Thread: Mineral Oil and Swaty

Hey all,

Just a quick question. Can you see mineral oil hurting a Swaty? I use mineral oil on all of my razors, just wondered if I had to be extra cautious to make sure no oil touches the hone. Thanks!

Some hones will take it in and subsequently gum up. Even though some of the Carborundums are extremely hard and seemingly non-porous, they take up oil and can be awful to clean off. I have never encountered an oily residue on a Swaty. Some of them came with instructions declaring they could be used dry, with water, with lather, or with oil, specifically their own branded Swaty Oil.

Short answer is, I don't think oil will hurt your Swaty at all.

i haven't seen any barber hone to be used with oil.This is what i think .i always read use water,or leather or just dry.Again this is what i think i could be wrong.

Once you go oil you never go back.

Use lather or water. Oil can have bad consequences down the line.

IF you look at the Swaty instructions they say water, lather or Swatyoil. What that is I don't have a clue. If you are asking if the residue of oil on the razor will hurt the hone I would say a good wipe with a tissue and it ought to be fine. As far as using oil as a vehicle on a razor hone I wouldn't.

Okay, let's go back to the original question. I think I got it going in the wrong direction. He wasn't asking if he could use oil on his hone, he wanted to know if oil residue on his razor would be a problem for the hone. My suggestion is, use a thin lather on your Swaty instead of water. First, because it just plain works better than water because water just beads up and gets pushed off a Swaty. Second, the lather will prevent the residual oil from coming in contact with the hone by emulsifying it so when you wipe the lather off the hone, the oil will go with it.

Thanks for all the responses guys! I was only asking about cross-contamination of oil from my razors to the hone. I plan on using lather for touch ups, and it seems that that should keep it oil-safe if any oil was left on the razor.

I just got back my Swaty from ChrisL who lapped it and gave it an amazingly smooth finish. Wouldn't want to ruin a nice thing like that!

I use mineral oil to preserve my razors when they aren't in my weekly rotation. I just wash them with soapy water first, and I don't have any problems with contamination.

Utopian's idea makes good sense: if you hone wet, you already have the water handy, so just bust out some soap and use lather.


I read somewhere that Swatyol was a mineral spirits type solvent oil... or refined kerosene.

I'm not going to try it on my Swaty though.

As far as cleaning a well oil soaked stone, I've had great success using contact cleaner or carburetor cleaner on super fine Arkansas stones.