sharpening and honing oil

H

honer1

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May 19, 2011
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I am about to invest in a set of sharpening stones for several hundred dollars, and have never been able to get a solid recommendation concerning honing. I have sharpened both with and without, and I can't say I can tell a LOT of difference. I have been told that, once one uses oil on a stone, that it will require oil from there on. Does anyone out there have any suggestions as to what the truth is on whether it is BETTER to sharpen either with or without oil, or whether or not a stone is committed to one or the other? All input would be welcome.
Mike Acord
 
I don't know if oil is better or not, but once you use oil, you have to stick with it. I think the oil will just repel the water if you try the former and then the latter...
 
Try for yourself and decide, to use or to not is a preference and what's better is a opinion. My experience was oil worked and dry was easier with the same results.

If I may ask? Why oil stones? I'm guessing your looking at Arkansas stones?
 
Yes, I am thinking about Arkansas stones, and in a "tri-stone oil bath" configuration.
 
I don't consider myself an expert on sharpening stones but... I did grow up using them. The reason you use oil on a whetstone is to float the metal particles away and stop them from clogging the stone, from my understanding water is simply not as effective for use on fine stones unless you're using something soft that wears away so that the clogged material is ground down and does not matter.

If you want to use water I would advise getting a japanese waterstone, I've never used them personally because they're overly expensive for what you get and require the maintenance of having to be periodically ground flat on the sidewalk or something equivalent. A normal whetstone or diamond sharpener with wd-40 has always worked well for me.
 
Some types/brands of stones apparently come pre-oiled from the factory (so I've heard), so they're pretty much destined to be used with oil. If the stones aren't oiled yet, I'd try other means first (water, water with a little dish soap, or dry). You might find one of these alternative methods to be just fine for you. In particular, the water & dish soap method might even work well enough on a stone that's already oiled. The dish soap will break the surface tension of the water (which, by itself, would bead up on the oily surface), allowing it to spread out more evenly on the surface of the stone. Using the dish soap will also speed up the cleaning process afterwards (just add water & scrub).

As for my preference, I use almost everything dry. Just make sure to clean the stones (dish soap & water) after each sharpening session.
 
honer1 said:
Yes, I am thinking about Arkansas stones, and in a "tri-stone oil bath" configuration.
Click to expand...

While this is a well known way of sharpening its also a aging one that has its drawbacks. If you sharpen mostly carbon and low alloy stainless you might be ok but beyond that you will have issues. Arkansas stones are what I started with but I can't say they are on my list of stone recommendations.

If you want to make a investment in stones I'd look into quality waterstones.
 
Thanks for the advice. I grew up with stones, and had not thought about natural vs water stone, but, after consideration, it makes sense, especially in view of today's alloys. Any suggestions as to water stones, such size, brand, etc.? I sharpen mainly pocket knives and kitchen knives. I also understand that water stones need occasional "flattening' with a diamond stone. Is there any advantage to water stone vs diamond, aside from the metal removed by the harder diamond?
 
In my experience the diamond stones last much longer, are way less messy and you don't have to worry when your moose of a dog knocks them off the table. But if you are going for a mirror polish water stones come much finer than the diamond stones. (unless you get into the pastes/sprays and strops)
 
I wonder is there is any problem with the metal particles floating around in the oil bath as the different stones are submerged in the bath. My concern would be that swarf from a larger grit stone may get on a finer stone and leave some larger scratches on the edge.

I've used them in jr. high and high school to sharpen plane blades and lathe (wood turning) tools and it seemed to work fine. So I don't know if it would be a problem... just a thought.

I just use WD40 on my stones. A friend of mine uses methyl salicylate (a.k.a. oil of wintergreen) on his Arkansas stone. One caution about using the methyl salicylate, it will affect some finishes and plastics. It does however leave you knives smelling really nice and removes sap and sticky gunk from the blade really well.

Ric
 
I doubt the metal swarf from other blades would cause significant scratching. Their hardness is (generally) on par with the blade itself, so they wouldn't likely do that much damage (if any). BUT, if you're concerned about cross-contamination and scratching, I'd be more concerned about the ABRASIVE particles from coarser stones getting into the oil mix. The abrasives are hard enough to sharpen the edge (obviously), so they're also hard enough to scratch it.

Having said that, most oil-bath sharpening setups, by themselves, aren't likely to produce a polish so high as to notice significant scratching on the edge. If ultra-high polish is the goal, there are more suitable ways to do that, which don't involve mixing the oil/water/lube/swarf between grit stages.
 
I have 2 oil bathes. The first has coarse, medium, and fine synthetic abrasives. The second has 3 grades of natural abrasives. The stone in use (top stone) can be oiled and squeegeed with a rubber spatula. The swarf washes overboard and precipitates to the bottom of oil bath. The relatively dry stone is much less messy to work with. A turkey baster can be used to draw some clean oil off the top of the bath (away from the sediment) in order to wash the stone in use.
 
I've used honing oil, mineral oil, dish soap, bar soap with a few drops of water, and running them dry. IMHO using any stone dry (other than a diamond stone) will cause it to clog fairly quickly, necessitating frequent lapping to keep it running well. I've noticed no difference between soaps and oils except that soap is much easier to keep from becoming a real mess.

I must admit that despite being a longtime user of Arkansas stones, I now have no love of them except for the Translucent and Surgical Black varieties. The soft and hard will do good job on softer metals, but are slow and require very good technique. I have gotten good results from the Trans and Surgical Black on Sandvic and 154cm, but the soft, Washita, and hard are not recommended. A good combination Aluminum Oxide stone or the diamond stones are a better choice, and I'd put in a plug for the wet/dry sandpaper method as well. Waterstones are a good choice too, but are not as convenient as the other three.

HH
 
IMO diamond and waterstones are top of the line choices for hand sharpeners, diamond if you have a large selection of steels and want easy to use tools, waterstones if you mainly have carbon steels and want maximum enjoyment.

For diamonds I stick with one brand, DMT. For waterstones its a little more tricky, if I wanted a set of all the same stones it would be the Sigma power stones or choseras and for a mix-match selection I'd look at Bester, Beston, arashiyama, kitayama, Suehiro Rika, naniwa, or shapton pro.
 
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