Cleaning Sharpmaker rods

upnorth

upnorth

Joined
Nov 25, 2006
Messages
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Good day gentlemen, I have a quick question for you. Will my Sharpmaker rods be damaged in the dish washer ? Thank you.
 
I don't think it will work as good as hand scrubbing with a scouring pad, such as the one's made my Comet, Ajax, etc...
 
I do my Sharpmaker rods in 2 stages. First of all I get the worst of the engrained metal off with either Ajax or Comet. Then rinse them off in very hot water. Then for the second/final stage I use a product you can get here in most of the USA known as Bar Keeper's Friend. It's a scouring/scrubbing powder you can find in my grocery stores, hardware stores, family dollar type stores and at good old Rip-mart. It's found in the same part of the store where they sell the comet and Ajax

I then use ScotchBrite pad with a lot of Bar Keeper's Friend and I scrub it vigorously and then rinse them in hot water. After those 2 stages the rods/stones are very clean and ready for work again. And after a cleaning that thorough they really cut uniformly again.

That's the method that has been working great for me for over 5 years now. IF anyone has a better method than that I would be more than willing to try it out.

I've tried the pencil/ink eraser method and it does get a lot of the filings removed and I won't argue that but the stones just don't abrade as uniformly as they do when you give them a really thorough cleaning like you can do with a regular scrubbing powder and Bar Keeper's Friend cleaning powder. Good Luck
 
JD Spydo said:
IF anyone has a better method than that I would be more than willing to try it out.
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Well, maybe not better, just different:

I use an old tooth-brush with toothpaste and besides the fact the stones are clean after that workl, they smell good :)
 
Peter1960 said:
Well, maybe not better, just different:

I use an old tooth-brush with toothpaste and besides the fact the stones are clean after that workl, they smell good :)
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That's interesting Peter and I bet the cheaper the toothpaste the better too. The reason I say that is because I've heard that the cheaper the toothpaste is most usually the more abrasive it has in it. I'm going to try that this weekend.

As far as the one Brother's "Nitric Acid Bath" what concerns me about that is that you might be making the surface more porous in turn which would change the grit possibly>> but he may know something I don't know. Because if all the acid affects is the metal itself then I guess you would be all right. But my jury is going to look at that one very closely.
 
Giving the rods a good scrubbing with Comet has always worked great for me. I really like the toothpaste suggestion and will likely give that a try, as well.
 
If you have left ver baking soda from the frig, don't throw that out as it is also quite abrasive and can safely go down the drain. I actually prefer it to many store-bought abrasive cleaners. It works just as well and is much less expensive.
 
They won't be damaged, but the dishwasher might not unload the metal effectively. A scotch pad and some comet are your best friends.
 
Yeah, I use a Scotchbrite pad and Bar Keeper's Friend or similar abrasive. Correct me if I'm wrong, but Bar Keeper's Friend seems to work a little better.
 
tndiesel said:
Brake cleaner and shop towels work great.
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That's interesting>> I've never heard that suggested before. Now one thing I do have against a lot of automotive type solvents is that many of them tend to leave a residue. But I can see how it would work because if it works on brake drums/discs then it's formulated to clean metal deposits I would think.
 
SolidState said:
I throw them into a nitric acid bath.
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Really? would that work? It takes ages for nitric acid to eat up the stainless steel particles, that's why we use stainless at work. Also, I think that's a controlled substance since you can make something that goes boom with it.
 
arjay said:
Really? would that work? It takes ages for nitric acid to eat up the stainless steel particles, that's why we use stainless at work. Also, I think that's a controlled substance since you can make something that goes boom with it.
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Yeh, I loved playing with cotton and nitric acid in high school chem. :D
 
JD Spydo said:
That's interesting>> I've never heard that suggested before. Now one thing I do have against a lot of automotive type solvents is that many of them tend to leave a residue. But I can see how it would work because if it works on brake drums/discs then it's formulated to clean metal deposits I would think.
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Spray some brake cleaner on the shop towel and rub down the rods. Works better than anything I've tried.
 
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