How To Care for and store your bench stones

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maximus83

Joined
Nov 7, 2011
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How do you clean and maintain your water and diamond stones after use?

How do you store them to keep them dry, corrosion free, and not grating against each other?

What I've been doing to clean and maintain: After each sharpening, rinse off with water. If a lot of loaded gunk, use Bar Keepers Friend and a scotch pad.
 
For water stones I will rinse them off and let them air dry then place them back in their boxes. Depending on my mood or the stones I may flatten them before a rinse and dry them. For diamond plates I will usually just rinse them and let them dry.
 
One problem is I don't HAVE boxes. For any of them. I considered after they dry from cleaning, I could wrap a soft, lint-free rag around each and stack them in a tupperware container. Not sure if the rags are a good idea though as they could attract or retain traces of moisture. I could also separate them with something breathable, thin, and hard like thin pieces of cardboard.

ETA: I do see some ready-made stone boxes, like these, which can work for standard 8x2x1 stones like those from Baryonyx. However, I have other sizes that are oddball, like 8x3, and 10x4 (DMT duosharp).
 
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I have some without boxes and once I know they're dry I just stack them with nothing in between them. Some of my stone will dry out over night and some take almost a week.
 
I don't use waterstones. But for diamond hones, they're very easy to take care of. Just clean them with dish soap & hot water and an old toothbrush after each use, letting them air-dry completely (hot water rinse helps with quick evaporation to dry). Optionally, if drying is slower: wipe or rinse each hone with a little bit of isopropyl alcohol, after the wash/rinse, to dry up any residual moisture.

I store each of my bench-sized diamond hones in a separate Zip-Loc freezer bag (heavier, more durable) after they're dry. Roll the bag around the hone before sealing, to force out most of the air in the bag. The hones can be gently stacked atop one another in the rolled bags and stored wherever it's convenient to leave them.


David
 
Interesting on both fronts. On the cleaning thing, I'm almost thinking I can can simplify and skip using BKF except for cases of hard ceramics (like the Spyderco sharpmaker rods) that load badly.
 
maximus83 said:
Interesting on both fronts. On the cleaning thing, I'm almost thinking I can can simplify and skip using BKF except for cases of hard ceramics (like the Spyderco sharpmaker rods) that load badly.
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BKF is good stuff. But I only use it when other means have proven insufficient. It's more useful on ceramic hones, on which the swarf is extremely fine and becomes firmly embedded, and won't otherwise scrub out. I wouldn't otherwise see a need for it on diamond hones, unless they've been severely neglected for too long, and especially if there's noticeable rusty swarf embedded. BKF was formulated for removing rust, and it'll do a good job with that, sometimes even without any scrubbing. Apply it as a paste mixed with some water, let it sit for 30-60 seconds and then rinse it off.

For diamond hones, so long as you clean them after each use, dish soap & hot water will do a great job with that. They'll stay clean-as-new, if maintained in that manner. In a short-term pinch, even rinsing & wiping with some Windex and a microfiber towel also works very well. Either method will even work on diamond hones used with some mineral oil (which is how I use mine).


David
 
Interesting David, you're putting mineral/honing OIL on diamond stones? Slight tanget from thread, but oh well. :) Have you found this gives you some advantage over water? I generally use my interrupted ones dry, the few times I used water, I just couldn't tell enough difference in the sense of "smoother sharpening" to matter, and as you know, with the DMT and especially the interrupted ones, there just isn't much issue there with loading.
 
Oil is more lubricating than water is, and so provides better cutting action with less friction. It just has the obvious drawbacks as well.
 
maximus83 said:
Interesting David, you're putting mineral/honing OIL on diamond stones? Slight tanget from thread, but oh well. :) Have you found this gives you some advantage over water? I generally use mine interrupted ones dry, the few times I used water, I just couldn't tell enough difference in the sense of "smoother sharpening" to matter, and as you know, with the DMT and especially the interrupted ones, there just isn't much issue there with loading.
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It works better for my circumstance and environment. Water evaporates awful fast where I live (southwestern U.S.), so keeping the hone wet is a challenge, if water is used. The swarf begins to cling almost immediately with some steels, as the water dries up; low-alloy stainless is bad about that, on coarser diamond hones. So, I've begun using just a few drops of mineral oil instead. The bonus is, the mineral oil will also make cleaning up easier, as the swarf just doesn't stick to the hone when there's a light bit of oil on it. I've also favored the feedback with oil on the hone, especially on coarser diamond hones that can otherwise be pretty intimidating in their rough feel. Secondary to sharpening advantages, but important to me, the mineral oil also helps to keep my hands/fingers from drying up & cracking as well, in my environment. Constantly-wetted and quickly-dried hands are a killer for me, in making my fingertips crack & split.

And again, a microfiber towel is a great supplement to the rest of gear, for wiping down & cleaning up, either wet or dry.


David
 
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^That sounds like a good thing to try, specific to the DMT stones. I may try using just a little bit of my light norton honing oil on the DMT bench stones. I've gotten away entirely from using oil stones, so all I use the norton oil for anymore is lubing and protecting metal parts on any of my knives that need to be food-safe. But here it could make sense to try oil and seems easy to clean it off the DMT plates when done.
 
maximus83 said:
^That sounds like a good thing to try, specific to the DMT stones. I may try using just a little bit of my light norton honing oil on the DMT bench stones. I've gotten away entirely from using oil stones, so all I use the norton oil for anymore is lubing and protecting metal parts on any of my knives that need to be food-safe. But here it could make sense to try oil and seems easy to clean it off the DMT plates when done.
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The Norton oil is what I use. It's a little pricier than other mineral oils; but, I favor it's lighter viscosity on the diamond hones and I reserve it mostly for use on them. Also don't need near as much of it, as a diamond hone doesn't drink it up, as happens with other oil stones. Just a few drops at a time will do, spread with a fingertip and just enough to put a uniform sheen on the surface of the hone; no need to see it dripping from the edges. When it starts to get a little heavy & dark with swarf, wipe it away with the microfiber towel and reapply a few more drops. When I'm done using the hone, I wipe it with the towel, then apply a couple drops of oil on the surface and rub it around with a fingertip, to lift the remaining swarf; then wipe it with the towel again. After that, off to the dish soap & hot water bath.


