Thuringian Water Hone

Thuringian Water Hone

This is a new German Thuringian waterstone /hone for use with straight razors and other fine-edged instruments.  It is a final finishing hone.  It is brand new from the manufacturer and in an unopened packet (the unwrapped one shown in the picture is my own hone).  The hone comes with a smaller piece of the same stone for use as a rubbing stone to make a slurry to speed-up the sharpening process.  The stone measures approx. 8 inches long by 2 inches wide by 3/4 inch thick (200mm x 50mm x 20mm) - not including the rubbing stone.

In use I find the hone smoother and softer than most belgian yellow coticules, and that it gives a slightly sharper edge.  Like a coticule, a thick slurry can be produced very easily, and this speeds up the cutting action.  As the work progresses, the slurry should be thinned with water gradually, until only clear water remains.  This gives the finest edge - a little more can be gained by continuing to hone until the water is almost dry.  The edge thus formed will be found to be a little bit better than a coticule and vastly better and smoother than that produced by a Norton 8000 grit stone.  As this is a natural stone, it is very difficult, if not impossible to give it grit rating, but I would say that on average it is 10,000+ and probably higher - some people compare it with a chinese 12000 stone (but it is, however, far more adaptable than the chinese stone).  Being a natural stone there will of course be examples that are lower in grit rating, but I haven't had one lower than 9,000 - 10,000 in the dozen or so I have used.

Although these hones look quite flat when unwrapped, I always lap (flatten) every hone I get, and I suggest that the same is done for this.  As it is quite a soft hone the process is quick and easy: lay wet-and-dry sandpaper on a true flat surface like a piece of flat marble or plate glass, drop some water on it, draw a check-mark pattern on the surface of the stone and rub it on the sandpaper until the pattern disappears.  It's a bit hard to make out when this happens as the stone gives off a lot of thick grey muddy slurry, so I continue rubbing for a short while.  Then wash the surface down and repeat the process using finer grades of paper.  Or use a diamond plate.

As this is a natural product sawn from natural rock there will be some small flaws as you might expect, but these flaws are not to be considered as defects and a reason for return: please bear this in mind before buying!  In stones of this type it is common to get a little edge-chipping, some chamfering of corners or edges to true the stone (mine has one corner ground at an angle and chamfer of varying width on one side) and somtimes some inclusions.

Packaged weight will be just under 1kg