sliceoflife
ArboristSite Operative
Modern Mueller stones aren't actually Thuringian Material. The ones I've tried were muddy and nowhere near as fine as original material (I've owned hundreds of vintage Thuringians). Be careful a LOT of sellers resell them as "Thuringians". It's a big part of why the green and yellow green Thuringians are so much more valuable/expensive... because there's no chance they're mistaken for a Mueller (or similar Dark blue slate). And there's the impression they tend to be finer and/or softer; which most people prefer.
Fifteen years back when people in the States discovered Mueller, they had a VERY tiny supply of actual Thuringian. It was mostly 4"x1" with a handful of larger stuff. The larger stuff sold out almost instantly. 4" stones lasted a few months... and then a few webstores bought it out (was priced ~$10-15 from Mueller) and sold it for $100+ per piece. Now all they sell is their "German Whetstone" which THEY sell as "From a few miles away from the Thuringian Mines". But resellers love selling as "Thuringian". They also sell them for like $20 for an 8x2" (At least that's what they were 15 yrs ago, but you gotta import from Germany), but resellers ask $50, $100, etc.
There's a guy who used to frequent shaving/razor forums who lived near the mines and talked them into letting him creep in the mines and find scrap pieces that got left behind when they were active. He's the only source of "modern" Thuringian material. I tried a couple pieces and it was the real deal. His name's Peter and he used to have a storefront; but his supply might have dried up by now. I think the storefront was at Thuringianhones.de . Looks like he just has one Thuri up right now and it's being sold as a combo with a big honkin razor.
Modern Coticules all come from a mine/co called Ardennes Coticule. I personally prefer old stones as I've found some really exceptional examples; but Ardennes does still mine good quality ones; especially if you detail what vein you want from them (certain veins; particularly La Veinette and Les Latneuses are more desirable/consistent), but they don't always have those veins available. Real drawback to Ardennes is that frankly, vintage stones are usually cheaper if they aren't Labeled (Old Rock, Salm, etc) or unusual examples with lots of patterning. You can get an 8x2" vintage coticule from time to time in the $100-150 range on eBay... That's a $300+ rock from Ardennes.
I have one high grit (13k Sigma power) synth; but it's the only one. I tried Naniwas, Shapton (GS and pro), that 20k Goku thing that a lot of razor guys love. They all did basically the same thing for me and I liked the Sigma best. But it doesn't see much use. I'll go to a natural stone 100+ times for every time I break the synth out.
The high end synth most used by razor guys these days seems to be balsa stropping on ultra-refined abrasive dust from 1 mu down to 0.1 mu. There's a guy who came up with a process/technique that took off as an affordable way for new straight shavers to get good results with a pretty easy to teach/describe technique. There are still guys that use things like glass-stones and the 20k Goku; but based on forum discussions feels those are much less common than balsa stropping or any number of natural stone finishers (Jnat, Thuri, Arkansas, Coti, etc).
Fifteen years back when people in the States discovered Mueller, they had a VERY tiny supply of actual Thuringian. It was mostly 4"x1" with a handful of larger stuff. The larger stuff sold out almost instantly. 4" stones lasted a few months... and then a few webstores bought it out (was priced ~$10-15 from Mueller) and sold it for $100+ per piece. Now all they sell is their "German Whetstone" which THEY sell as "From a few miles away from the Thuringian Mines". But resellers love selling as "Thuringian". They also sell them for like $20 for an 8x2" (At least that's what they were 15 yrs ago, but you gotta import from Germany), but resellers ask $50, $100, etc.
There's a guy who used to frequent shaving/razor forums who lived near the mines and talked them into letting him creep in the mines and find scrap pieces that got left behind when they were active. He's the only source of "modern" Thuringian material. I tried a couple pieces and it was the real deal. His name's Peter and he used to have a storefront; but his supply might have dried up by now. I think the storefront was at Thuringianhones.de . Looks like he just has one Thuri up right now and it's being sold as a combo with a big honkin razor.
Modern Coticules all come from a mine/co called Ardennes Coticule. I personally prefer old stones as I've found some really exceptional examples; but Ardennes does still mine good quality ones; especially if you detail what vein you want from them (certain veins; particularly La Veinette and Les Latneuses are more desirable/consistent), but they don't always have those veins available. Real drawback to Ardennes is that frankly, vintage stones are usually cheaper if they aren't Labeled (Old Rock, Salm, etc) or unusual examples with lots of patterning. You can get an 8x2" vintage coticule from time to time in the $100-150 range on eBay... That's a $300+ rock from Ardennes.
I have one high grit (13k Sigma power) synth; but it's the only one. I tried Naniwas, Shapton (GS and pro), that 20k Goku thing that a lot of razor guys love. They all did basically the same thing for me and I liked the Sigma best. But it doesn't see much use. I'll go to a natural stone 100+ times for every time I break the synth out.
The high end synth most used by razor guys these days seems to be balsa stropping on ultra-refined abrasive dust from 1 mu down to 0.1 mu. There's a guy who came up with a process/technique that took off as an affordable way for new straight shavers to get good results with a pretty easy to teach/describe technique. There are still guys that use things like glass-stones and the 20k Goku; but based on forum discussions feels those are much less common than balsa stropping or any number of natural stone finishers (Jnat, Thuri, Arkansas, Coti, etc).
crap shoot, I never touch junk
, a seller that "plays dumb"
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