I have been working on my American slate home. I have used water & Smith's honing solution. What do you ind works best!
Dave H.
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I have been working on my American slate home. I have used water & Smith's honing solution. What do you ind works best!
Dave H.
From what I've read and from personal experience once you use oil on a hone you can't use water because the oil prevents water from soaking into the hone. I have two sets of hones, one for knives which I use oil on and another set for razors which I use water only.
I pretty much agree but the Smith's has no oil in it.
I heard once that an oiled stone could be "cleaned" by putting it in the dishwasher. I'm not going there. Collective wisdom reports water is best, but then I hear a lot about Welsh slate working well with a lubricant popular with the bicycle crowd-Castrol GT 85
Hi
I have an old small stone that is gummed from old oil.
The dishwasher.... not any effect.
Boiling with detergent... no
Finaly grinding the surface with an oil based abrasive compound...better.
I think much like the water stone flattening ...the surface needs to be ground away.
Probably a diamond on steel plate to flatten and grind away the surface of the gummed stone.
good luck
There are several threads here that teach how to remove oil/clean stones of all types,,, man made or natural. Grinding would be a "last" resort for me,,, but again that's just me. :shrug:Quote:
Originally Posted by dkwflight
As for an answer to the O.P. ,,, either should be fine. Smith's washes away pretty easy. I think you should experiment with both on the hone your using & see which gives you the results that work.
Hi
Grinding sounds harsh.
The "Flattening" process is more what I had in mind.
Most of the vids I have seen show a flattener in use at almost every sharpening shown.
These stones are traditionally "Water" lubricated.
Oil by its nature soaks in and stays.
I have to say an oiled stone will remain oiled.and will need oil for the rest of its life.
I think we all have seen sway backed stones.
These can be flattened but the result is a stone that has some life left.
A stone that has been routinely flattened probably will have the same useful life and is a better shape to do what we want, sharpen/ freshen razors.
Whether a stone can be used with water well after being used with oil is dependent on the stone. Many natural stones of the harder variety (Washita, Arkansas) can be used with oil then cleaned and used with water. I have gotten many old Washita stones that were black with swarf and oil and was able to get them cleaned up with a few days soak in a Simple Green bath in a heated ultrasonic cleaner. Afterwards they could easily be used with water and do not bead water on the surface, but I only use these with oil.
The harder Arkansas stones, black and translucent, can be used with oil or water interchangeably as long as they are surfaced to a decent polish/lap. This will keep them from soaking up pretty much anything.
Softer stones that are very absorbent are much more difficult to clean oil out of, as they soak it in much deeper and hold it more tenaciously. These can still be used with water as long as they are cleaned as well as possible and a drop or two of dish soap is used while honing, but they will most likely never be exactly like they were before oil was used.
Most synthetic stones should not be used with oil unless they are silicon carbide or India (aluminum oxide) stones.
Are you talking about Arks or real slate, American Stone brand?
Either way once cleaned, soaking in Simple Green or any degreasing cleaner, Smith’s works fine as does mineral oil. Once clean it can be washed off with liquid dish soap or degreaser once finished honing.
I use both on Arks and slates with good results.
Attachment 228031Attachment 228032Attachment 228033
Quote:
Originally Posted by dkwflight
I believe I understand what you are trying to get across in post # 7,, but both of the posts I just quoted from you conflict each other. In your second post you toss in "sway backed ' hones. This was not in the Opening Post. Phoenix mentions "cleaning" & this appears to be your point in the thread where you go into grinding/cleaning.Quote:
Originally Posted by dkwflight
To save confusion & stick with the O.P.s original question,,, lets discuss what to use on an "American slate hone".
I'm not trying to be a PITA,,, I would love to see a thread on "Sway Backed Hones" there are so many out there.
If a stone is gummed from years of oil and swarf, oven cleaner will get the majority of surface oil off, soaking will remove the deep imbedded oil from the stone.
Heat and degreaser, thrift store slow cooker work well, or just soak until they stop releasing oil, glass or plastic pasta containers, though it can take months for all the oil to release, especially hard stones like hard thick arks or other Noviculites.
Do change the degreasing solution once a week or so. I too like Simple Green, though I have used dollar store degreaser as well.
On a fine stone, mineral oil can provide a little better finish, possibly…
Attachment 228034
This is a medium grit kitchen knife stone by Norton
I show this as an example of a sway back.
There is enough stone left to flatten it and have material left for use.
I am interested in slate stones.
I found on ebay.uk dragons tooth stones. I have not ordered yet. They vary in grit up to aprox 15000 grit.
WELSH SLATE TRI SHARPENING STONE SET 3 HONES RAZOR HONE Ideal Christamas Gift | eBay
Just use the flat side, EBay Dragon Tongue/ Welsh Slates are no-where near 15k or even half that…
Get a 12k super stone, a good Thüringen, hard Ark, Translucent or Black.
Be careful next time you go outside,,, there's a guy hiding behind your car. :beer2:Quote:
Originally Posted by dkwflight
grin
No flat side!!! Look closer.
On the welsh stones that seller offers three different grade/ grit
Since they develop slurries the grit is hard to specify.
I went os an old High school.
They had the old time black boards. I know they were pretty fine grit.
Since I cannot lay my hands on any of those stones right now. I can only offer opinions based on what I have read.
I have, all of them, not near 15k finish.
Lap the flattest side.
In my machine shop I have a boat load of oil stones to touch up my HSS tool bits. They really get loaded up with cutting oil, grease, and swarf. I just use a spray can of Gum-Out carb cleaner. Spritz it on good and heavy then blow the crap out with an air hose. They are bone dry and clean when I'm done. As for my razor hones.............I don't use oil and never will.
