Tenative Results Oil VS Water

W

Will Leavitt

Joined
Jul 28, 2006
Messages
3,953
Mmmmkayyyyy like Dave suggested a non-scientific and purely anectdotal test for hand rubbing lubricants, oil versus water.

The blade used was a version of my Lemon Cutter, blade is 1084, 5 1/2" length, little over 1" wide. I used "Gator Grit" 400x wet/dry paper backed with my mild steel sanding block/stick thingy. The lubricants used were Johnson's Baby Oil and water from my tap.

The blade was ground post heat treat to a 400x Gator loaded with green rouge (I don't have cork belts anymore) for a semi-buffed finish that I like before I start hand rubbing. I moved to a fresh spot on the paper every 20 passes doing full length (plunge to tip) passes.

I used a strip 9"x 1 1/2" of the 400x GatorGrit to get to the finish I desired with baby oil.

A strip 13" x 1 1/2" of the 400x GatorGrit was used to get to the finish using water. The finish does appear finer (finished) than with the baby oil.

The baby oil seemed to produce a better "slurry" during use than the water.

This is purely anectdotal and I would expect people to not take my word as gospel on this and experiment on their own. For me and the way I do a hand rubbed finish I'll use oil for coarse and water for finish.

I tried taking pictures but they didn't show anything that you could use as evidence.
 
Good thread Will! I use baby oil fom 220 - 400 then finish with water on 600-800-1000, I have tried using baby oil to go all through the grits, becuase it did seem there was a better slurry to it. But when I stopped it just looked like to me like I had stopped at 800 instead of 1000. I 've also noticed a little better rust protection from this method, while I'm sanding it. I'll spend a few days on sanding, so I believe a film of oil on the blade helps me to keep it from rusting over night in cases when I'm working O1 and W1 blades.

Jason
 
It makes sense to me that the oil's higher viscosity would generate a better slurry since it has a better "cling" factor. Conversely, the lower viscosity of the water would lead to a thinner slurry which would result in fewer overall abrasive particles being retained which, in the case of final finishing, is a good thing. Or am I just full of $h!t?
 
Interesting experiment. Thanks for the info! Maybe a comparison with Windex is in order?

Cheers Rody
 
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