Thread: Pike oilstones

I don’t use oil stone’s Yet,
But have recently inherited some from the sale of my father in-laws home.

So I’m quite keen too see how they go,I did start a thread hear, but can’t remember we’re it is.

But there was a bit of interest still in oil stones, they were obviously the go to back in the days!!.

Cheers Matt.

I use oil stones and have done for 45 plus years, ( still have the same stones ) just wipe the stone after you use it, use correct oil such as neatsfoot, move over the entire surface so as not to form a hollow.

Pike is an interesting company. They appear (appeared?) to specialise in sharpening tools: Mainly oil stones, but also other sharpening aids. I have one of their jointers for the saw sharpening process. I think at some point they were absorbed or merged with Norton (possibly around the early 1930s).

Regards
Paul

Hi Matt, China and Paul. Nice score on "inheriting" some stones. Hopefully they are not too dished, they are much harder to flatten than waterstones. I am using baby oil (essentially just a nice smelling mineral oil). I found a great copy of and old Pike catalogue/users guide. I will try to link it.

Oil stones what have I got.?
Oil stones what have I got.?

Found it MA.

Cheers Matt.

I remember now. I even commented! I recently used my newer oilstones (which are older than my older ones) to sharpen some chisels. Same result, wonderfully sharp.

Here is the link to an old Norton Pike guide

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&sour...7LhS8VBHxYs8kz

Enjoy

I've used a few razor hones on woodworking tools. The one that you have is probably 1200FF abrasive or something of the sort bound in a matrix that keeps it from getting "full tooth" to the item being sharpened.

The razor hones vary a lot, but some of the ones with natural abrasives in them (like frictionite bench stones - 821/825) are sublime.

Not finer than good modern stones, but just different in their feel.

something changed industrially allowing precipitation of small closely graded alumina that wasn't in place back then, thus use of relatively coarse grains and really nifty ways to bind it so that you get "just the tips" when using it. Kind of a lost art.

for anyone else thinking of razor hones, that also means be careful not to coarsely abrade the surface to "refresh" the stone. it can just result in a fine stone being something more like a 1200 grit waterstone, and you can't get it back.