Barmaley's Aggregated Questions Thread

scottc3 said:
I thought you were in your home kitchen, made some guesses on household size, and from that figured weekly honing count
Click to expand...
I am at a home kitchen and I am a complete noob in knives and sharpening. Because of coronavirus confinement and in order to do something useful I decided to sharpen my knives. I did not realized that I will open a can of worms. First, I failed and could not help myself without extra help and found this fantastic forum! My big surprice was how nice and smart members are here! I expected Harley-Davidson type of folks but I found very thoughtful, friendly and highly knowledgeable community with clear respect to scientific method and intellectual approach to the world. `Then a bought a cheap knife and it was so sharp and working with it was so big pleasure that I realized that I can not live with dull knives any more! I want them be all that sharp and that cheap Chinese knife (BTW, a week later it is already not as sharp!!!). Then it appears that there are so many things I need to learn that I found that I spent hundreds of hours of watching YT, browsing the web and reading this forums!
About infrequent honing. I know that soon epidemic will be over and I will not have time because of my business to visit this forum often and sharpen my knives often as well. So, until I still have some spare time for research I would like to develop a system that with REGULAR LOW MAINTENANCE I would never need to sharpen knives again. My current plan is to hone on a ceramic rod every time before cooking (and I like cooking and often do it three times per day). Unfortunately, I found that honing is not sufficient and I also need to strop on a leather strop. The leather strop does not pass my standards of hygiene to be on a kitchen (ceramic rods seems OK even with trace amount of cobalt ;)) so I am still contemplating on the best way to handle it. The reason to come to this unorthodox system is simple: I am a very lazy person on the one hand and I love very sharp knives. At this moment I am thinking that may be Boker Ruby rod may be a solution to my honing needs since from what I found so far that is seems to be the best rod for honing? An ideal solution is to keep all my knives sharp including my new beautiful M390 chef with one and only one tool in the kitchen if. of course, it is possible. Under any circumstances, I know that I will find eventually a way to keep my knives sharp spending on this very reasonable amount of efforts.

 
Barmaley said:
My big surprice was how nice and smart members are here! I expected Harley-Davidson type of folks but I found very thoughtful, friendly and highly knowledgeable community with clear respect to scientific method and intellectual approach to the world.
Click to expand...
Harly owners I know are engineers, docs n lawyers ride BMW's, real smart ones ride Beulls, Ducatis, or exceptionally well built bikes from Japan Inc. Some earn the right to strap into A10s and rockets. Slow or fast its dancing with gravity.:rolleyes:
 
bgentry said:
I think you would be happy with a Norton JB8, coarse/fine Crystolon combination stone. It should cut just about any steel. The coarse side should be coarse enough to really do some work. I say "should" because I don't own one. But for under $25 shipped, it's an inexpensive experiment. ...and it's a good product from a known company.
Click to expand...
I am waiting for it arrive (amazon is very slow those days) and I found that it is an oil stone. Do I use regular mineral oil from a pharmacy or I need special oil?
This stone is very coarse. Which stone should I finish M390 steel on before stropping on a diamond paste?
 
Mineral oil from the pharmacy is fine. Just use enough to put a very thin layer on the stone so that you can wipe off swarf and contaminants with a paper towel. You don't want so much that you float the blade and reduce the cutting action of the stone.

The honing oil sold by Norton is mineral oil, but may be slightly thinner in consistency than the "laxative" sold in pharmacies.
 
Yes, the Norton oil is considerably lighter & thinner than the laxative-grade stuff. Either will work just fine. The Norton oil is more expensive - I think I paid $6 or $7 for it in the 4-1/2 fl. oz. can. On the other hand, the laxative-grade stuff can be had at about $2 for 16 fl. oz. at Walmart.

