Comment on Friday SOTD Thread, November 14th, 2025 (#885)
gcgallant@wetshav.ing 1 week ago
November 14, 2025
- Brush: Zenith B44 28mm Boar
- Razor: Geneva Cutlery Co. Heavy 6/8 Hollow Ground Square Point
- Razor: Geneva Cutlery Co. Henry’s X 6/8” Hollow Ground Square Point
- Lather: Noble Otter - Firefighter - Soap
- Toner: Thayers - Coconut - Toner
- Aftershave: Noble Otter - Firefighter - Aftershave
3 passes. Face lather. Excellent shave.
This was a test shave for edges from two Vermont slate stones; a mottled grey stone and a purple stone. The two Geneva Cutlery razors had the same geometry and steel and tested at the same level of keenness when they were sharpened. I found that the two edges were very similar, with the edge from the mottled grey stone having comfort similar to a Thuringian edge, while the one from the purple stone had more of an Arkansas edge feel to it.
The mottled grey stone takes a little more effort while sharpening because it is porous and requires hydration maintenance. The purple stone, like most razor finishers, is just splash-n-go.
DaveWave94@wetshav.ing 1 week ago
Feels kinda surreal that my small little german state has a sharpening stone/edge named after it. Really cool though!
gcgallant@wetshav.ing 5 days ago
Not only that, these are famous stones for having exceptional quality!
DaveWave94@wetshav.ing 5 days ago
I read an interesting blog post after a short research: the Escher stones originally came from the area near Sonneberg, a southern thuringian city famous for developing and manufacturing all kinds of children’s toys. The sharpening stones themselves are rather rare and therefore expensive. Something new to me, but nevertheless quite interesting!
gcgallant@wetshav.ing 5 days ago
The Escher company went out of business. To my knowledge, the Thuringian mountain ranges are not mined for stones any more, but material from those mountains is used to make some synthetic whetstones. (I’ve never seen these). The original stones are very desirable.