Interesting way to clean whetstones.

wade7575

wade7575

Joined
Apr 3, 2013
Messages
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I have been watching this guy's youtube channel and seen him talk about and use these Rust Eraser's for cleaning the rust off of Japanese chef knives to clean his whetstones,he use's them over other conventional product's that are on the market.

The reason he use's them is because they remove almost none of the whetstone when he is just trying to remove the metal filing's and not flatten the stone,he use's the medium grit Rust Eraser.


https://www.ebay.com/itm/Japanese-k...e=STRK:MEBIDX:IT&_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649
 
I use the "lansky eraser". I bought it about 4 years ago. It works quickly and easily. I think i paid about $7 at a local sporting goods store. It still has about half life left. I made this quick video review a few months ago to show this. I also demonstrate it in a video i made using spyderco double stuff to sharpen zt 0450. Instead of having to go to sink and get comet cleaner and scouring pad, i just rub the eraser on the stone and a few seconds later it is ready to continue sharpening.

 
Just purchased the rust eraser and used it on a couple of water stones and 6000 grit sharpton.
Works well and is wort the money. Paid under $8.00 on line.
 
I use these for ceramic rods but I had no idea that people were using them on whetstones. Very interesting. Seems like a good way to make your stones last longer.
 
I'd be worried about grit contamination if used on porous or soft bonded abrasives. For the most part, most discoloration on sharpening stones from use is essentially cosmetic rather than actually making for meaningful loss of performance.
 
The grey, rubberized 'rust erasers' are usually a pretty coarse SiC grit embedded in a rubber matrix. All essentially the same in composition. And I'd bet a lot of them come from the same single source manufacturer. But they've been rebranded a zillion different ways over the last 30 years or so, with the Lansky example being one of them. So, as mentioned above, the possibility of grit contamination is something to consider, with all the SiC dust left by them. Not an issue when used for their original design purpose, for cleaning rust off of things like shop & garden tools. But these have been sort of re-purposed for off-label use over the years, as compared to what they originally were.

I've tried them for my ceramic hones and they worked OK. But since then, I've been using a simple pink pencil eraser for the same task and it works as well, and I think even a little better in lifting and holding the swarf from the ceramics without letting it scatter as dust, as happens with the very crumbly rust erasers. That was the main reason I stopped using those - they were much messier and I didn't like the thought of all that SiC dust laying around.
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I've been using the rust eraser for awhile, too. Works really well. I clean my stones under a faucet, so not worried about dust laying around.
 
I use Windex for a lubricant on my DMT DuoSharp diamond plates, and they never really get dirty. Just hose them off, when done. I also use Windex for a lubricant on a Spyderco ceramic stone, and that works pretty well too, but every so often I clean it with a Magic Eraser (get them at the grocery store). It works great.
 
I enjoy Ricky's videos. I like his style, and I have greatly benefitted from the content. He really helped me get my freehanding up to speed! Clear, easily understandable explanations and demonstrations.

I have been using the rust eraser for years on natural stones. I lube with water, and after a little rub with the RE they look and perform like new. It works very well, it is very fast, and doesn't seem to wear out. I'm really careful with the stones, and this is the best cleaning and re-conditioning process I have found.
 
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