Simple Green with a Norton India stone?

J

JMFWSU

Joined
Apr 23, 2002
Messages
181
Hi,

Can I just use simple green on my Norton Combination India Stone (IB8)? I sprayed some on the fine side and it really didn't sink in that much. Most seemed to float on top. Is this a decent substitute for oil?

Thanks
 
The IB8 comes pre-loaded with oil which is why it didn't soak in. I have never tried Simple Green. I use honing oil with oil stones and water with water stones.
 
Funny this came up, I switched to using simple green about a month ago and really like it. My stone is the cleanest it's ever been too :)
 
I was initially impressed with Simple Green on oilstones, but then found that it was pretty harsh on my hands. It's a degreaser, and it'll strip the oils from the skin just as effectively. It's also somewhat caustic with a fairly strong alkaline pH and can create rust-spotting issues on non-stainless blades sharpened on stones wetted with it. I had rust spots all over a 1095 blade I sharpened with it.

I did really like how clean & fresh it left my stones (they smell great), so I sometimes will use it for cleaning them, but not for sharpening anymore.


David
 
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The stones I purchased in 2004 were absorbed with something like vaseline. Which I didn't care for, so, I boiled it out. Then started to using mineral oil. My older stones didn't have this substance in them. Mineral oil just wipes off after use. DM
 
I have used simple green on my Norton stone. But now I believe that Mineral Oil is the best thing I have used as oil stone lubricant.


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Mineral oil for me on my Nortons. Also have some old oils tones my grandfather had that I cleaned with kerosene then used with mineral oil.
Russ
 
I've been using Marvel's Mystery Oil for 35 years. Smells nice, isn't expensive, and the viscosity is thin enough. I never have used it for its intended purpose :) Never thought to use Simple Green but the caustic aspect mentioned above is a deterrent.
 
As someone just said, Simple Green is a degreaser. It's not as caustic and strong as something like Greased Lightning, but it's certainly a degreaser. So it bonds with oils and petroleum products and breaks them down. I would expect that this includes mineral oil (even though it's not petroleum based), so you'd sort of be degreasing your stone every time you used it.

The other thing is, Simple Green really isn't designed to be used at full strength. There are very, very few cleaning jobs that require 100% simple green. Even a mixture of 1 part Simple Green to 1 part water (50% strength) is considered EXTREMELY strong for Simple Green. A typical "strong cleaner" solution with Simple Green is 1 part SG to 10 parts water (10% concentration). Down to something like 1:20 or 1:30 it's still a very effective general purpose cleaner.

Maybe try a 1:10 or 1:15 solution of SG instead. I'm not sure exactly why SG would be better or worse than water all by itself. It smells better and, as previously stated, should remove any residual oils from the stone, but I'm not sure if that's helpful or not.

Just some ramblings about one of my favorite cleaners.

Brian.
 
FYI, my issues with the causticity and oil-stripping nature of SG came even in a diluted solution, 'spritzing' a few sprays of it into a sink full of warm water (to a light green tint), and dipping the stone into it periodically to flush out the swarf. Likely much more dilute than 1:10 or 1:15, maybe 1:20 at most. Still dried the heck out of my hands and left non-stainless blades peppered with rust spots developed in just a few minutes' time. Sharpening with it at full strength on the stone, with bare hands and a non-stainless blade, would make me cringe.

Aside from sharpening, when I've washed my stones with it, I use essentially the same method (in sink of warm water), though I'll also occasionally spritz the surface of the wetted stone with some SG straight from the bottle, in rubber-gloved hands and scrubbing with an old toothbrush, then rinsing very thoroughly under hot running tapwater. Does a great job cleaning the stone this way, leaving it looking new and smelling better-than-new.


David
 
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Just out of curiosity, why the reluctance to use mineral oil?

It is cheap, it is widely available, it is non-toxic (most honing and cutting board oils are food-grade, and the USP variety is actually intended to be ingested), and it is what the stone manufacturers recommend for use. I don't get why so many people look for an alternative. It's not even particularly messy to clean up. I make a much bigger mess when using water stones. It doesn't take much oil on the stone, you spread it on with your fingers, and when done, just absorb off the excess oil with a paper towel.
 
I suspect if one uses long sweeping passes, the oil becomes a real problem to keep on the stone.

Some stones also break down a lot faster when used with oil, which may not be agreeable in some cases.

I've heard of Simple Green giving good results, Windex as well. Personally my hands dry out enough using plain water on my waterstones. I'm plenty happy with how mineral oil works.
 
The 'positives' to me initially, about using Simple Green, were mainly due with the feedback I liked with it on the stone, and the fact that it keeps the stone so clean in the process and then rinses completely clean with water afterward. Extremely easy to keep a stone 'like new' that way. It was just the drying effect on my hands and the potential rusting issues with some knives that eventually swayed me away from using it for sharpening.

Mineral oil is fine for feedback, and it's what I use to wet my stones now, when I use them wet; I've even started using it on diamond hones for feedback's sake. But sometimes I do touchups with a dry stone, and a clean, unoiled stone is preferable to me for that (it's easier to wash & clean if it's never been oiled). A porous stone used with oil tends to collect and hold the oil and swarf within the stone over time and then takes a little more work to clean it up when it needs it. That, in itself, isn't such a big issue anyway, and the oilstones I use are inexpensive enough, I can reserve some for use with oil, and others for not using oil. For my hands' sake though, mineral oil is definitely the best at keeping them from drying up (the hand lotions I use are mineral oil-based as well), and it doesn't contribute to any rusting issues on blades either; even helps protect them a little bit, wiping down the blade with it afterward.


David
 
Jason B. said:
Funny this came up, I switched to using simple green about a month ago and really like it. My stone is the cleanest it's ever been too :)
Click to expand...

That's really interesting "JasonB" because I've used "Simple Green" in the past for minor household cleaning chores but I've never even thought of using it on sharpening stones. I've had my best luck using a product called "Bar Keeper's Friend" which I think works almost perfect on Spyderco's ceramic stones. But I will try out some simple green and let you all know what results I obtain with it.

Another cleaning solution I've used but it's really extremely harsh and corrosive if not used safely ( with gloves) and that is a solution I mix with Clorox bleach and TSP ( Tri-Sodium Phosphate). This solution really seems to break down oil and grease about as good as anything else I've used up till now. I also use a rather coarse "Scotch Brite" pad using both products and it seems to do well in most applications.

But I am now anxious to try out Simple Green. I had never rated it as being very powerful compared to most cleaners I've worked with over the years. But if it works that's all I care about.
 
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