question about using Arkansas stones

[guaise]

Hi everyone. New guy here.

I have a question about grinding stones. I see there are a lot of oil stones, a.k.a Arkansas stones being used for knife sharpening, but it seems you have to use knife oil on the stone, in order to do it properly.

My question is, what is the oil for, and what will happen if I don't use professional oil, but something else, such as baby oil, or even water. Is the stone or knife going to be damaged?

Thank you for all the help.

 

[Mahoney]

The oil helps keep the fine bits of metal you are removing from the blade floating on top of the stone, and not packing into the pores of the stone. This helps you in 2 ways...if the metal bits pack into the pores, they could make the blade edge skate over the stone without getting abraded, and if a large metal bit lodges in a pore, it can put a micro chip in the edge of your knife as it passes over it. OTOH some people swear by using stones dry...YMMV

Baby oil is mineral oil with perfume in it, it will work just fine as honing oil, but USP mineral oil from the drugstore is even cheaper. Some folks prefer a lighter oil like kerosene. Plain water will bead on a stone that's been used with oil or oil filled at the factory and won't work well to keep the swarf suspended above the stone, but won't hurt most stones. Some people use water with a bit of dish soap as a stone lubricant. The only things that will hurt a stone are oils that will cure and get gummy, like olive and nut oils, linseed oil, etc. These would have to be removed from the surface of the stone with a solvent

 

[jimnolimit]

i use water on all of my stones, even if some are "oil" stones.

you can use water on an oil stone but once you put oil on it, you have to use oil forever.

 

[HeavyHanded]

I use dish soap and a little water, or my favorite old trick is to rub some unscented bar soap lightly into the surface and wet with a few drops of water. If its been used with oil, I've heard you can run it through the dishwasher a few times, or in my case, I just lapped them using dish soap for a lubricant.

HH