David
 
Sweet, great tips! Who'd a thunk that using oil on NON-oil bench stones actually gives you the best of both worlds? :-) Maybe this will also resolve the ongoing primary issue about the DMT, that I don't like the gritty, bumpy feedback from the stones when trying to use dry.
 
maximus83 said:
How do you clean and maintain your water and diamond stones after use?
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I leave the slurry to dry on waterstones to preserve abrasive. Atoma plates get rinsed under running water. No BKF necessary. A nylon brush at most.

How do you store them to keep them dry, corrosion free, and not grating against each other?
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Appropriately spaced and air dried on an open rack. I have an incoming custom rack (Pacific Wire of North Hollywood) of similar dimensions which removes the cross wire for ease of stone ingress/egress, adds an additional tier and is of a more durable, lower gauge stainless wire.

IMG_20171002_074124_edit.jpg
 
Oil stones get wrapped in a rag or couple sheets of paper and stored on a shelf.

Waterstones mostly are kept in a permanent bath or removed and stored in a plastic container with holes drilled in the lid to let moisture out. I keep a thin cloth in the box to prevent them hitting each other, or slices of drywall sponge for protection. If there isn't a compelling reason to take them out, they live in a bath permanently - having a tight fitting lid helps keep the water fresh but still needs to be changed regularly.

You could probably store them in a bath in the fridge and the water would stay fresh for a long time between replacements...

I normally give the surface of my waterstones a quick rub with a XC diamond plate or similar - just enough to clean the high spots. Next time I use the stone I work the clean areas first.

Diamond plates are either left out on a shelf to dry or wiped and stored in a wooden box. I've taken to using them with a thick slurry of red oak and a few drops of water. Just rub right on the surface. It cleans the plate and helps prevent loading in the first place. Also seems to help with feedback.
 
I clean my diamond plates with mineral oil. It works. Just wipe them after sharpening with a cloth.
My oil stones I clean in the same manner. Wipe down after sharpening with a cloth. Maybe add a little more oil (3 in 1) and
wipe. Not complicated. I store them in boxes I've made or bought. It's not hard to chisel out a box from 2 short pieces of 2X4
and put slurry on the top of one side to strop on. I've done the same with the tops of wore out leather boots. Disassemble the tops and sew it back to fit the stone. Rub in some slurry and you have a 3 grit sharpening set up. Grab one stone N go. DM
 
I wash diamond stones warm water and soap sometimes use a toothbrush as someone stated above.

My water stones I mostly have splash and go not so many I soak ... but I usually lap then then clean them and turn them on their sides to dry as I had a couple crack laying flat to dry ... and someone that knows alot more then me told me some stones should be set on the side to dry or they can crack ... so I've just always done that since ... and for storage if I don't have seperate boxes I use small rubbermaid totes and lay them in those and cover them to keep then clean.
 
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I can see why laying a stone to the side might reduce cracking as doing so would maximize evaporative surface area. Much like a poured concrete slab, the surface dries at a faster rate than the mass below it. Differences in shrinkage rate can and will cause fracture if the evaporation rate is left uncontrolled. I would dry suspect stones in a cool location, on a cooling rack and mist the surface to even out the evaporation rate.
 
I wipe down my DMTs with BreakFree CLP whenever they seem to load up, leave 'em overnight, then wipe clean. Water stones are a PITA. I use a few drops of synthetic motor oil (or whatever's lying around) on my ancestral Black Arkansas bench stone, which is reserved for high carbon steel blades.
 
HeavyHanded said:
Oil stones get wrapped in a rag or couple sheets of paper and stored on a shelf.

Waterstones mostly are kept in a permanent bath or removed and stored in a plastic container with holes drilled in the lid to let moisture out. I keep a thin cloth in the box to prevent them hitting each other, or slices of drywall sponge for protection. If there isn't a compelling reason to take them out, they live in a bath permanently - having a tight fitting lid helps keep the water fresh but still needs to be changed regularly.

I normally give the surface of my waterstones a quick rub with a XC diamond plate or similar - just enough to clean the high spots. Next time I use the stone I work the clean areas first.
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Tried David's approach of a little Norton oil on the DMT's last night. As expected, I ALWAYS ALWAYS overdo things on my first try (too much pressure, too much oil, too many sharpening passes.....see a pattern starting to form here? :)). After fixing the too much oil thing, then I found that just a few drops of oil spread lightly over my DMT EC stone actually improved the feel of working with it, noticeably. Nice! And it easily rinsed off when done with the swarf, so easily in fact it didn't seem like it even needed soap, so I didn't bother.

I also liked David's approach of using heavy freezer bags to keep the diamond stones from grating on each other or other stuff, will try that.

Also HH, these are great tips for water stones, which I'm relatively new to. I don't know that I'll do the bath approach, because being only an amateur sharpener, I don't sharpen every day, it's more like short bursts (like 2 hours here and there, usually on a weekend). But I need a way to store them when they are damp after rinsing them off, so that they are contained in something but can still dry out. Wood box prob not good as it'll absorb trace moisture from a damp stone and start rotting. Liked your idea of a plastic container, maybe a rubbermaid or something and just drill a few holes in it.

As always, this forum rocks.
 
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