Cleaning sharpening stone?

[Pondoro2310]

I would never clean with water a stone that was used with oil. If you do it will surely become unusable

I found a bunch of old oil stones in my late dad's stuff. Some were his, others I am sure he bought cheap at garage sales. The newer ones that he used were pretty clean, some of the older ones were really caked with oil and "gunk." I put the dirty ones in an aluminum cake pan full of water (covering the stones) and dish soap. I put the cake pan in an oven set at 225 degrees F (just over boiling - about 112 Centigrade). I left them there for hours, but I kept adding hot water to make sure that evaporation did not lower the water below the stones. Lots of dirty oil came out and floated around in the water. Some stones needed a second treatment. All came clean.

My wife was out of town at the time. The kitchen smelled like a machine shop for a while.

 

[David Martin]

Your lucky you got away with doing that. Mine would have thrown me in the dog house. I boiled mine in a pan on top of my Coleman campstone on the back porch. DM

 

[Valenciamanu]

Interest.

 

[sunajAeon]

Greetings
I am attempting to clean my soft Ark stone, having used oil in the past; the problem is the stones absorb the oils, which is why the stains are so hard to remove, still looking for a solution that doesn't use harsh chemicals, my concern is it will break down the binding agent, I do not believe a stone that has been used with oil cannot be cleaned (but I taint' there yet);
I can see the debate over water vs oil is like abortion-2 sides that rarely meet consensus
I did find this Youtube re: the nature of water to be fascinating, https://youtu.be/A-0PeUeYbqw
Cheers
sunaj

 

[kelbro]

Greetings
I am attempting to clean my soft Ark stone, having used oil in the past; the problem is the stones absorb the oils, which is why the stains are so hard to remove, still looking for a solution that doesn't use harsh chemicals, my concern is it will break down the binding agent, I do not believe a stone that has been used with oil cannot be cleaned (but I taint' there yet);
I can see the debate over water vs oil is like abortion-2 sides that rarely meet consensus
I did find this Youtube re: the nature of water to be fascinating, https://youtu.be/A-0PeUeYbqw
Cheers
sunaj

Doubt that you need to be concerned with the 'binder' in a soft arkansas stone. Novaculite is pretty tough stuff