Why is it once you use oil, you never use water?

[gadgetgeek]

I wonder about moose milk, that might make for a good "best of both" for some stones.

 

[garry3]

I have a couple of new Arkansas Natural Stones that I've only barely broken in. I started out with regular honing oil on them.

I've read numerous posts that say once you use oil on them, you never change to water. What I'm more interested in, however, is if you've used oil, can you use something like either pure Simple Green, or a somewhat diluted mixture of Simple Green and water?

If not, what's the general reasoning for not going away from oil once it's been used?

I flip back and forth with arks all the time. I add a little dish soap to the water as a wetting agent or more soap to adjust the viscosity. Simple green would probably work as well but I haven't tried it, it does work well to clean old oil soaked stones.

 

[FortyTwoBlades]

In general it mostly stems from an incomplete understanding of "oil and water" and how they behave with one another. There are many oils, for instance, that readily emulsify with water, and as others have mentioned it's fairly trivial to use a little soap in your water to keep it from beading up and/or remove a thin layer of oil from the surface of the stone to assist in the use of the water.