Vintage Thuringian

[johnmrson]

I recently acquired a vintage Thuringian so last night I thought I'd hone up a razor and use it as the finisher and see what it was like.
I honed a Puma 5/8 up to 8K on the Shaptons and then gave it a few laps on the Thuringian.
I shaved with it this morning and whilst I got the feeling that the razor was a sharp and it perhaps could have been, it gave me an extremely smooth BBS.

What I'm wondering is, should I use the Thuringian after the 8K or the 12k hone?

I'm struggling a little to rate the edge as although there was a little pull when shaving under my nose which usually indicates the blade could do with being a bit sharper, I was able to do a very easy ATG pass which usually indicates the blade is very sharp.

I'd be interested in hearing other people experiences with Thuringians. It certainly looks very promising though once I've worked out best way to use it.

 

[Disburden]

From what I have been advised from friends on the forums is that you should use the highest stone you have and then the Thuringian/Escher stone.

So if you have the 12K, use it, if not the 8K is fine.

Escher and old Thuri stones do the best when the edge is maxed out the most, I also use a slurry (not thick).

Hope this helps.

 

[wdwrx]

I'll second the slurry finish on the Thüringian. The smoothest edges I've gotten from mine came from starting with a fairly dense slurry, and working it for a while, and then watering it down to quite thin and finishing on that. About 50 laps.
I find the edges a tad smoother and more forgiving than a straight water finish.

 

[SliceOfLife]

What are your 8 and 12k stones? Naniwa, shapton, what?

I go to my Thuri with slurry off an 8k DMT now and then, but usually I do a coti touchup in between them. I'm going to try going 8k DMT 6k King 10k Sigma Power then Thuri eventually, but I've not had the time to try that sequence out yet.

In short. You can go to a thuri after 8k, but it's typically faster to add another stage (or two) in there. I find Thuri's to finish in the greater than 12k JIS range, which is a HUGE step up from 8k Mesh (12k JIS is right around the theoretical 30k Mesh) so if you're talking 8k DMT or Norton, then yes I'd definitely hit your 12k first.

 

[johnmrson]

My 8k and 12k are Shapton Ceramic Pro stones. I've also got a 16k and 30k in the Shaptons but I want to experiment with different finishes and wasn't sure whether I should jump to the vintage thuringian after 8k or 12k.

It seems that after 12k is probably a better option so I think I'll put it on the 12k Shapton tonight and then move it to the vintage thuringian and see how that works out.

 

[honed]

I get the best results from my vintage Thuri after either a coticule dilucot (You've tried that edge right ) or a progression of Naniwa 10K -> coti with water ~30 laps -> ~20 feathery laps on the Thuri (5"x1")

With your Shaptons you could easily take it up to the 16K & then Thuri.

A good vintage Thuri is as fine as an Escher (Escher is Thrui & all that)
& it definitely enhances a 16K edge.

I've never tried Thuri slurry, since I get so good results with water only.

 

[Joe Edson]

I get the best results from my vintage Thuri after either a coticule dilucot (You've tried that edge right ) or a progression of Naniwa 10K -> coti with water ~30 laps -> ~20 feathery laps on the Thuri (5"x1")

With your Shaptons you could easily take it up to the 16K & then Thuri.

A good vintage Thuri is as fine as an Escher (Escher is Thrui & all that)
& it definitely enhances a 16K edge.

I've never tried Thuri slurry, since I get so good results with water only.

I prefer the water finish as well, but usually start with a slurry and dilute to water. Maybe I'm just used to the dilucot too much. Definitely my favorite edge that I prefer to shave with.

 

[johnmrson]

Well I gave the Puma a hone on the 12k and then moved to the vintage Thuringian with a light slurry and worked it to plain water and it worked pretty well. I don't think the edge was much smoother than the previous plain water on the vintage Thuringian but certainly taking it up to 12k instead of 8k made a reasonable difference to the sharpness of the blade.