gunk on sharpening stone

[StevieB]

Quick and probably simple answer to this, but whats the best way to clean the grey gunk off my icebear sharpening stone? I have been putting a primary bevel on a couple of old plane blades (forearms like Popeye now!) and end up with a grey almost slippery surface to the stone. It feels smooth to the touch but clearly is not as the stone still puts an edge on a dulled blade, but it seems slower to do so (I may be imagining this bit, I am not that experienced at sharpening!)

So do I ignore it, clean it off with something or am I doing something daft? It will not scrape off or wash off - is it having any harmful effect at all? Or am I just not using enough water on the stone to flush away the swarf?

Any help appreciated,

Steve.

 

[Philly]

Steve
What grade stone is it??
Use lots of water, anyway. I keep a spray bottle handy to refresh the surface.
If the stone has become "glazed" use a nagura to clean the surface off or just flatten the stone again on some sandpaper.
Hope this helps
Philly

 

[StevieB]

Thanks Philly. Its a 1000 6000 combination stone, although I was using the coarser side for the primary bevel. I will try some fine sandpaper and see what happens - I didnt want to scratch the stone surface so didnt dare try rubbing it with anything before someone said it was OK

Many thanks,

Steve.

 

[mudman]

Steve,

Drywall screen gets my vote for this sort of thing. There's some discussion under the ceramic stone topic at the moment or try seaching for drywall screen.

I had one thought though, in use, do you continue to add water to the stone? You need to do this to ensure that the swarf is floated away as it is created. Also, frequent flattening will prevent your stone from getting gunked up. This should be done really often, before, during and after use. If you are doing a primary bevel, I would say that you should be doing some flattening several times during the process. Done like this, it makes the whole process of maintaining flatness a lot easier.