Food Grade Mineral Oil for Cutting Boards, Countertops and Butcher

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Apr 22, 2018
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Thoughts on if the food grade mineral oil used for cutting boards, counter tops and butcher blocks would be a food honing oil for diamond stones and Arkansas stones? Or would this type of mineral oil be considered to thick for knife sharpening using these stones?
 
It'll be fine. Literally any food-grade mineral oil is ideal for sharpening on oil stones. I also use it on my diamond hones. My personal preference leans toward the lighter, thinner grades, for the sake of feedback on the stones. But any of these will work fine.

Thicker, more viscous grades of it, like the 'laxative' mineral oil (or 'intestinal lubricant') sold at pharmacies or grocery stores can work too, and it's quite a bit cheaper as well. But all of them are still just mineral oil, with the 'food grade' pedigree meaning it's just that much more clean (no toxins, colorless, odorless, tasteless). So, no worries...
 
It's what I use. I use the thicker laxative grade stuff for the courser stones and up to soft Arkansas and then have a jug of the thinner "honing" oil for the finer stuff.
 
I have been using butcher block as my honing oil for several years. I have a washita set of three stone one of witch is manmade silica oxide. Any oil I have put on it just gets absorbed and it is as if I am using no oil at all. Would the thicker laxative do better on this stone?
 
Any oil I have put on it just gets absorbed and it is as if I am using no oil at all
+2
Thanks
 
For stones that drink up a lot of oil, the thicker grade stuff can help. I have a bunch of stones like that and I store them in a container filled with the laxative-grade mineral oil (pic below). When the stones get used, oil will still run through and out of them to some degree. But they won't be quite so thirsty anymore.

OdcJ8vd.jpg


A more definitively effective option with such 'thirsty' stones: you can melt some petroleum jelly (Vaseline, etc) into the stone. I've done that with a couple or three of mine. An easy way to go about it is to just spread the petroleum jelly onto the surface like cake frosting, then use a heat gun or hair dryer to melt it. It melts quickly; you don't have to get it too hot. As it melts into a liquid, it'll sink into the stone. When the stone cools, the petroleum jelly thickens up again and seals up the internal pores of the stone. After that, oil applied at the surface won't just disappear into the stone like it used to. It'll behave more like other pre-filled (with grease) stones like the Norton India and Crystolon stones.
 
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