Oil stone refurb

[whatknot]

Hi all

At the boot sale this morning I picked up a few bits (as you do) one being an old oilstone in its box

Firstly I wondered if its worth cleaning up and using

And secondly what would be the best method to restore both the box and the stone

Its pretty grubby but seems to be very flat

 

[ED65]

Firstly I wondered if its worth cleaning up and using

Only way to know that is to clean it up and use it. Every stone is potentially useful, it just depends on who has it and how it might fit into their sharpening routine; one guy's "can't live without it" is another guy's "it sits on a shelf gathering dust".

Few stones are so filthy that they don't work at all so try it out and see how it abrades, what kind of scratch pattern it leaves. But if it's pretty clogged with oxidised oil and metal dust a good clean will make it cut like it's supposed to, like it did when new.

To give a stone a quick clean you can simply scrub it in warm soapy water using a pot scourer, just that can do quite a bit. Best done in an old wash-up bowl as the residue that'll come off can be pretty foul! You can also splash on some white spirit and have at it with an old toothbrush, wiping up with kitchen paper (which will come away black, so you'll know you're doing something).

But to deep-clean a stone you need to soak it and the best method for doing that depends on who you ask. If you have a pot large enough boiling in water works very well, but some prefer not to take the risk of getting a stone that hot and prefer solvent soaking. You can use white spirit, kerosene or home heating oil, petrol, diesel, really almost any suitable organic solvent that dissolves oil so if you're not reserving the liquid for future cleaning use the cheapest.

The box looks particularly nice. Do you want to just give it a quick spruce up or try to make it look like new?

 

[D_W]

I'd clean the box with oil and a light abrasive pad. Don't go for perfect if you're going to use the stone - you'll be making copious amounts of black oil at some point.

Finish the box with same - light oil, drying if you'd like a finish on it.

The stone, you can probably use it as is, as ED says. Or clean it with oil - non drying oil of some type soaking on it, and wipe it off and see what comes off. Then, repeat until you have something you like.

If it's close to flat, I like to lap a stone and make it flat. Not required by any means, but that's my preference. If it's far off of flat, I work it flat on the idler on a cheap belt sander (if it's silicon carbide, that's a no-go - it'll be hard on anything you flatten it with - just choose a much coarser loose grit for the job and a surface that isn't too important).

I have a video on using the idler, but that stone doesn't look like it will require anything like that.

 

[whatknot]

Thanks for your reply

Its a bit gummy with gunk but seems to be pretty flat with a straight edge, lengthways and sideways I will give it a wash first and then test again

 

[topchippyles]

soak it in white spirits to clean it up

 

[whatknot]

Thanks for that

I will see what a soapy bath does first then may try that

Cheers

 

[whatknot]

Thanks for your reply, all useful stuff

Yes I was taken with the rather nice box, better than others I have had by a long way, it has suffered with age but is largely intact, not looking to get it back to perfect but a reasonable state for use, a small amount of inlay has been lost but is mostly there

I will try a good warm soapy water wash and see where that gets me before contemplating anything more serious

Not bad for .50p I thought ;-)

Plus a brand new pair of molegrips, about 7" I think, and two decent G clamps a no2 & a no3, just rusty on the thread, they are in soak for tomorrow

All for the princely sum of £1.50

 

[Sheffield Tony]

I've never tried soapy water. For me, removing an oily gunky mess is a job for an organic solvent - parafin worked very nicely for me. Better than expected; my slipstones looked like new.

 

[ED65]

Not bad for .50p I thought ;-)

Lucky sod! Even if it turns out to be something very ordinary that's some bargain.

Congrats on the G-clamps and the Molegrips too.

 

[Jacob]

Usuallyl there's no need to do anything except just use it, with white spirit or paraffin at first. If it's clogged up then freshen it up with a quick pass over with a 3m diapad or similar - something bendy to follow the dips and hollows

 

[ED65]

I'd clean the box with oil and a light abrasive pad. Don't go for perfect if you're going to use the stone - you'll be making copious amounts of black oil at some point.

Finish the box with same - light oil, drying if you'd like a finish on it.

If the box were mine I'd clean thoroughly (always a multi-step process for me, possibly using steel wool at one stage) but nothing containing oil would go near it until I'd made sure any existing finish was gone, to prevent a piebald effect. After cleaning I'd strip any remaining finish that revealed, bleach out any iron stains and then refinish it, probably with BLO followed by wiping on shellac or varnish. Whole process takes at most two days in the case of shellac, a few days in the case of varnish (longer in the winter unfortunately), and gives a surface that shrugs off getting dirty.

