Sharpening - oil use?

I

ivan_yulaev

Joined
Oct 20, 2003
Messages
284
Just wondering...what kind of oil is good on sharpening stones, such as Lansky stones? I do not wish to buy honing oil, as it is rather expensive, and would rather use something more readily avaliable. Is there any such thing?
 
Honing oil is basically light mineral oil. If you can’t find mineral oil that is light enough for honing, you can mix it with kerosene.
 
Many times I simply use Kerosene alone.., works great..., and I have a few stones I soak in it for a couple days before using them.
 
The old boys used an Arkansas stone and oiled it with whatever they had. How about bear grease. The bear was so important to the wilderness settler because it was the only animal with any fat. They would need the grease for their tools and weapons, their leather, and for waterproofing, even soap, and candles. I like olive oil and always carry it camping anyway. I've used it many times.
 
Surprisingly, I tried olive oil as Uath suggested...and it worked beautifully! And easily procurable too!
 
Hi,

I was doing some background reading on sharpening with "The Razor Edge Book of Sharpening". In here the author has found that the use of any oil retards the edge and suggests that you shouldn't even bother using it.

(Still awating the arrival of my new hones to try this out :) )
 
Wow. In the scouts I had to spit on my old Ka-Bar stone. Should have tried the kerosene.:rolleyes:
 
I have sharpened dry with my Washita and Arkansas stones for years, though I had to boil them to get the old oil out, it works, the stones tend to clog a bit but are easy to clean with liquid detergent. Of course I don´t use anything with ceramic or diamond hones either.

I use plain water with my old Norton Queer Creek stone and with a cheap coarse stone I got at the supermarket. When I was a kid spitting on the hone was common practice.
 
Instead of oil us household liquid washing-up detergent broken down with water - about 50/50 is good enough.
 
I attended a sharpenning class by a fellow that did a sharpening seminar for a bonsai club. He said to never use oil, only water. Immerse the stone in water until the small bubbles stop coming out, then sharpen, keeping the stone as wet as possible, rinsing frequently. He further said that if you had used oil in a stone previously, you should throw it in a fireplace to burn all the old oil out then start to use water. I have sharpened my kitchen knives this way for a while now and it seems to work fine for me. Cheers.
 
For what it's worth... I use WD-40 on my Norton arkansas stone. Why? because Jerry Fisk does.
 
WD40 on the wet/dry sandpaper and on the Norton stones too.
The diamond stone gets water with a bit of dish detergent in it.
Fisk & Dozier, If it works for them...
:D
 
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