Honing oils Favs, recipes, choices.

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Amos Iron Wolf

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I thought it might be interesting to see what kinds of honing oils folks use, that use oil with their sharpeners that is.

Does anyone have a recipe for a special honing brew that they use? Anyone use straight mineral or other type of oil?

What about brands of honing oils? Any you just insist on? Are there any brands you absolutely won't use?

Until I ran out, I'd been using a bottle of Nathan's Natural that had been around for sometime. But since I've gotten active with knives again and in a way I never was before, I finally ran out. That got me to thinking what an interesting read a thread on our oil choices would be. I know that across the gun boards, especially those dealing with military surplus guns, a lot of guys mix up and swear by Red's, a recipe that uses among other things some transmission fluid. So, I startred wondering if anyone mixes up their own concoction.

Of the honing oils I've seen, the main ingredient is mineral oil. What else goes into the basic store bought mix?

Amos
 
I have several favorite sharpening stones depending on the percentage of edge degradation and type of steel the blade is, however, I find myself mostly using my old set of soft Arkansas and hard Arkansas for the majority of my traditional EDC's.. Squirt a little kerosene on the top of the stone and away we go on to a very sharp hair popping edge.
 
I use straight mineral oil now. Used to use olive oil, but had a problem with rancidity on a couple of old stones. And Wifey didn't want me getting "3-in-1" all over her nice kitchen knives.

I also use it to lube folders. And I picked up a bottle of A.G. Russell's "Rust Free" silicone to protect carbon steel blades.

I do use Ed's Red to clean my guns. :) Firepower FP-10 to lube and protect.

-- Sam
 
I know at one time the Buck family did use Automatic Transmission Fluid...still good in a pinch. I have a few honing oils, but I'm usually a fan of mineral oil, as well.

Bill
 
ParaGlock said:
I do use Ed's Red to clean my guns. :)
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Thanks, Sam. I'd forgotten the proper name.

Interesting that of the posts so far it's mineral oil and kerosene. I've been thinking of trying a little kerosene in the mineral oil to cut the thickness of the oil and give about the consistency of the store bought honing oil I've been using. The stuff always struck me as pertty much being mineral oil (the primary ingredient) and kerosene anyway.

As in the older post about sharpening stuff, there still seem to be some fellows who still get a lot of use out of their Arkansas stones. Something warming and reassuring about the thought of traditional knives being sharpened up on traditional stones. But I think I will pick up some diamond hones for the D2 stuff. ;)

I look forward as others chime in.
 
Kerosene makes a lot of sense, but I hate the smell and the feel. I mostly use water these days. If I think that the handle will tolerate it I sometimes use rubbing alcohol. It works well and rinses right off.
 
I mainly use WD-40 on my India and Arkansas stones. I'll spray two or three spots of it on the stone, then spread it around a bit. If the stone starts to clog up while sharpening, I'll dab the surface with a paper towel, then spray some more WD-40 on it.

Some people have speculated that WD-40 is mostly kerosene ("kerosene in a can"), but I looked on their website and they insist there's no kerosene in their product. I'm sure that kerosene and many other thin oils/solvents would work well though.

A while ago, I heard about using Hoppe's No. 9 as a honing oil. It does work really well; just one or two drops allow the stones to cut a lot faster. Unfortunately, the smell is so overwhelming that I don't use it often. It's also a pretty powerful solvent, so you'd probably want to be careful with how you use it. (I think it dissolves copper?)

The dedicated honing oils may be mainly mineral oil, but they seem to be much thinner than the mineral oil you can buy at the grocery store. I've tried using the pure store bought mineral oil and it's just too thick for me. That sounds like an interesting idea though to try mixing it with something else.
 
This is a well timed post as I am almost out of the Lansky oil in that kit and the bottle of oil in my 20 year old Buck Honing Kit is just about out also. The Buck honing oil is a very dark red, but fairly light oil. I don't know what it is, but I like it. I was thinking of trying Marvel Mystery Oil in its place. I love the smell of Marvel. I have one of those Norton stones that has an extremely course grit on one side and a less course on the other side and the only stuff I found I could use was either engine oil or gear oil. The stone is so porous, everything else just soaks into the stone before I even get a chance to put the blade to it. I only used that course stone to put a really course edge on the knives I carried when I was a merchant seaman. We found that a knife dulled instantly when cutting line (rope) unless it had a very course edge on it. This was before serrated blades were available.

