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Oil Stone Care

Whiskers

Aluminum
Joined
Feb 28, 2006
Location
Somewhere in Illinois
I think I have read here that it's possible to soak oil stones in kerosene to remove build up.

Anything that one needs to be cautious about? Or does anybody have any better ideas?

Thanks
 
For my stone I a tupperware container just a bit larger, filled part way with honing oil, dropped in a couple washers and leave the stone face down on the washers, partially immersed. With the cover on, no dirt gets into the honing oil.

When in use I lay the container's lid upside down on the workbench, stone on top of it. So all the drips go back into the container.

Crud seems to eventually wash out of the stone and collect on the bottom.

Greg
 
If you use oil on the stone then store it in a coffee can of kerosene when not in use. The oil will clog the stone. The stones that are used to sharpen straight razors and such are used with soap not oil. You can use the bar soap for shaving to lube the stone and wash with water when done. If you are set on using oil then wash or store the stones in kerosene.
 
I soak them in kerosene overnight, then if still obviously clogged up. Wrapped the dirty oilstone in a kerosene soaked rag. Then baked it in an electric oven , fairly good results. Oven smells bad though.
 
I like to use charcoal lighter fluid instead of kero for cleaning dirty/clogged stones. Throw stone in container, let it soak overnight or for a day or two. I use an old toothbrush to scrub gunk that comes to the surface and then rinse in a clean container of fluid. Repeat if needed. Let stone air dry or bake in sun (summertime) or toaster oven. Save old dirty fluid for starting charcoal in the summer or killing weeds - also handy for getting rid of underground bee/yellowjacket colonies.
 
Use kerosene to clean the oil out of the stone, then use kerosene when using the stone instead of oil. Works just fine.
 
An old timer once showed me how to clean a stone... Put some solvent on a cast iron surface and stone the surface for a few strokes and it will clean a plugged up stone perfectly. I use the table on my old Powermatic band saw because it usually need cleaned up and it doesn't matter if I rub on it too much.
 
I collect the dust from green wheels. I dip two stones in naptha and then touch the entire surface of one to the green dust and then rub the two together. I alternately flip them and then rinse both in naptha. Have know idea if this is good. Been doing it for years. My stones (India medium) do what I want them to do. John
 
Was shown this trick by a guy years ago, works great, at least for the standard 1x1x6" India stone...

Take a peice of thick glass, we always used a mirror, and lay it on a bench. Smear some standard lapping compound on it, valve grinding compound works great. Thin it out with some *gasp* WD-40, mix it up, and lightly run the stone through the mixture in a circular motion.

Presto, clean, flat stone in seconds. It really got the stone looking brand new. Rinse off with kerosene, mineral spirits, or similar to get the rest of the gunk off, or in our case being a mold shop, we used Slide brand mold degreaser ;)
 
Thank you all for your tips and advice. An old friend of mine always kept two stones of the same type around, he would dip them in water or coffee, and then sharpen what he needed to, and then would dip the one stone he used, then grab the other one and rub the two stones together and put them up.

Thank you all again, at least now I now that soaking my stones in kerosene won't hurt them.

P.S. This was for a 2" x1" x8" medium India Norton, a 2"x 5/8" x5" unknown, and a 1 5/8"x 5/8x 6" Arkansas. They have all lost their teeth, and need to be cleaned. Thank you again.
 
If an oil stone is clogged its been used on something besides clean metal. If the stone is pinned - flecked with little hunks of metal - pick it out with a sharp scribe.

If the stone is loaded with crap there's not much you can do about it outside of soak it for a few days in lacquer thinner, scrubbng it at intervals with wire or stiff vegetable fiber brushes. Kerosene, mineral spirits, and other straight petroluem solvents are useless for removing congealed crap from loaded stones.

The simplest solution is to remove the worst of the clog and goo (WD-40, paint residues, wood dust and dirt, and automotive oils are famous stone cloggers) with lacquer thinner and a brush then dress the stone with a cheap but fresh coarse diamond stone from HF. Use plenty of dish soap and running water. The diamond wears off the stone with hardly any detrement to itself. The abrasive rolls off and down the drain. Once the stone is clean dry, it in the oven.

Use the diamond stone for no other purpose. If you use it on steel you'll degrade the diamond in very little time so its practically ineffective on oil stones.
 
The best way I've found to clean stones is an ultra sonic cleaner with some dish soap or simple green. They come out looking new. I've been doing it since I got my first US about 10 years ago.
 
i always used kerosene and another stone, and other times i used a little grinding dust from a surface grinder, with another stone, i also knew a guy that had a cast iron block with several small holes ( .062" or smaller) drilled into it then it was surface ground to get it flat, then he used kerosene and rubbed the stone and block together, it seemed to work real good too

Ron
 








 
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