I like Norton's oil for feedback's sake and consider it a worthwhile luxury on pre-filled stones that don't drink up a lot of extra oil (like an India stone, for example). But very porous stones that aren't pre-filled with grease will drink a LOT of oil and are a challenge to keep them wetted on the surface. So, with those, I'll use the cheaper stuff. For the very thirsty stones, the heavier-viscosity laxative stuff also will be slower to drain out of the stone. So, there's a working advantage there as well.

I've also used food-grade mineral oil sold at a restaurant supply store, marketed for lubricating food-processing equipment like meat slicers or grinders, etc. Its light viscosity and purity are very similar to the Norton oil; and on a per-unit-volume basis, it's less expensive than the Norton oil. For that stuff, I think I paid around $8 - $9 or so for 16 fl. oz, IIRC.
 
Last edited:
I use the Norton myself. I've had the same bottle for about 20 years. But mineral oil (from the pharmacy) works fine, in my experience, and I wanted to make certain the OP understood that. I've never tried to determine the actual difference in weight.
 
Forgot to mention, all of the oils I mentioned are food-grade mineral oil. Only differences are with viscosity, which can be engineered to a given use, and possibly the degree of purity. The lighter grades, like Norton's oil and the food-processing equipment oil, are usually described as 'white mineral oil', with the 'white' describing their traits of complete clarity & lack of coloration, and also being completely tasteless and odorless.
 
Thank you guys,

Is Norton JB8 thirsty and if it comes pre-soaked? I assume Norton oil is the same I could use for Arkansas stones? And just from curiosity - what makes some stones like oil and some water?
 
Barmaley said:
Thank you guys,

Is Norton JB8 thirsty and if it comes pre-soaked? I assume Norton oil is the same I could use for Arkansas stones? And just from curiosity - what makes some stones like oil and some water?
Click to expand...

Some dedicated man-made waterstones use a binder that's formulated to break down and release grit with water only, to expose fresh, new grit. For those stones, oil would likely ruin their ability to release grit as designed, and therefore might effectively ruin the stone.

For natural stones or any other designated 'oil stones', most can still be used with water anyway. But there will be differences in how water or oil will keep the stone working well (or not). Oil does a better job suspending swarf, so it can be easily wiped off the stone and also so the stone won't get clogged as easily in the first place. For heavy grinding jobs generating a lot of swarf, the difference will be more obvious. For lighter uses though, like occasional light honing or touchups, one can usually get away with just using water or using the stone dry. But the longer the stone is used this way, the more the swarf will begin to fill the pores on the surface. So, some extra care will be needed to make sure the stone is kept clean. Used with oil though, an oil stone will be very simple to take care of.

And yes, the Norton oil will work very well with Arkansas stones. I don't have a JB8, but I believe they come pre-filled, and shouldn't be quite so thirsty.
 
Hi Guys, A couple of weeks ago I finally received Flexcut Gold polishing compound which I use a lot. It has big effect on sharpness and it seems to work better that green or white compounds which came from Ryobi set. I also found that Flexcut Gold sharpens M390 knife which I understand it not suppose to do :oops: . I did not get diamond compound yet since M390 is still very sharp and light stropping on Gold compound keeps it running. My question: is it just placebo effect or it does work for M390?

Tomorrow JB8 suppose to arrive according to UPS. At the same time it is too coarse for the knoves in the condition they are at the time. I guess the first thing I would need to touch up M390 when I feel it is getting dull. Which fine stones can handle Vanadium in the blade in it?

I keep all my knives pretty sharp however I feel that I should be able to get them sharper. They cut phone book paper etc, but sometimes they hesitate at a skin of tomatoes if I push and not slice. I remember that cheap VG10 was doing it without any hiccups. The finest stone I have is King 1000 and then I go to strops. Do I need a finer stone to get them to higher sharpness?
 
Last edited:
Go ahead Barmaley, but try not to ask the same question in multiple threads. I don't think you'll be able to PM us as you do not have the proper level of membership as required by Spark (the owner). You can post in the service and support area of the site if you have questions requiring an answer from a moderator.

I appreciate your consideration. Good luck with your sharpening.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top