Oilstones advice

[G S Haydon]

I like oilstones too. Nice in a cold workshop and it helps keep rust from tools.

Boxes are a very good idea. If they fall they don't bounce. I've bought secondhand stones that have the endgrain blocks and I'm confident the stone was owned by a professional or serious amateur. When I've made my own I didn't add the blocks.

Keep the India, a lovely good value stone. In addition, one fine stone is good too. You might not need it but they don't cost much secondhand.

To grind the tool I would consider a mechanical option. I prefer a water soaked wheel. It's slower than a bench grinder but the particulate that gets thrown into the air from a bench grinder isn't something I like.

You don't have to go the Tormek route, Screwfix have Scheppach versions, their biggest version is still much less than the Tormek and fine for home woodworking.

 

[Jacob]

The other point about the box is the lid. When you've finished you wipe off oil and put the lid back on to stop it drying out. It's essential.

 

[G S Haydon]

My "fine" stone. Original box in mahogany with end grain blocks. Likely a washita but can't be sure. Late 19th early 20th century? £25 from eBay. Certainly saved making a box!

I use baby oil on the stones, as others have pointed out there are many options.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

... as others have pointed out there are many options.

Come along, Graham, this sort of thing is not allowed on sharpening threads. You're supposed to say this is what I do and the rest of you are wrong.

 

[Jacob]

View attachment 149394

My "fine" stone. Original box in mahogany with end grain blocks. Likely a washita but can't be sure. Late 19th early 20th century? £25 from eBay. Certainly saved making a box!

I use baby oil on the stones, as others have pointed out there are many options.

Nice one. And you only have to make a lid!

 

[G S Haydon]

Nice one. And you only have to make a lid!

Sorry Phil , yes, I am the only truth and all shall obey

Came with a lid Jacob

 

[D_W]

For basic sharpening you need as much pressure and speed as you can muster. It's quicker!

for G_B - try this without end blocks. When you accidentally catch an iron bevel on the side or end of a stone, quickly finish the sharpening job and then try the plane. notice the split shaving from a nick that occurs when you use heavy pressure and tip over an end.

On a construction site, it may not be a problem, but it's to be avoided, and may have something to do with why some folks liked blocks on the ends of plane boxes long ago. overlapping the edge of a stone and having the bevel tip or catch is no good. Overlapping the edge of a stone and not tipping the edge so that it bears on the corner or catches is good. it'll take a little time to get the hang of being able to apply pressure past the ends of a stone without tipping the iron. Make note not of what happens if you feel it and how to adjust a little so that it doesn't occur. The steel in plane irons is hard, but it's still going to roll or dent if you put significant pressure on it over the corner of anything, even softer metals as the way pressure is applied laterally isn't a pure test of which is harder - it's a deflection.

You can ignore what jacob said about the box tops avoiding oil drying. I'm assuming he was joking, but one never knows. None of the honing oils dry - they're mineral oil based and the best don't do anything at all (as in not even change color or develop an odor over decades). Lower grades may have elements that oxidize a little bit and change the oil yellow or get stinky, and some start there already, but none dry.

In the age of diamond hones, a slow drying oil isn't irreversible, but it's better to avoid them, anyway. Any machine oil (sewing machine) will fail to dry for good reason - imagine having a sewing machine and using it after a year layoff only to find that it's scarring all of its moving parts because the oil dried.

(about a decade ago, I was at my dad's house visiting and he found he had a washita stone - we washed it off with mineral oil out of a singer can - he collects them. the can was somewhere on the order of 80 years old).

 

[D_W]

(by the way, the lid is to prevent things from landing or settling on the stone surface that you don't want - like sawdust or anything worse. the stone will abrade the edge, but relatively innocent things otherwise can dent an edge if they are standing proud of the surface and very small).

 

[Jacob]

(by the way, the lid is to prevent things from landing or settling on the stone surface that you don't want - like sawdust or anything worse. the stone will abrade the edge, but relatively innocent things otherwise can dent an edge if they are standing proud of the surface and very small).

I try to avoid this but I had to sneak a look at D_W's meanderings - he follows me about like a little court jester.


By oil "drying" I mean literally drying, i.e. evaporating. Leaves suspended swarf etc behind which gets pressed into the stone.
D_W is thinking of oils like linseed which set into a solid film, which are also known as "drying" oils, to distinguish them from "volatile" oils, which also dry but in the other sense.
D_W is easily confused!
He's right about the lid - but it also reduces EVAPORATION of the oil.
Hope that helps.

 

[G S Haydon]

Brave man using a Getty image Jacob! They can be pretty aggressive about their content being used!

 

[raffo]

The end blocks let you use the whole stone, regardless of type. Without them one tends to avoid the edges and given enough time you end up with some dishing.

Regarding this idea of oil drying, mineral oil doesn't dry. Where this notion came from? Who knows, in many occasions old notions get parroted by people that heard these pieces of old wisdom at some point.

