Oil stone refurb

[D_W]

I've never noticed that before, and I'll bet I have some boxes that say that on the bottom.

Makes sense, though. Light oil won't stay in those stones if the pores are open - something that stands at room temperature is necessary.

Not sure if the branding/name is the same in the UK.

 

[Oskar Sedell]

I´ve tried the Vaseline filling by heating the stone a little. Not much, just warm to the touch and the Vaseline melts right into the stone. Not even close to fire hazard temperatures.

 

[ED65]

Heating vaseline sounds like a good way to start a fire, but maybe I'm missing something.

Auto-ignition temp for petrolatum is somewhere north of 280°C (that's 536°F). It's realistically less risky that when deep frying something on the stove top since you wouldn't want to get even halfway to that temp.

Have you ever refilled a vitrified stone?

I've refilled once, filled once. In the latter case I warmed the stone in the oven, then smeared Vaseline on it with my fingers. It surprisingly doesn't take much to get the desired effect.

Re. the instructions on the Carborundum box, it was a couple of years back so you might have forgotten but I quoted that the last time this came up. When doing the India combination stone sometime after this I wanted to follow the instruction but at the time I didn't have a pan with a full 8" of flat bottom. And frankly I just don't think it's necessary, as Oskar says when applied to a warmed stone Vaseline just liquefies and sinks right into it. Kinda cool actually.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I worked many years ago with an old chippy who told me that people he trained under put their synthetic stones in the workshop stove to burn the dirt out. :shock:

 

[Boysie]

I've used the dishwasher tab method successfully a few times.
Most recently, I bought a box of old slipstones which were a uniformly manky dark grey.
They came up quite nicely.

 

[whatknot]

Firstly apologies as there were some replies to this I had not seen, so hadn't replied to, I must have missed one notification and so didn't get any more

All are gratefully received

I came back just to say that after a nice warm soapy bath and a scrub up, the box and stone seem to have come up nicely, certainly as nice as I require

I haven't as yet tried it out so that yet to come but here is the end result

With one further question, it may just be coincidence but at one end the box has a fillet across both base and lid, is there a reason for that?

 

[ED65]

Those cleaned up very nicely. The boxwood (?) stringing is just one detail that speaks to the quality of the case. Very hard to tell from the too-small size of attached pics but the stone looks like a synthetic, a silicon carbide stone of some kind.

The fillets, I wondered first if that it was to reinforce the short grain at the end of the recess but I don't think it makes sense to do that in the lid. If they're deep enough possibly to provide grip for screws, for a hinge that was once fitted at that end?

 

[whatknot]

I was pleased with the outcome

The inlays came out with my wash & scrub up, so had to re glue them, I am not concerned about the missing pieces

After the soapy wash I noticed on one end is stamped? or printed "INDIA" above that what looks like NO 6? but can't read it fully

I noticed there are Norton India oil stones, not sure if the NO 6? might be NORTON instead

As far as I can tell there has never been an attempt to fit hinges, but who knows, thanks for the thought

 

[D_W]

I think those fillets are to prevent the inevitable crack from traveling all the way to the end of the box.

 

[ED65]

After the soapy wash I noticed on one end is stamped? or printed "INDIA" above that what looks like NO 6? but can't read it fully

Interesting! Indias are synthetics as you've probably already read, factory-impregnated with a waxy grease (hence why I said 'oil' filling above) so that they don't absorb oil like a sponge the way dry stones do. They are very good stones, fast enough to be useful but incredibly tough and hard to dish, so much so that with care to even out wear across the whole surface of the stone it will never need to be flattened in your lifetime.

Stones are common sizes though, e.g. the almost ubiquitous 8"x2"x1", so just because the case is marked India this isn't a guarantee that's what's in it.

I meant to ask this earlier, can the stone be removed or is it stuck?

I think those fillets are to prevent the inevitable crack from traveling all the way to the end of the box.

It is an obvious thought but if that is what they're for I don't get why there isn't one at both ends.

 

[Jacob]

I guess the fillets are there for the same reason as the stringing on the lid i.e. no reason at all. These would have been an exercise for an apprentice making his first item - the box for his new oil stone.

 

[ED65]

I've just had a thought, maybe they're there to signify matching ends. Many a lid fits perfectly only one way around, so these could be an easy visual reference for which ends go together.

 

[whatknot]

No the "India" etc is printed or stamped on the end of the stone, not the box

The stone although old, seems to be in very good nick, I will try it out when I get a minute

The stone was a very good fit to the box but removable

I made the mistake after cleaning and drying of giving it three coats of danish oil, with a minimum of eight hours between them, but I did the inside of the box as well which perhaps was a mistake, its made the stone a very tight fit so will fix that later

 

[whatknot]

Still unsure what the small fillets are for, they don't seem to serve any purpose

But as was suggested it could just be a test piece to show it could be done

Whatever the reason I am more than pleased with my .50p worth ;-)

Its very tactile and pleasing to hold and use

With all the old kit I gather up and try to refurbish, I get a warm feeling for the good projects & events they have been a part of and no doubt a few disasters too ;-)

To romantic? perhaps

 

[StraightOffTheArk]

Maybe the box is made from 're-purposed' wood, and the fillets were to fill a hole/joint from its previous life.

Tara a bit,

SOTA

 

[whatknot]

I think this is quite likely or at least a possibility, I had a closer look and the fillets are about 4mm one side and 5 or 6mm on the other

So perhaps the wood used had a former life as a piece of furniture

I have looked at quite a few oil stone boxes online and none have that same fillet

 

[D_W]

With the number of stone boxes that I've seen cracked or broken out on the ends, I think it's more likely that they're functional than decorative or pointless.