Thread: Using Oil on Waterstones: a simple question

Birnando, May i ask what oil you were using?

Beginning to wish i had not seen this thread, as i have to try all the ideas now in my head. haha

Originally Posted by 111Nathaniel

Birnando, May i ask what oil you were using?

Beginning to wish i had not seen this thread, as i have to try all the ideas now in my head. haha

This place will do that to us

I used a Norwegian brand, but basically it is a thin sewing machine oil.
I've also played around with a WD-40 on my Charnley Forest. That worked out just fine too!

I put a drop of baby oil on the corner of my coti slurry stone last night. Let it sit for 8 hours or so. Drop didn't exist this morning, and that corner was darker. Water didn't bead up, seemed to generate slurry on the DMT like the rest of the stone, and post slurry didnt bead up at all difft from the rest of the stone. After washing with hand soap and drying, it was still discolored vs the rest of the stone. So, seems to soak in if you wait long enough.

Got an option, but one i can't do. What about doing a test on a bbw bout. less expensive. It has very similar properties as the coticule. Just to see how oil really functions on these stones in a real test environment.

My bbw is a combo with my only coti so i am unwilling to do an all out test.

Edit: When i tried oil i also use baby oil, a very light mineral oil.

I am wondering what is the gain, and if there is a gain, is it worth it? For me in particular, I have a series of increasing grit stones, so if I need a finer grit than my coti can give I just grab a higher grit stone. That way, I get a finer edge without the uncertainty about whether, in the long run, I am damaging a stone.

And at what point do you say it is worth it? Any increase? 10%? 20%? For sure, it is interesting and I can see the curiosity aspect, but if it is viscosity you are after, why is no one honing with raw egg whites? Just a thought.

James.

I know what your saying Jimbo, for those who have finer hones there is no objective purpose. Other than curiosity and exploration of capabilities. But for some other guys like myself who's finest hone is the coticule, and will remain that way for a foreseeable few years (unless i strick it rich somehow) Knowing how to get a better edge out of what you got (without ruining what you got) could be very useful, and fun.

I keep reading about people moving on to other stones after a coticule, makes me wonder how much better could my edges get? There's an amount of personal drive to reach goals in this hobby that I can't ignore.

Well that's my rant about adventure.

Nathaniel.

I've used oil (fairly viscous mineral oil) on my La Verte probably half a dozen times. After honing the razor I just gave it a wash with hand soap and water. So far I have not noticed any discolouration or the water acting funny. There has been a noticeable improvement of edge sharpness.

It is quite possible that half a dozen razors is not enough to cause damage, and if I kept doing it for longer some might occur. Maybe. I still don't know. And I probably won't ever know, since to me the mess of using oil is annoying, and kind of defeats the simplicity of using a coti (no soaking, drying, very little lapping, etc, etc), which I really like.

I might do some experiments using lather and dish soap next. If that gets me the same results as oil it would be simpler to clean up.

Originally Posted by Krodor

I put a drop of baby oil on the corner of my coti slurry stone last night. Let it sit for 8 hours or so. Drop didn't exist this morning, and that corner was darker. Water didn't bead up, seemed to generate slurry on the DMT like the rest of the stone, and post slurry didnt bead up at all difft from the rest of the stone. After washing with hand soap and drying, it was still discolored vs the rest of the stone. So, seems to soak in if you wait long enough.

Round 2:
I redid it last night and might need to rescind: it very well might be that it simply spread out and ran down the sides. In the second try, I noticed that it spreads a lot...mixed with the discoloration that happens (maybe that is due to the Shea butter in the oil?), I might have mistaken it for soaking in. It's such a small piece of coti, I can't keep the drip on the to surface...can any one else try? I made a time lapse movie of it, only to find out afterwards it didn't save due to user error (I was miffed!) maybe will try again with a smaller drip. Either way, that will probably be helpful to post. I think I'll use plain old mineral oil too, not this baby oil, just to keep things on the level.

Ahh experiments. As anyone in science knows, if you can't repeat it, it ain't true. I'm not saying it doesn't soak in, I'm just saying I'm no longer so sure that it does.

OK, here's the deal: Comparison of plain mineral oil and J&J baby oil on a freshly lapped coti. I have no clue what vein it is from, but its a coti I got for 4 bucks at an antique store awhile back. It's honed many-a-razor, and for this experiment I had it freshly lapped on a DMT 325.

Sequence of events:
1. drip of each...(beginning)
2. wait and wait. (awhile)
3. right around 18 seconds into the video, I adjusted the light to highlight how the bubble of oil had spread out. Did it again around 38 seconds.
4. wait a lot longer.
5. right around 3:30 and 4:10 into the video, I played with the lighting a bit.
6. right around 4:30 into the video, I removed the coti, then washed it with plain liquid handsoap. A second or two later, I sprinkled it with plain water, and put 1 drop of mineral oil in upper right corner. Note there is one drip of water that crosses the oil/no-oil interface.
7. wait and watch the drips evaporate.
8. at 4:44, I grabbed the coti, rinsed with plain water, and put it back...clearly the oil on that upper-right drip is still there and is causing the water to not wet that area.
9. Watch the water evaporate...there is zero evidence that the initial oil did anything to the surface...the evaporating water didn't have a clue anything had just sat on it for several hours.
10. 5:20 into the video, I grabbed the coti, washed the thing with handsoap again, and let it evaporate...no evidence of an issue in the upper right again.
11. 5:28 into the video, I rinsed again and dried it.
12. done at 5:34.

Note that the slurry stone is darker towards the camera than away from it...that is not the lighting, that is real...the darker area is where the J&J baby oil was first tested and I guess just discolored it.

(Note also that, yes, I posted this on another forum board, as there is a similar discussion going on there. All in good spirit and learning.)

Enjoy!

no need to discuss. buy two coticules. use the first one with water and the second one with oil.