Before mineral oil, whale oil was what was used with oil stones. You can see that stated in old labels. I don't know if whale oil dries, but if it does then the admonition would make sense.

Kerosene and WD4 will evaporate and leave a residue, that's another explanation. Some kerosenes in the US have a really strong unpleasant odor. I don't like to use it with oilstones.

Finally, mineral oil will soak up in more porous stones like India or crystolon, leaving behind the swarf caked on top of the stone. That's easily wiped, but appear to the unobservant as having dried.

 

[Jacob]

Brave man using a Getty image Jacob! They can be pretty aggressive about their content being used!

Not if they are public domain with their name stamped upon.

 

[Jacob]

The end blocks let you use the whole stone, regardless of type. Without them one tends to avoid the edges and given enough time you end up with some dishing.

Regarding this idea of oil drying, mineral oil doesn't dry. Where this notion came from?

It dries in the sense of evaporating slowly. It doesn't "dry" in the sense of hardening by polymerisation, though it may do very slightly.
Some do both, as you pointed out - kerosene drying AND leaving a residue.

 

[D_W]

Let's be realistic - you mentioned 3 in 1, talked about the lid being prevention of drying on stones, but mentioned no oils

The other point about the box is the lid. When you've finished you wipe off oil and put the lid back on to stop it drying out. It's essential.

So, you mentioned 3 in 1 as your choice of "traditional" oils (it doesn't dry), then suggested wiping the stone off and putting the lid on to prevent it from drying.

Nobody needs to wipe off non-drying oils, nor need to put lids on to prevent them from drying, nor would putting the lid on prevent drying oils from drying - they're exposed to oxygen with the lid on or not.

the lid is to keep the stone clean. there's no reason to convince someone who is new to this that they will put on a non-drying petroleum oil and still have to worry about it drying, but it's useful to point out to anyone that it's not great policy to leave stone surfaces exposed to ambient and shop dust or anything that could accidentally end up on stone surfaces.

Nobody mentioned plant or seed oils here.

if someone has a box with no lid and they're tardy in getting a lid made, something as simple as a paper towel laid over the stone is fine to prevent settling dust.

 

[gold_bantam]

Thanks for all the tips everyone. Plenty to be getting on with here! I need to get my workbench completed so I can make a good job of a box. For now I'm going to get a Faithfull or RST beech wood one so I can at least get practicing.

 

[D_W]

You can always glue the stone to the bottom of the box if not using both sides. I've never been a big fan of combination stones, but sometimes a combination with half a side of what you want is cheaper than all of one thing.

the reason for that is you flip the stone over and the finer side picks up grit from the coarse side. You can avoid that by fiddling, but fiddling isn't convenient.

Of course, the IM 313 isn't the same thing - it's three individual stones so this isn't so much of an issue.

 

[D_W]

my contribution to the boxed stones. I do not remember if I cleaned this or the reseller did, but it's an odd size and unlikely that it was just stuffed in this box as the width is irregular and it fits perfectly.

I've not seen these end blocks on stones in the US for the most part.

this isn't a stone that's on my stone bench very often yet. What's needed and what I have in numbers and different types are far apart.

 

[D_W]

There must be something English about the box stlye as a professional carver who was here said "that's an english box". I got the stone from england. Obviously, it came (sans box) to the UK at some time in the past. it is permanently affixed in the bottom with something and I haven't tried to pull it loose. sometimes that's due to an irregular or unlevel bottom.

 

[frogesque]

My favourite for using on an oilstone is water with a little dish soap (Fairy Liquid Eco-Ver or even ecconomy basic)

The rubbing action on the stone produces foam that clears the swarf and helps prevent pinning. Discovered this while polishing badly 'dragged' brass clock plates. Qiick wash and allow to dry the stone after using. If used with steel tools they need a light coat of oil immediately after. Rust forms surprisingly fast on bare steel!

To bring a stone back to flat and revitalise a blunt glazed surface I use corborundum powder mixed with water and soap solution on a glass plate. The grit rolls as the stone is rubbed over the plate and the sharp grain edges attack the stone bonding releasing the blunt stone surface grains rather than blunting the surface even more (big problem using diamond plates with fixed particles)

Its a bit like using a rotating wheel dressing stick on a bench grinder rather an old piece of stone. It tears and opens the surface rather than polishing it.

Just an opinion but to me oil shouldn't go anywhere near a wheel or stone. There are specialist soluble 'oils' used on surface or universal grinders but they are not oily, they more resemble antifreeze type fluids that include rust inhibitors.

 

[frogesque]

There must be something English about the box stlye as a professional carver who was here said "that's an english box". I got the stone from england. Obviously, it came (sans box) to the UK at some time in the past. it is permanently affixed in the bottom with something and I haven't tried to pull it loose. sometimes that's due to an irregular or unlevel bottom.

Usually years of grit, gunk and old oil! Think they were originally made a close fit and over the years as the wood shrinks it binds. I released one once to find that the stone was in fact a compound, black on one side and a llilly white on the other totally hidden.