Thread: Veritas Stone Pond

Originally Posted by BeBerlin

Greetings, gentlemen,

Now then. Has anyone here ever used one of these things? My dealer suspects that if you keep two stones with different grits in the same pond, honing residue will wash off, and settle down on the other stone. If so, what can I do to avoid this?

I've got one here... it's been relegated to the shop for purposes other than honing razors as I ended up preferring to handhold my hones. That said, to keep grit from another hone in the pond from contaminating the one you are using, simply use fresh water from a spritzing bottle or some such. Actually, you're normally ok just splashing some of the surface water from the pond up on your hone as the grit does sink to the bottom but if you wish to be uber safe, either use a spritz/pump bottle or one of those pump up spray bottles with clean water in it and you'll be fine.

The main attraction of the LV stone pond is that your water stones can be stored in water so you needn't soak them before getting down to business. On the other hand, if you have 2 sided stones such as the Norton 4k/8k, I've read somewhere that they can separate if left in the water full time... then again, I'm pretty sure that Lynn kept his in a bucket of water full time and don't recall hearing of such woes from him but then he's already worn out 7 of them so they may not have been around all that long!

Hope that helps,

Regards

Christian

I have found another disadvantage to leaving stones in water for long durations. That is, they can get a bit slimy! For that reason, I no longer store my hones in water all the time. Now, I just plan ahead and get them soaking ahead of time. Fact is, if you use your hones regularly, they don't need to soak as long because it takes a few days for the Nortons to fully dry out.

I started using one a while back but found that when the stones are mounted on the bars for use they sit a bit high for my liking, so I now tend to use adjustable holders for hones-in-use and store my jap whetstones upside-down on the bars when not actually in use - just keep the water level sufficient to sit the stones in. This gets round any problems with grit falling onto stones below. At the bottom usually lurks my lapping stne as this is highly poprous and likes to be wet all the time! My Belgians don't mind being dry so that doesn't come into it. I've found it very useful.