Thread: Waterstones. Something I didn't know

I got tired of the water bath for the water stones and switched to using light oil on them. I make my own light oil using mineral turps and adding roughly 10% motor oil.
It works just fine and is a lot less mucking around than the water.
I felt I could afford to try it out as I received some stones from Lee Valley and they were damaged in transit so replacements were sent. I started using the damaged ones after shortening them down removing the broken sections . So they were first used with water then with the oil. Then I tried going back to the water after using the oil for a while and they still work.

Originally Posted by The Spin Doctor

Bought my first water stones in 1982 and have always used them... Though over the last decade or so I've gone away from using stones for the most part, but that's another story... My stones have always lived in water. The reasoning is: to stop calcification from repeated wetting of the stones... Some stones have been in water for at least 10 years. I throw a cap full of bleach in every so often to keep mould and bacteria away...

So, I had (not a mistake in word choice) a white 4000 slip stone, don't remember the brand, sitting in water for the past few years and thought nothing of it. Took it out tonight to hone the inside of a v tool... As I was dragging it up the tool the edge just crumbled. I was like: What the hell... I had white mush on my fingers. A closer look revealed the glue had literally dissolved LOL. I was able to crush the stone in my hand like hard pack sand. All the other stones are Kings and don't seem to have suffered the same fate, but I think I will risk calcification instead of disintegration and store them dry from now on.

I don't think it's the bleach as it's only 4% strength diluted in about 2L of water.

I don't think the white stones are generally intended for continuous soak unless they are vitrified types (bester 1200, etc).

but it varies from one stone to the next regarding whether or not they can stay soaked and the only practical way to know for sure is read their instructions. Which can be kind of hard when they're in japanese.

Some of the non-soak stones are very different in behavior with a 15 minute soak, too (shapton pros and naniwa chosera - both become dreamy smooth, but shouldn't be left to soak indefinitely).