Moldy water-stone?

K

KennyB

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Jan 19, 2010
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I left my waterstone in a container of water for a few months and it started to grow some mold. I cleaned the surface off well, but I can still smell it.

What should I do? I thought about soaking it in some water/bleach solution, but I'm not really sure if that's a good idea.
 
When I saw the thread title, soaking/scrubbing with bleach & water is the first thing I thought of too. I don't have any experience with waterstones, but I certainly don't think they'd be harmed by it. Rinsing with rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol) might also be a possibility. The alcohol will displace moisture in the stone (effectively dries it), which should help kill the mold.
 
From what I understand bleach really doesn't kill mold. I'd probably contact Norton and see if boiling the stone would be ok, if not get some scrubbing bubbles ;)
 
Wash (bleach if you want,) dry, sit the stone in sunlight for a few days.
 
what Mr de shivs said.

i just want to emphasize the "dry" part before exposing it to direct sunlight. some waterstone don't really like drying too fast, make sure the stone is dry before. i've had some cracking pretty bad when i used to sharpen outside because they dried too fast.
 
I've looked into it a little bit and it looks like chlorine bleach (sodium hypochlorite) is effective at killing mold on hard, non-porous surfaces. OSHA and the EPA have each retracted their prior recommendation that bleach be used for mold remediation on wood and other porous surfaces.

Even so, I would do the bleach thing on the stone and after it was dry, bake it in the sun like Bill and pwet advise. What else you gonna do, eh?
 
When reading on the subject yesterday, I did see one tip that seemed to make perfect sense. When the stone is clean again, if you still want to store them wet, just add a little bleach to the water. That'll help prevent the mold issue down the road.
 
a few years back, i didn't let one of my king waterstones fully dry and it got a little moldy. i submerged it in pot of heavily salted water. i turned on the heat and brought it to a boil. i let it boil for about 20-25 minutes, then i turned the heat off and let it cool in the water for about 45 minutes. i scrubbed the stone clean after that.
 
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