Thread: Guide of how to clean your old dirty oil stones with car brake cleaner

Hello,

I have been using this method to clean all the oil stones that I buy, it is very effictive for removing all the accumilated dirt and soaked oil, and since i use all of my stones with water only removing seaked oil is very importanet. I find this method very cheap, effictive and safe for the stone, however if the stone is fixed to a wooden base\ box and you are planning to keep that wood remove it first.

Safety First!
You will need eye protection, dust mask, gloves and well-ventilated area that is safe from an ignition source.
If you do not think that safety is manly, try describing an accident while cleaning a stone in the ER !!!


You will need:


Brakes Cleaner cost 4$


Tray or a container with air tight lid if you are planning to soak the stone (this can't be used again for food)


Here is our lovely CF that we are going to clean



Place the stone in the tray/ container and start to spray the cleaner on the stone, if you want to remove a glued wooden base just try to aim the cleaner between the stone and the base using the spray nozzle, this will directs the solvent to the glue.



( to show how effective this stuff is, this is after 10 seconds of spraying only I haven’t touched the stone yet )


Now check if your stone is released from the base or not, if not leave it for few minutes and check again, mine came out instantly





After brushing if you find that there is still lots of oil soaked in the stone or a difficult to brush dirt, just spray more until you cover half of the stone then close the lid of your container and let it soak for a day and remember to flip the stone after 4hrs or so to enable the solvent to penetrate all the stone.

the stone here is a denes CF it was smothered in oil but it didn't has any soaked oil inside it, so after little brushing I washed the stone with clear water and lapped the 4 sides flat, all of this toke 30mins most of the time is lapping with the diamond plate.







Now that the stone is clean and flat, wash it with dishes soap to remove any lift residue, then we need to smooth the stone and prepare it for honing razor.

I usually do so by rubbing the stone with a slurry stone cut from the stone itself (tomonagura), I find that a tomonagura can smooth the stone to it optimum level IMO, but not everybody has rocks saw at home neither everybody is willing to cut their stones too. So I experimented with Coticulte and Tenjou along with the tomonagura the Tenjou worked well, but the Coticule did not although it was a really hard one, however the black unusable slate of the Coticlue worked, nonetheless the results may vary from stone to another, if I am not cutting the stone to make tomonagura, I will use a translucent Arkansas to smooth the surface of almost any stone. Also you can use a hard steel blade to smooth any stone by simply sharpening it with a bit pressure.

The goal is to have a very smooth reflective surface on the stone; this will make your stone perform the best especially if it is a finisher.



( the scratches are from rocking the slurry stone, those are very dull and shallow and will not affect the honing or the blade )



The finished stone


one side wet



other side dry


This method is applicable for almost all the stones, you can soak the stone in rubbing alcohol if you can manage to find the right quantity, rubbing alcohol is inherently safer and can be used indoors, but it is much slower than the strong formula of a brake cleaner.


Sorry for not photographing the whole process I didn't have someone around to help also i am using my phone to take pictures. I hope this helps someone... let me know if you have any questions.


Happy Honing

Very nice guide. I do almost the same procedure. Only I use industry grade oven cleaner. But brake cleaner might work better for removing old oil.

Beautiful stone by the way.

I will try this way next time. Seems much faster than the simple green and water method I have been using. Seems great to clean surface immediately but still may soak for few days in simple green To draw out any oil seeped inside the Stone.

Originally Posted by Mikeinri

I will try this way next time. Seems much faster than the simple green and water method I have been using. Seems great to clean surface immediately but still may soak for few days in simple green To draw out any oil seeped inside the Stone.

Yep, it's really fast and you can maybe enjoy using the stone the very same day depending on the condition. This solvent has a lot of alcohol in it that’s why I recommend to have a container with air tight lid to prevent evaporation during soaking the stone. If this was a porous Washita it wouldn’t be this fast as it will properly soak for at least 2 days depending on the condition, but soaking in alcohol or this brake cleaner will dissolve all the oil even the deeply seeped oil it really leave clean

This Washita wasn't black when I picked up, it almost looks the same, but when lapping I noticed that the stone was soaked with oil, so I put it in alcohol for 5 days.




(The oil after the alcohol evaporated)

I haven’t used simple green neither I used oven cleaner to clean a stone before so I can’t compare the results for you, but I can assure you that I have cleaned a lot of stone using this method and I’m been very pleased with the outcome.

Impressive clean up of the washita. Do you use it as a water stone now? I have a lily white washita that I also soaked for a few days. But I didn't get all the oil out. And since I use it with oil I never really cared. Does using it with water offer any advantages?