Jim
 
cerulean said:
Some people have speculated that WD-40 is mostly kerosene ("kerosene in a can"), but I looked on their website and they insist there's no kerosene in their product.
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WD-40 is mostly Stoddard Solvent, aka mineral spirits. From an MSDS I found online (http://www.wd40.com/Brands/pdfs/msds-wd40_aerosol.us.pdf):

50% Stoddard solvent (mineral spirits) [8052-41-3]
25% Liquified petroleum gas (presumably as a propellant)
[68476-85-7]
15+% Mineral Oil (light lubricating oil) [64742-65-0]
10-% Inert ingredients
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I always use 3 in 1 oil for tools - chisels, machete, garden tools etc., then lightly oil with 3 in 1 for storage.

For all other knives, including EDC and kitchen knives, i.e. that will cut food, I use a little mineral oil, and then wash afterwards under hot water, for stainless, or just wipe with a clean rag for carbon.

I often spray WD40 into slipjoints for cleaning, but not for storage.
 
Hmmm, so perhaps cutting mineral oil with mineral spirits might make a nice honing oil that wouldn't be as thick as straight mineral oil.

I did appreciate the thickness of straight MO the other night though. I was thinning a Queen D2 edge on a course stone that usually sucks up regular honing oil like the first rain in the desert. The MO didn't disappear as quick and I was able to make fairly fast work of the D2 with just stones. Mostly on the course, then some secondary edging and finish work on the medium created a toothy, but razor sharp edge. Well, except the part near the tang. That will need to be thinned and edged more.

I'll have to check and see if I can find the website again, but there was one where a guy with his sharpening system advocated using stones dry. He showed comparisons of edges sharpened with different ways captured under a 100X electron microscope that were quite interesting.

Great stuff so far.
 
Amos Iron Wolf said:
Hmmm, so perhaps cutting mineral oil with mineral spirits might make a nice honing oil that wouldn't be as thick as straight mineral oil.

I'll have to check and see if I can find the website again, but there was one where a guy with his sharpening system advocated using stones dry. He showed comparisons of edges sharpened with different ways captured under a 100X electron microscope that were quite interesting.
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I think that would be this from Juranitch: http://users.ameritech.net/knives/Juranitch1977Feb.htm I got his book years ago, and it's interesting but I don't follow the dry hone recomendations. I find that the hones clog too fast, and most of my hones I'd already oiled before getting his book, so oil I use. Mostly I use the oil simply to wash/wipe out the clogged pores of the stone. I just ran out of a big bottle of GATCO hone oil, but I've got a bottle of mineral oil. I think I'll see if I can find some mineral spirits and dliute it and find a nice squirt bottle to make it easy to use. I too find the straight mineral oil a bit too thick.
 
Yep, that's the site! My stones are already oiled too. I get good results already so I'm not ready to change everything at once. Maybe sometime I'll try his ideas out with a new stone or a steel, just out of curiousity.

I used to use oderless mineral spirits with boiled linseed oil and a touch of Japan hardner for doing oil finishes on walking sticks and an old stock or two. I need to pick some up again anyway to make up a batch of the oil finish so I might as well give the mineral spirits/oil mix a try too.

Thanks for posting that website.
 
I read that after the initial sharpening on the grinder of course, Bob Dozier uses a DMT stone with water and dish detergent for subsequent sharpenings. Bob seems to get pretty good results.:)
 
Thomason said:
I read that after the initial sharpening on the grinder of course, Bob Dozier uses a DMT stone with water and dish detergent for subsequent sharpenings. Bob seems to get pretty good results.:)
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Cool.. I just purchased a set of Smiths Diamond stones (325 grit and 750 grit) for my Doziers and all my other blades with D-2 steel. I used an identical set of stones on my Arkansas traveler that a friend had recently and with just a little water it got shaving sharp in 4 or 5 strokes. Incredible results in record time made a believer out of me!.:thumbup:
 
I have DMT and Eze-lap diamond stones and mostly I just use them dry, as per the instructions that came with them. Sometimes I'll use a little water, and that seems to make it cut faster. I have'nt used natural stones in years.
 
I have tried old kwik sharp, old smith's oil and now Lansky "nathan's narual" oil.
The kwik sharp and smiths worked fine, but WOW did they smell bad, they gave me a head ache getting a whiff of them!
I was told to try the Nathans natural lansky stuff, and I must say there is very little smell. My dad says it smells like Pennsylvania crude oil from when he was a kid working the oil wells.
I'm enjoying it so far!
 
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