Honing Oil

Hello all,

What does everyone use for oil on their oil stones? I buy the honing oil from retail kitchen supply shops but its expensive for the amount you get. I could use sewing machine oil but, I know this sounds sooky, I don't like the smell.

i ues lamp oil and it works great

I use a Norton oil for knife sharpening. Light weight sewing machine or clipper blade oil is good. I would not use oils with additives that could penetrate the stone or leave behind residues or waxes. Have fun.
Mike :)

Only ever use soapy water on all my stones just a squirt of dish liquid in a spray bottle and you don't get oily gunk on everything and stones never clog,i also only use non oil filled silicon carbide stones instead of oil filled which again prevents gunk and clogging

@Alucard73 do you dilute the dishwashing liquid? If so what is the ratio?

Do you use palmolive because its so good on the skin (just kidding :-) )

hendersr i do use palmolive and yes it's great for the skin have never tried soaking in it haven't seen that add for years,i just use a squirt in my spray bottle if i put too much in everything is too slippery if it's not enough you can sort of feel the blade gripping to the stone,just start with a little squirt and see how it goes i like it to get a little frothy as i sharpen my last spray bottle used to spray it out frothy when there was enough soap in it new one doesn't though,i started using soapy water when i was a butchers apprentice as it stopped stone gunk forming on the blade and i found it stopped the stones from clogging as well,every stone i've ever seen used with oil clogged up fairly quick and needed scrubbing with kero but a lot of people don't realize what it is and how it happens,not only do my stones stay clean but they seem to last longer than ones used with oil i wonder if the oil makes the stone surface softer still thinking on that though

I use Nathan's (Lansky). I have no idea how the cost compares to any other honing oil, but a little goes a long way. Granted, I don't use oil stones much, but when I do it only takes about six drops to give good coverage.

I hone my razors with water stones so if figures I sharpen my knives with water stones.
except for my work knife, that little cheepie gets a once over every week on an India oilstone, just use olive oil :shrug:

I've used Mineral Oil on one of my coticules better and the results were very sharp.

I use a Zippo container, 1/3 auto trans oil 2/3 kerosene, occasionally I will use straight palmolive dish detergent if I feel the stone needs a clean, then rinse with water. All my stones are ancient, picked up around the place and inherited from my late father.

cheers

Heelerau.
Find I get my razors sharp pretty quickly using this stuff. Singer sewing machine oil mixed with kero is good too.