higher grit altogether and usually it's chromium oxide paste that does the job for me. This being the case, it doesn't matter if you use the coticule or the escher, because the final finish is the paste and not the hone.

Whatever it is a very fine and special hone.
 
Thank you English for that help. I was going through many threads here and on SRP to recognise my stones. On the picture you can see that I am still working on those stones. Charnleys had rough flatenning. One of the stones on the picture is something yellow, hard and full of oil, probably piece for X hones on SRP. i am trying to de gunk them but with not much success. House is full of oily smell from swetting them but with not much success apart from the yellow one. How did you get yours so clean? Apart from that i have only a piece of stone from one of the quarries in Cwm Idwal and as i will have time I am going to cut and flatten it and then test it. Will report on the progress.
 
The CF was quite easy to clean. Really. The oil had not penetrated into the stone. Maybe I was lucky. I wiped the stone with white spirit and then scrubbed the stone with liquid cleaner (Jif) removed a surface layer with a low grit sandpaper and it was spotless.
 
Vulpex liquid soap is the best detergent for cleaning up oil stones, just don't let it come into contact with bare skin.

Regards,
Stew
 
This is my try for CG. Asked in the area and they send me into this disused quarry. Picked a piece of material which was closest to description which somebody here gave me and now I am trying to get it into the shape that I can see the material. it is difficult to see it otherwise. Will let you know when ready.
 
That will be really interesting. Thanks for keeping us updated.

If it is a really tough stone, some 80 grit with an electric sander should sand out a bit of the surface to get an idea of colour.
 
It is not too bad. I am just waiting for my first paycheck that I can try to buy some decent quality linisher belt (wet and dry does not last much) as this one is quite worn out and yesterday I was too knackered after 7 hours of hand grinding and lapping. There is still one long side to cut and then to get at least one side flat. At present it looks like something between green and grey colour. Fingers crossed and I will be lucky otherwise I have one more tip for a disused quarry.
 
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