Question About Stones

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Pug-butter

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Through a combination of exhaustion and carelessness, later into the week of my trip I wrote about earlier (it was marvelous, by the way) I was carrying my sharpening equipment out to a table in the main living space of the house, and my finer-grit pocket stone slipped out of its sheath, falling upon the tiled floor and snapping clean in twain.

I was distressed, but remembered a snide comment my father made when he first saw me with my new 119: "You keep buying all these knives! Maybe I should give you some of my stones."

So last night I asked him for a fine-grit stone, and today when he dropped by to do some yard work he gave me two of them. He also gave me a half-full bottle of Arkansas oil, which made me curious. I'd always used water on the other stones without really knowing what they required, and upon examining the case for these stones further I learned it's a vintage Buck honing kit.

259261.jpg


The label reads:

BUCK KNIVES
(Graphic of what appears to be a 102 being hammered through a nail)
"FAMOUS FOR HOLDING AN EDGE"
HONING KIT​

So I ask you this: are these stones to be used exclusively with oil? Is water not allowed? Will a natural oil (specifically, olive) suffice if I don't want to buy anything fancy? I already know all about scrubbing the stone to keep metal buildup and other gunk out of its pores. Thanks for reading.
 
Exclusively mineral oil?

The thing is that I'm off to college soon and I'll be doing everything on a budget. I'm also a minimalist camper, not wanting to pack anything that is unnecessary for comfort be it by body or by wallet. There's always, too, the slightest chance that I would have to rely on a stone while dependent in the wild—or that my bottle would simply run dry—and what good would an oil stone be if I only had water and spit to lubricate it?

What I'd like to know is anything you know about what the stones in the Buck kit actually are, be they Arkansas or otherwise, since I saw this in my search bar:

GuyUpNorth said:
aplehr1 said:
I started a recent thread about Norton India stones. My goal was the same as yours, I wanted to use water or windex on the stone. I found, however, that the stone was impregnated with grease, not oil. I thought originally that gradually using water/windex would force all of the "oil" out. Given that it had grease in it, that would have been a veeeery slow process. I recommend boiling the stone first before trying anything non oil-based on it.

Adam
Click to expand...

Since it was a fairly new stone, I boiled it for 15 min. A fairly good deal of grease came out. I'd say about 3-4 tbsp. I'll try sharpening on it tonight.
Click to expand...
GuyUpNorth said:
Wow, night and day. The stone cuts way faster than before. Can't be happier with the result !
Click to expand...
 
The stones in your set are most likely Arkansas or Washita.
As for carrying sharpening stones on a camping trip that is up to you, I don't know how long you camp for but think a sharp knife would last a camping trip. I know you are on a budget but there are some small combo stones(Norton has one called the sportsman pocket stone)and diamond sticks which would be fine for camping.
You can also just use your stones dry.Just clean them when your done or get home.
 
DMT DIAMOND FILES,they fold up and have a course and medium,or fine /medium depending,these will sharpen the dullest blades to razor sharpness,also a leather belt,take it off,wrap it around a tree,and strop your blade on it,that will polish a nice edge.
 
Your model appears to be Bucks model 133 but that came with a can of Buck's honing oil which is mostly mineral oil, a larger washita stone and a smaller hard Arkansas stone. I mostly use my stones dry and if I use anything on them during sharpening its water. On the index page there is another thread topic titled 'old Buck stone' which shows a better photo of your model with the can of Buck oil in original condition. Good sharpening, DM
 
The only purpose for using anything on your "wet" stone, is to remove the filings from the pits in the stone. These pits are what remove material from the blade, thus making it sharp. When these pits fill with debris it will just stop preforming. I was anything I have available, oil, WD40, water. As long as you remove the debris from the stone it will work great. I have used the sharpening steals and don't care for them.
 
I keep a can of spray Lysol sitting here. Seemingly does just fine cleaning stones/hones, knives, and gun stuff.
 
It has been my experience that you can use either water or oil on your stone. You need to remember, if you use water, you can also use oil but once you use oil, you can't switch back to water. Personally, I prefer oil as it won't run off as quick as water.
 
hummm...ever since a wood worker show me how - i like wet auto sand paper on a flat surface like glass
but for camping/ fishing i would recomand and i use diamond dust stones
from years ago as a cooks asstant dont use any thing but minoral oil
all organic oils will spoil at some time
 
If you go to the Buck web site (http://www.buckknives.com), you'll be able to find detailed instructions on the sharpening and care of Buck knives. It covers the various whet stones available and applications of each. It goes into detail on sharpening plain blades, serrated blades, and gut hooks. I recently returned from a trip to Hot Springs, Arkansas, and bought each of my sons a medium arkansas and a black hard arkansas at a whet rock factory. I also bought a small container of honing oil. The whet rock factory sold two versions of the oil. One petroleum based for standard sharpening and one that appeared to be mineral oil that was to be used on knives used for food preparation. (Personally, I use silicon oil.)

wildbillw
Life Member #1341
 
Bill, Thanks for the info. and I'm so glad you can use and spell 'whet' stones correctly. Several of my Arkansas stones came from vendors in Hot Springs as well. DM
 
Just picked up one of these (#135) on the bay. You can't beat sharpening your knife on a wet stone.
 
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