Thread: Honing with oil?

Hey all! I was talking to a barber today about honing and he was saying to use oil on my norton 4K 8K "water stone" it seemed strange? Just wondering what everyone thinks of this suggestion?

Has your barber ever considered using Ex-Lax?????????????????

problem with trying is that you cant go back

now if you got a spare norton 4/8k you could try it
anyway i dont think its supposed to be an oilstone

Originally Posted by straighty180

Hey all! I was talking to a barber today about honing and he was saying to use oil on my norton 4K 8K "water stone" it seemed strange? Just wondering what everyone thinks of this suggestion?

Use water on a Norton water stone.

I do not know how the resin of the 8K side will
react to the oil. I think the answer is that it is not a good on
a resin bonded hone. While it might be OK I am not willing to
test it.

Oil is interesting. It does help protect the blade from corrosion
and is a good thing to use on Arkansas hones... It can float
and lubricate the surface making a hone work finer than it might
when dry or with water. There is such a thing as a water
soluble oil.

IF you put oil on a hone it will always be an oil stone.
And there is oil and there is oil. Bad oil does get gummy
and will clog a hone.

Some folk use oil on carborundum razor hones
and almost always on Arkansas hones. Machine shops cool
and lubricate cutting tools of all types with oil.

Before you consider it further try his oiled hone
and have him hone a razor or two for you.

Asking Norton has value.

+1, use water only.

There are certain stones out there that are meant for oil, but the Norton isnt one of them. I believe you can use Charnley Forest stones with oil, but I use mine with water and it works fine.

++++1 on the previous advice. Do not use oil on your Norton 4k/8k waterstone.

Norton does make a stone for two for honing that oil is used with, but neither are the optimal stones for honing straight razors.

Thanks so much for clearing that up for me guys i really appreciate it I'm glad i asked the question first before destroying my hone!
Keep it close!

If he says to use it with oil, maybe he has one he uses with oil. If so, it would be interesting to see how it affects the hone and the razor. Worth asking, right? If he does have one, has been using oil for a significant amount of time on it, and gets good results, it's probably ok. Ideally, you'd be able to try his with oil and compare to yours with water to see which you prefer. If he does not have one he's used with oil, then (how the heck would he know it should be used with oil? and) you're probably better off sticking to water like the others have said.

Norton has been around a long time and sold many different varieties of natural and synthetic hones. My first thought was that your barber is mistaken but then it occurred to me that he might have a Norton oil stone and he is assuming that you have one too. If you have a waterstone I think the oil would clog the pores of the binder/abrasive and ruin the stone. Waterstones work great with water and it is not near as messy.