Cleaning Oilstones

Yes, it does. I've found it helps when a stone is more heavily loaded and hasn't otherwise been cleaned in awhile. A big part of how it works is about the effect of the oxalic acid, which allows you to simply soak the stone under a paste or 'froth' of BKF & water, during which time it dissolves a lot of the swarf and can simply be rinsed off. Doesn't necessarily need a lot of elbow grease, which is nice. But some scrubbing can help as well.

If you stay ahead of it, just cleaning the stone after each session, or maybe every other session, with dish soap & water and a scrub brush can keep the stone clean enough almost indefinitely. But in cases where I've noticed some dark swarf is firmly embedded and doesn't come out so easily, then the BKF can take it up another notch.

I'd suggest first washing the stone with dish soap & water, to remove as much of the oily residue as you can, before applying the BKF & water paste. Reducing the oil on the surface helps to prevent the water/BKF mix from just rolling off the stone. Dish soap handles the oil pretty well, by itself.
 
I’ve boiled grimy oilstones clean before, it’s kinda a hassle, but it worked on the ones I tried. I rested them on a folded rag in a frying pan so I could see their progress.

Might be the bonding on early carborundum stones would be weakened, but these were just dollar yard sale stones from the 80s or 90s that I gave to my neighbor so he’d stop borrowing my Japanese waterstones.

Parker
 
Mineral spirits and a toothbrush will do wonders. A quick rinse with Dawn dish soap and warm water then it’s all ready to be oiled back up and go to work.
 
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