Thread: Tips on Maintaining Oilstones

Not certain that oil stones deserve soap & water.

I lap one stone against the other but dead flat all across isn't too important for me.
I hate to think of reasons why I'd have to use one for a carving tool.
My knot-busting chisels are 40 degrees, they get a coarse & fine oil stone
touch up if they get used a lot.

Swarf: I want to pick it up, suck it up, out of the stone.
I use 5W30 engine oil. I blot the stone with paper towel to pull up the swarf.
More oil and a gentle scrub with a cheap brass bristle BBQ brush and blot again.
Do it again, if I have to. What I see is a fairly clean stone surface.

Any of this useful?

Hi RV,

Cheers for the response. Can I confirm with you what the verb "blot" means?

Here in the far north, "blot" usually means to soak up, commonly with a paper towel.
Water, snot, coffee, cat-yak, dog slobber, etc.
"Blot" can also describe the winter sled heads who soak up in the local bar and do get "blotto."
They are very careful to limit their capacity until well after dark.
"Chunder" is an OZ term, usually replaced here by "hurling chunks," "HERB!" or "RALPH" or "talking
to the big, white telephone."
Am I close? Can I have the prize behind door #3?

Originally Posted by Robson Valley

Here in the far north, "blot" usually means to soak up, commonly with a paper towel.
Water, snot, coffee, cat-yak, dog slobber, etc.
"Blot" can also describe the winter sled heads who soak up in the local bar and do get "blotto."
They are very careful to limit their capacity until well after dark.
"Chunder" is an OZ term, usually replaced here by "hurling chunks," "HERB!" or "RALPH" or "talking
to the big, white telephone."
Am I close? Can I have the prize behind door #3?

Definitely get to hand out the blotting paper in class anyway

back in trade school, we used to clean the stones with steel wool packed into a 30mm length of 40mm pvc pipe & plenty of oil. These were carborandum stones.

I found this article with some different ideas on cleaning oilstones:

Cleaning an Old Oil Stone | Norse Woodsmith

I particularly liked the idea of boiling them in water with baking soda.

What do people think about boiling them in lightly vineagred water? I want to try on an AlOx stone, and I've heard vinegar doesn't attack AlOx. I had this idea having read that vinegar can be used as a degreaser.

I like trying to get the job done with the minimum number of tools possible, and since I already have white vinegar for rust removal, it'd be great to use it for oilstone cleaning too )

I don't know about your AlOx combo stone ... is it very modern? Photo please?

But at least in regard to old 'garage-sale' oil-stones ...

I can see the boiling treatment for very old and gunked-up stones ... 40 year old motor oil etc ...

but I cleaned up a very dark + gunky stone by sealing it in a plastic coffee jar (2litre?) with some methylated spirits (half-covered or so) ... I wasn't in a hurry with it, so every so often I would give it a shake and turn it up a different way. I think I changed the metho after about a week, and left it again. It is still quite dark, but you can see it is a natural stone with fine olive-brown joined to a medium dark-gray. It works perfectly and has no grunge on the outer surfaces. I am sure 'though that it would look quite different again if it had the stove treatment.
The other half is away ... probably i should try it.

Personally I use baby-oil for sharpening, and for lubrication and cleaning you want to stick with the organic compounds - Methylated Spirits, White Spirit, Kerosene, ... (You'd think Bob Smalser would have written about oil-stones, huh?)

Do you have a wooden box for your stones?

Cheers,
Paul

The oilstone is this one:

Aluminum Oxide Oil Stones - Lee Valley Tools

That ad gives the grit as 90/600 ... you mentioned 1000/6000 ...
Is that the actual stone in the LV page?

Cheers,
Paul

In my toolroom and any other I worked in we use kero for all stones.
Either the sharpening stones mentioned here or small polishing stones used for cavity work on injection moulds.
All my stones live in a bath of kero.
The old recomendation was neetsfoot oil ( spelling ) but I find any sort of oil on a stone causes it to clog.
I used to watch my father for hours sharpeneing his butchers knifes. He used water with dishwashing detergent.

Andrew's 2cents