Thread: Ridding an Arkansas Stone of Oil.

Originally Posted by JimmyHAD

I was surprised at how often he had vintage Arkansas stones for sale. Say that to say, the Arks must have been in high demand worldwide in the olden days.
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Yes. You are very right Jimmy! From the older literature in the 1800's that I have read they were held in high regard. For good reason. When you know how to use one they are surprisingly fast and leave a remarkable edge that is hard to match. At least in my opinion. I don't think marketing alone can account for the tons of stone that were distributed world wide. Interesting to note that Dans whetstone continues to distribute world wide including Japan! They said Germany is their largest overseas client. Now, I know I have loved Arkansas stones since I was a young boy learning how to sharpen a pocket knife and I am certainly biased but I am absolutely not alone.

[QUOTE=StewieS;1688758]

Why would you use oil on a quality Scotch Dalmore Blue.


For the same reason you want to use water on your Arkansas.... personal preference


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First of all, not to be completely off topic, good job with the way you cleaned the stone. Unfortunately for my case, if I were to do something like this in the dishwasher, no matter the fact that it won't get dirty, I would probably get thrown out of the house.

As for the oil/water question, I think the rule says the faster is a stone/the less it lasts; on oil, it's slower but lasts longer because you don't have to lap it as often. On water, it wears faster anyway, and it get glazed more quickly so you have to lap it more frequently. In the end, I believe all stones lasts the same before they wear and you have to throw them away, and removes the same amount of metal, whether you use it with water or oil. I prefer water, but testing a soft Arkansas stone sharpening a sword, big furface, I saw that using water the loose particles were damaging the appearance of steel, with loose scratches here and there. On oil, the effect was less severe.
As for the use of oil in the past, I find it strange. Before the time of synthetic SiC and AlOx stones, the need for coarse stones should be 100 times higher than for finer ones. It's useless to have a stone able to offer a fine edge if you have to remove an oz of steel first. But after you manage that, a fine stone could help.

Also, the idea that "a stone is an oilstone and should be used with oil" with you doing so unquestionably, because someone who does that longer than you or sells stones told you so, even if you sharpen/hone for decades, I still see that happening. With the Cretan stone specifically that is the most commonly used stone here. Using it with water or oil paradoxically has no difference on speed or quality of finish (only on the color of the steel, with a haze edge on oil, and a more mirror like on water), or at least it's too small to notice. But I have yet to meet someone who uses his with water. All the sellers say "submerge in oil", and everybody, professionals or not, do so although there is no serious reason behind it. I assume something similar was happening to the UK or US as well.

I imagine a lot of the heavy grinding was done on very course round stones that were rigged up to a hand crank or foot pedal. I've got a small one designed for use sharpening working/kitchen knives that has a built in water trough. And there were certainly larger examples for when larger quantities of metal needed removal. My grandparents had 2 of these wheels stationed outside their house for decoration, I would say they were close to a half meter in diameter.

Smaller stones like the ones we're putting to use for our straight razors would've been used for the same purpose they are now - refreshing a dull edge on a more or less properly shaped blade. I don't think anyone would've done a lot of heavy shaping on a stationary Washita unless that was all they had.

Another factor is a small quantity of oil will last a long time. It doesn't evaporate as readily, and in areas where water would've been a bit of a rare commodity - found only in town wells out west for example - it would've made sense to keep a half pint of whale oil or similar for honing, rather than wasting any of the day/week's water ration on a sharpening stone.

I also wonder about oil vs water removing the same amount of stone over the course of it's life - at least with respect to Arkansas stones. There's an appreciable difference in how fast they burnish with water VS oil. I can count the number of razors I sharpened with water before I noticed the stones visually glazing and slowing up, this has not happened with the ones I've been using with oil (I'm actually hoping the small translucent Arkie will burnish as that would be beneficial for a finishing stone). They're also surprisingly homogenous, %99.9 silica. It's not the usual sedimentary rock that you see used as a hone most anywhere else.

I figure it's the same as using a cutting oil on a hard carbide bit used for metal. If you go after it dry or with a poor lubricant sure it'll cut, but you'll be lucky to finish one pass before the bit is dulled and in need of replacement. But with a proper lubricant you'll get the full service life out of it. It's just a lot easier to knock the burnish off a silicate stone than to sharpen a hard carbide bit - believe me, you're better off replacing the bit. I've tried. Even Arkies have nothing on those.

Originally Posted by Marshal

I also wonder about oil vs water removing the same amount of stone over the course of it's life - at least with respect to Arkansas stones. There's an appreciable difference in how fast they burnish with water VS oil. I can count the number of razors I sharpened with water before I noticed the stones visually glazing and slowing up, this has not happened with the ones I've been using with oil (I'm actually hoping the small translucent Arkie will burnish as that would be beneficial for a finishing stone). They're also surprisingly homogenous, %99.9 silica. It's not the usual sedimentary rock that you see used as a hone most anywhere else.

This has been my experience also. The difference was appreciable. I really wanted the water to work long term but I just couldn't get around how quickly it gunked up and stopped cutting.