SiC stone help, opinions and theories thread.

O

Omega Leather Works

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Jun 13, 2007
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Just bought a SiC bench stone. I'm running to the store right now. I can use mineral oil with it right? If they don't have any, baby oil is min oil with a tiny bit of perfume right?

Thanks!

Oh, and I'm going to Walmart.
 
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The 'honing oil' sold with or by makers of such stones is mineral oil anyway. So any other mineral oil will do, including the baby oil. You could use the 'pharmaceutical grade' (USP) mineral oil sold as a laxative as well. It's a bit thicker than some honing oils, but it works (it's what I have). Walmart has it too (laxative section).


David
 
I like the thicker mineral oil as it remains on the surface better. Then use paint thinner to clean it. Good sharpening, DM
 
Not much, WD stays on the surface and is not so thick it becomes gummy while sharpening. I use just enough oil to get the job done.
 
In that case boil it to remove the oil and use it like a waterstone.
 
If it soaks up a ton of oil you can always wipe some vaseline into it first, keeps the oil on the surface even if the stone is very porous.

What make of stone did you go with?
 
It's just a $13 Ace hardware stone. Im not sure who actually makes it. I was kind of on the fence about getting it because the grit composition and even material are unlisted on the packaging.

Well I tried using it. It's not horrible with the oil, but it does transfer to your hand as you hold it. I dunno... so far my diamond stones are definitely my favorite. I'd still like to try the Norton deluxe, but my local Home Depot only carries the economy. :(
 
Strigamort said:
It's just a $13 Ace hardware stone. Im not sure who actually makes it. I was kind of on the fence about getting it because the grit composition and even material are unlisted on the packaging.

Well I tried using it. It's not horrible with the oil, but it does transfer to your hand as you hold it. I dunno... so far my diamond stones are definitely my favorite. I'd still like to try the Norton deluxe, but my local Home Depot only carries the economy. :(
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You might try the Norton economy stone from HD anyway. It is silicon carbide (Crystolon; I confirmed this myself via emails with Norton), and it works very aggressively, even on the 'Fine' side. For $6, it's well worth a look, and I think it would be a great 'starter stone' to learn on. Lots of reward potential for the effort invested. I wish I'd had one of them years ago; I think I would've satisfied most of my sharpening needs (assuming I knew how to use it back then, which I didn't :D).


David
 
Home depots still have old stock of the aluminum oxide stone, so if you can't tell the difference visually it might be a coin toss. I know around me its all aluminum oxide (light blue colored stone).
 
knifenut1013 said:
Home depots still have old stock of the aluminum oxide stone, so if you can't tell the difference visually it might be a coin toss. I know around me its all aluminum oxide (light blue colored stone).
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That sort of amazes me, that there are still some of those out there. After Norton telling me they switched the Economy stone to Crystolon in 2008, I would've thought most/all of the older AlOx stones would've been depleted by now.

At any rate, it's good to watch out for. Norton did confirm to me that the newer Crystolon stones are much darker in color, nearly black, compared to the lighter grey of the older AlOx stones. The HD I usually shop at had stocked all of the newer variety (I looked for the older ones too, just to see if they were still on the rack).


David
 
Not to muddy the waters further, but my local ACE had two 6" combination stones side by side. One was 6.99 the other 8.99 - the 8.99 one looked like SIC (dark blue/grey), the other looked like AlumOx (very light grey with some yellowish streaks in the coarse side). I bought the 8.99 one, lapped it down, gave it a close look and a try. Works very well for a cheap stone. Under magnification it actually appears to have a higher concentration of what I believe to be SiC particles, with the same dark blue, pale green, and milky white bits of glass/silica(?). It also appears to have a much wider size distribution compared to the Norton, and who's to say (aside from the experts) what concentration of binders to abrasive works best for a given abrasive and binder (I'm getting dizzy). My Crystalon works better than any of the cheaper stones by a clear margin.

HD and other hardware stores have all manner of outdated stuff. My local ACE had a US made combination Norton India stone on the shelf - pretty sure its been quite a few years since they were made state-side.

ETA, my local Sears had 6" stones that looked exactly like the ACE sic stones right down to the packaging - only the branding (printing on the card) was different.
 
HH and David, would it help at all for me to share some pics?

The reason why I thought it was sic was because I had just looked at a sic stone at True Value and it looked the same, dark grey and almost black front/back. I looked up the Ace stone on their website and it looks the same as mine (packaging is completely different though) and it says alox.

I'm so confused! :D
 
IMAG0822_zpse3c155c5.jpg


IMAG0826_zpsf68910e2.jpg


IMAG0828_zps8e2f06d0.jpg


The coarse side looks a little sparkly in bright light.

Also it's made in the USA if that helps with anything.
 
Strigamort said:
HH and David, would it help at all for me to share some pics?

The reason why I thought it was sic was because I had just looked at a sic stone at True Value and it looked the same, dark grey and almost black front/back. I looked up the Ace stone on their website and it looks the same as mine (packaging is completely different though) and it says alox.

I'm so confused! :D
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I'm not sure if a pic would help much - maybe...

I saw that ACE had a 6" stone listed as AlumOx and none listed as SiC, but having the two of them side by side made it easy to see the difference. When I tried to find out what they carried, all I could get was the identical description of stones with several price points. Why different pricing and different product numbers if they're the same item? (21160 / 21163). 21160 looks a lot lighter in color. Sadly, the larger outfits don't seem to care much about accurate product descriptions for sub 10.00 sharpening stones - even Norton had to be given a head's up...
 
Strigamort said:
IMAG0822_zpse3c155c5.jpg


IMAG0826_zpsf68910e2.jpg


IMAG0828_zps8e2f06d0.jpg


The coarse side looks a little sparkly in bright light.

Also it's made in the USA if that helps with anything.
Click to expand...

To me it looks like AlumOx. AHHHhh - go ahead and use it! You likely won't notice the difference on most steels, and in general ALumOx can be milked for a slightly finer edge than a SIC stone of comparable grit rating anyway. It will be a touch slower but nothing crazy.

Also, its very difficult to say for sure by looking with the unaided eye. As mentioned there is a bewildering array of binders and abrasive qualities that could throw one off when it comes to vitreous stones.
 
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