Using the Norton oil stone with water ?

G

GuyUpNorth

Joined
Jan 9, 2012
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8
I was given a Norton india combo 100/320 stone and I really don't like working with oil (I don't like the feedback at all). Is it possible to switch to water ? How can I proceed ?
 
If it's new (unused) then it shouldn't make a big deal of difference.
I was told you can switch from water to oil fairly easily, but you shouldn't go the other way.
Although, many cutting fluids are an emulsion of oil & water anyway so I wonder what harm can it do?
 
If you use some dish soap and water for a few uses that should break it in pretty good. You could probably just use water but not sure how it would sit on the stone. Windex has been used with good results as well. I don't know if the crystalon stones are oil-impregnated like the India stones.
 
I started a recent thread about Norton India stones. My goal was the same as yours, I wanted to use water or windex on the stone. I found, however, that the stone was impregnated with grease, not oil. I thought originally that gradually using water/windex would force all of the "oil" out. Given that it had grease in it, that would have been a veeeery slow process. I recommend boiling the stone first before trying anything non oil-based on it.

Adam
 
How new is the stone and how did the previous owner use it? The older ones didn't have this oil applied. DM
 
aplehr1 said:
I started a recent thread about Norton India stones. My goal was the same as yours, I wanted to use water or windex on the stone. I found, however, that the stone was impregnated with grease, not oil. I thought originally that gradually using water/windex would force all of the "oil" out. Given that it had grease in it, that would have been a veeeery slow process. I recommend boiling the stone first before trying anything non oil-based on it.

Adam
Click to expand...

Since it was a fairly new stone, I boiled it for 15 min. A fairly good deal of grease came out. I'd say about 3-4 tbsp. I'll try sharpening on it tonight.
 
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