Thread: Chagrin Falls Deerlick Oil Stone Co - Oil Stone

You know the rules; no pictures = it didn't happen!

The photo of the label is as clear as I can make it. The stone must have been kept in a wooden box and the label must have been affected by the oil accumulating at the bottom of the box.

The stone itself is dark grey and feels quite soft at the touch. I haven't noticed any features which could help in identifying the type of mineral it is.

If you can introduce mineral oil to the top and scrub the dirt off, you'll be able to see the stone better. Other pictures of them suggest that they're a fine sandstone (coarse sandstone won't hold oil - it goes through them, and they're usually suggested for water).

Finer types like queer creek may have labels that say "use with water or oil" (still sandstone)

And novaculite doesn't allow oil to pass through it deeply and is generally recommended with oil only (the action and surface flushing of the stone is poor with water).

If there is some softness to the stone, then it points more toward sandstone, also. I'm not aware of any commercially sold stones from north america that are novaculite other than magog (canada) and arkansas/washita, but sandstones were sourced from several different places, and slate hones of coarser quality were often local (most haven't been kept, perhaps they were a farm grade stone - soft slate is both slow cutting and leaves a fairly poor edge).

The stone is in good order, no chipped edges or corners. I will give it a good clean and use it to get an idea of its characteristics.

Cheers,
Yvan

Berea Sandstone, I think. Very cool find!

Pretty much any oilstone can be used with either oil or water (ideally water with a bit of soap), but if you want to use water you'd need to clean it completely first to remove all the oil. On a sandstone it's probably penetrated further than it would have an Ark, so you'd need a soak in hot water with some detergent / dishwasher tablet.

Have you tried it out yet...?

Originally Posted by cotedupy1

Berea Sandstone, I think. Very cool find!

Pretty much any oilstone can be used with either oil or water (ideally water with a bit of soap), but if you want to use water you'd need to clean it completely first to remove all the oil. On a sandstone it's probably penetrated further than it would have an Ark, so you'd need a soak in hot water with some detergent / dishwasher tablet.

Have you tried it out yet...?

Hi cotedupy1,

Welcome to the forum!

No, I haven't yet cleaned it nor have I tried it as it is pretty dirty!. Your suggestion of using a dishwasher tablet is excellent, thanks!
Will post another pic(s) after cleaning.

Cheers,
Yvan

Cheers!

Yeah if you use very hot water with a dishwasher tablet, leave for a couple of hours, then maybe a further hour in clean water. You should get a very clean stone. I just re-read your initial post and seen that the paper wasn't still attached, it might have been a bit of a shame to lose it, but since it's not stuck on any more then I'd definitely go for cleaning it up.

After that you'll be able to use oil or water, but try to see if you like water first. If you use oil you'd have to clean it again if you wanted to go back to water. Water with just a single drop of soap / dishwasher liquid will reduce the surface tension and help keep the stone clean. As mentioned above by D.W. - the reason certain stones are used with oil is not actually for lubrication, it's because the swarf created using just water can clog some stones quite quickly. Even an Ark can be used water and a little bit of soap.

Apologies if you knew all of the above already! Though happy to be able to offer some advice if you didn't. Otherwise my time on these forums will mostly be spent asking people very basic, probably stupid, questions about woodworking . And as I said - finding an old natural stone like that, in what looks to be really quite good condition, is very cool.

Some info on Berea stones: Ohio’s Sandstone: Once the Source of the World’s Finest Grinding Stones – Early American Industries Association

And some pics of an old oilstone I found last week, and gave a bit of a clean up and some love to the quite nice wooden holder it came in. Turned out to be a Norton Fine India:

IMG-1101.jpgIMG-1123.jpgIMG-1122.jpg

Cotedupy1,

Stone cleaning is on the agenda for the week-end!

I found the following info on the Chagrin Falls Deerlick oil stone Co: Discover Chagrin Falls History | Deerlick Oil Stone Co.. It correlates closely with the Berea stone info you quoted. The company was exporting to Europe, Russia etc and, in a economic downturn, sold to the Carborundum Corp in 1909.

Cheers,
Yvan