I've never tried soapy water. For me, removing an oily gunky mess is a job for an organic solvent - parafin worked very nicely for me. Better than expected; my slipstones looked like new.

Norse Woodsmith has a page on boiling: http://norsewoodsmith.com/?q=content/cl ... -oil-stone

There's a YouTube video, I can't remember from whom, and he uses soaking in very hot water with Simple Green or Purple Power mixed in. Lets the stone sit in it until the water has cooled and repeats as necessary. Gives the same result, just more slowly.

Usuallyl there's no need to do anything except just use it, with white spirit or paraffin at first. If it's clogged up then freshen it up with a quick pass over with a 3m diapad or similar - something bendy to follow the dips and hollows

That's true enough but if you get a stone absolutely squeaking clean it'll cut like when it was new, which can be far removed from the broken-in surface soaked in oil. Sometimes this is beneficial and sometimes not, but the new owner will never know unless they try it out.

And aesthetics can matter, some just don't want to reach for a grotty old black thing when it comes time to hone

 

[Jacob]

...........

Usuallyl there's no need to do anything except just use it, with white spirit or paraffin at first. If it's clogged up then freshen it up with a quick pass over with a 3m diapad or similar - something bendy to follow the dips and hollows

That's true enough but if you get a stone absolutely squeaking clean it'll cut like when it was new, which can be far removed from the broken-in surface soaked in oil. Sometimes this is beneficial and sometimes not, but the new owner will never know unless they try it out.

And aesthetics can matter, some just don't want to reach for a grotty old black thing when it comes time to hone

If you do it as above it'll become squeaky clean and sharp cutting quite quickly, with very little effort.
What's aesthetics got to do with it? :shock:

 

[PAC1]

Not a recommendation but where I did my apprenticeship we used to clean things like that with Red Diesel!

 

[Jacob]

Not a recommendation but where I did my apprenticeship we used to clean things like that with Red Diesel!

Why not? Red diesel, paraffin, white spirit etc. Whatever you do don't buy "Honerite"products they are astronomically expensive but no better.

 

[ED65]

If you do it as above it'll become squeaky clean and sharp cutting quite quickly, with very little effort.

It'll depend a bit on the fineness of the stone, but from middling to the fine end not as sharp-cutting as if cleaned pore-deep. Coarse stones aren't as bothered.

As to relative levels of clean, there's just no debate. Scrubbing of any type will only get you so far.

What's aesthetics got to do with it? :shock:

Different strokes for different folks. Come on, you know some people want their stuff to look pristine. For them the dirty sides of the stone and the filthy wood would be unacceptable.

But forget aesthetics, you want a stone to cut like-new it has to look like new. Simple as. You don't have to take my world for it, there are a great many gents out there who have gone through thousands of stones between them who clean their purchases thoroughly and their reports on the performance before and after form an overwhelming body of evidence.

 

[D_W]

Simple green mentioned above is used by the razor guys who want to have a stone that can be used with water or water based lubricants after cleaning.

It works and it's cheap, though.

I've learned some new words in this thread, though. Pie bald!

Certainly, if there are uneven chunks of finish on a case, they have to be dealt with first.

 

[swagman]

Hot water and dishwasher power balls works well at removing grunge oil and spittoon from an old honing stone. Don't try this technique on a manufactured oil filled Carborundum stone.

before.





after.

 

[ED65]

For those unfamiliar, if you remove all the factory 'oil' filling from a synthetic stone during cleaning you can easily replace it should you want to.

 

[D_W]

I've seen people mention heating vaseline to refill or to fill (the very cheapest of) synthetic stones that are lacking, but never tried it.

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

Have you ever refilled a vitrified stone? I can vouch that the $1 al-ox stone from the dollar store works like crap without the oil fill in it - the abrasives just dulls and breaks off and clogs the surface.

 

[pcolbeck]

I've seen people mention heating vaseline to refill or to fill (the very cheapest of) synthetic stones that are lacking, but never tried it..

That's strange. I had never hear of that until today. I bought four old oil stones at the car boot on Saturday (not for 50p though they were £12 a pair) and one of them staid "a product of the carborundum company" on the box. I did a search and this popped up in a knife forum discussing a new old stock stone someone had found. So that's twice in one day the Vaseline thing has been mentioned!