Thread: escher rubbing stone

Whatever you decide to do, Laager, I'm game.

Kees, the term stone implies that the piece of matter so named is composed of inorganic materials or minerals. Of course there are exceptions like kidney stones, even though these also have a high inorganic content. That said, almost all inorganic materials have some ionic character to them or at least some degree of polarity. With few exceptions, and off the top of my head I can't think of one, inorganic materials are hydrophilic. Water wets these types of materials. If it doesn't, the likely reason is that the material has adsorbed or absorbed oil. I believe that your y/g E. & Co. hone has been used with oil at some point. Howard and Tony should be able to help you rectify this. I believe that burying a hone for a year is a Biblical or Talmudic prescription to make a hone Kosher once it has been used with oil but do ask Howard, he's my go to man for all things Kosher. Although this may indeed remove the oil, I think that there are faster and more effective ways of accomplishing this, unless you want your hone to be pronounced Kosher!

Kees - it's worthless then. I'll help you out - you paid $30 for it? - I'll take it off your hands for say $15



Actually, there are many ways to work this:
1. Some soap (done this, think it worked juuust fine to get almond oil) + toothbrush
2. Pumice stone (no personal experience) under running water
3. Lapping with wet / dry (I needed to make sure it's flat, and lapping seemed to get rid of the oil)
4. burial for 1 year - I wouldn't do it but I can see how it would work

I am sure there are other ways - e.g. Goop (if it works on strops I can't see how it wouldn't work on a stone) but now I am just blabbing (would I try it on my stone - yes, but I like to take risks and live dangerously)

By the way, you can also try the stone with oil - I loved mine, the only drawback is the bit of a mess

Cheers
Ivo

Kees, please don't sell your worthless Y/G E. & Co. hone to Ivo, he'll BOIL it in oil or something!!! I'll pay you $7.50 for it and give it a good home!!!

Hydrophobic or not: it does a good job on my razors so I'll keep using it with water. As you should be able to use them both with water and oil acoording to, I believe, older labels by Escher I am not to worried. As soon as it starts showing signs of crumbling down I'll try and flog it to Rich

One thing I've found to work well on my coticule is using a spray bottle instead of trying to pour water on it. The atomizer in the nozzle breaks up the surface tension of the water so it sticks better. I'd imagine this might help a bit with your hone, although if oil's the issue you'll probably continue to have problems. (My coticule hasn't been treated with oil, so your mileage may vary...)

Josh

Originally Posted by rgdominguez

Kees, the term stone implies that the piece of matter so named is composed of inorganic materials or minerals.
With few exceptions, and off the top of my head I can't think of one, inorganic materials are hydrophilic. Water wets these types of materials. If it doesn't, the likely reason is that the material has adsorbed or absorbed oil.

Doesn't glass, or some types, show hydrophobic properties?
Maybe if the stone happened to have been wiped by the previous owner with a cloth that had some cleaning/polishing agent it could cause the water to sit on the surface.
I've noticed similar effects with some very dense stones that can glaze a bit.

Murph, you do have a point there. The glazing may keep the water from interacting and so water beads up on these surface textures.

Kees, you could try a "car panel wipe". This is good for getting oil and wax off cars prior to spraying. Another would be "Disc brake cleaner" from a car factors. This will do the same but more aggresivly.

PuFF

Or take it to a flattening stone.
It is amazing how much my nortons and my coticule changed when I flattened them on the Norton flattening stone.

The feel of the surface area is totally different, and now my stones accept water perfectly.