Originally Posted by mikael86

Impressive clean up of the washita. Do you use it as a water stone now? I have a lily white washita that I also soaked for a few days. But I didn't get all the oil out. And since I use it with oil I never really cared. Does using it with water offer any advantages?

Thanks for your nice words. Yes I do use it as water stone now, the benefits easier cleaning, using any slurry stone to energise the Washita at the end it's what I prefer, there is nothing without pro's and con's.

Try to soak your stone in rubbing alcohol for a week or so but it is better to lap it before to open the poros.

I have good luck with "Simple Green" cleaner as well. Takes longer, but less aggressive.

This is a good method, but I doubt a quick soak will get all the oil out.

I have soaked many stones and they will continue to release oil for many months, depending on the stone. I have a translucent Ark and about 6 other stones soaking now, that have been releasing for months and a lilly white that has been soaking and releasing oil well over 8 months, it is almost pure white now. I change the solution one a week.

I soak them in air tight glass canister jars with a rubber seal. When I do pre- soak, laying down in plastic tray type container, I lay them on a couple pieces of bamboo chopsticks to allow the solution to easily get to as much surface area as possible.

So far, about a 10-25 percent simple green mixture seems to work best. Heat does speed the process, so I set them in the sun on warm, sunny days. I have used thrift store slow cookers with good results, but do not like the idea of one running 24/7. The sun works well enough. Oven cleaner works well for a pre-soak cleaning, but just removes the surface oil and swarf.

Once you have them clean, I have used oil on them and a quick wash and soak with dawn dish soap and water cleans them up well, even coticules.

Your stone probably was not glued to the wood box, the swarf was most probably holding it to the box, a couple of taps on the edge of the box will release it. Have done probably a couple hundred and never seen one glued.

Great looking stone, by the way.

Originally Posted by Euclid440

This is a good method, but I doubt a quick soak will get all the oil out.

I have soaked many stones and they will continue to release oil for many months, depending on the stone. I have a translucent Ark and about 6 other stones soaking now, that have been releasing for months and a lilly white that has been soaking and releasing oil well over 8 months, it is almost pure white now. I change the solution one a week.

I soak them in air tight glass canister jars with a rubber seal. When I do pre- soak, laying down in plastic tray type container, I lay them on a couple pieces of bamboo chopsticks to allow the solution to easily get to as much surface area as possible.

So far, about a 10-25 percent simple green mixture seems to work best. Heat does speed the process, so I set them in the sun on warm, sunny days. I have used thrift store slow cookers with good results, but do not like the idea of one running 24/7. The sun works well enough. Oven cleaner works well for a pre-soak cleaning, but just removes the surface oil and swarf.

Once you have them clean, I have used oil on them and a quick wash and soak with dawn dish soap and water cleans them up well, even coticules.

Your stone probably was not glued to the wood box, the swarf was most probably holding it to the box, a couple of taps on the edge of the box will release it. Have done probably a couple hundred and never seen one glued.

Great looking stone, by the way.

I Must admit you are an incredibly patient man, I don’t think that I will ever be able to wait 8 months for a stone to clean up…. I’m not familiar with Simple Green for cleaning stones neither with it components, it is available however I didn’t recall buying it ever… so to familiarize myself with the stuff I have downloaded it MSDS and checked the ingredients, no wonder it’s taking your stones that long to clean Simple Green is very soft environmentally friendly cleaning product it’s around 80% water !!! it isn’t fair to compare the results of the two together, it’s like racing a nasty co2 air polluting HD with a bicycle.


http://simplegreen.com/pdfs/MSDS_EN-...oseCleaner.pdf

Until know I thought that the brakes cleaner was a formula with a lot of alcohol inside it, but after reading the MSDS I realized why this stuff is very effective….. it’s pure Heptane, a pure solvent.


http://www.acdelco.com.au/PDFs/MSDS_...BrakeClean.pdf

Now are my stones scientifically 100% oil free when I clean them using this method ? I don’t but I can assure you that I soak in water them, slurry them, lap them, and use them without seeing, smelling nor sensing any trace of lift oil.

If you want an environmentally friendlier and inherently safer solvent try isopropyl alcohol (Rubbing Alcohol) I have used a 99.9% one and I will recommend that you do the same.



Do you see that light colored stuff in the corner of the stone…. That’s the glue and there is a lots of it oil and swirf will not make that milky color, my assumption that someone have put this huge quantity to elevate the low areas of the stone to maintain flatness (the stone is not a perfect rectangular), when I finished cleaning the stone I started to wash that try with water as soon as the water touched that liquid dirt it started to stiffen until it became very firm impossible to remove so I trashed the tray, I suspect that it is some sort of foam glue or mayby just normal wood glue.

I hoap you try soaking your stones at least in rubbing alcohol and see how it goes.

Thank you, I will take note of this method.