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Author Topic: Oil, water, or dry?  (Read 915 times)

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Offline rebAL

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Oil, water, or dry?
« on: November 24, 2008, 12:07:41 PM »
I have always oiled Arkansas stones to sharpen, but I heard expert on Field & Stream radio say never oil the stones and if you do, throw them out & start from scratch with new stones.  What say you?
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Offline Totenkopf

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Re: Oil, water, or dry?
« Reply #1 on: November 24, 2008, 12:30:32 PM »
 I don't use oil or water. If you ever did use oil, you have to continue from what they say. On a dry stone or ceramic after a few knives I take a toothbrush and dish soap and scrub well to remove metal.
 I went to the lansky clamp system several years back. They make super fine saphire stone that is the finest I have found. A lot of a good knife edge is a repeatable angle and extremely fine final honing.
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Offline kyelkhunter3006

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Re: Oil, water, or dry?
« Reply #2 on: November 24, 2008, 12:36:19 PM »
Hmm...when I used to use them, I used oil or water on them.  If you buy a Arkansas kit (any sharpening kit really), it usually comes with a bottle of oil.  I was always told to lubricate the stones, because if you didn't, the pores of the stone would clog horribly from metal particles.  By lubricating the stone, the particles stay suspended in the oil/water and don't get forced into the pores.  Every so often, you scrub the stone with dish liquid or some other oil removing soap to clean the stone's surface.

I don't use natural stones anymore, all I use are ceramic or diamond hones, usually in a Lansky kit or a block system on thinly ground blades like fillet knives.  I still use oil with them, even though they don't really need it.  Seems to help them cut faster and cleaner than using them dry, and makes it easier to clean the particles off the stone too.
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Offline nodlenor

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Re: Oil, water, or dry?
« Reply #3 on: November 24, 2008, 02:42:13 PM »
Another vote for the Lansky system! They work great. The original system comes with oil but they also have a diamond system and I don't think they use oil with them.
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Offline Joel

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Re: Oil, water, or dry?
« Reply #4 on: November 25, 2008, 02:38:01 AM »
Dry.
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Offline oldandslow

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Re: Oil, water, or dry?
« Reply #5 on: November 25, 2008, 05:32:38 AM »
Quote from: rebAL on November 24, 2008, 12:07:41 PM
I have always oiled Arkansas stones to sharpen, but I heard expert on Field & Stream radio say never oil the stones and if you do, throw them out & start from scratch with new stones.  What say you?

Baloney. I have always used oil. Just wipe it off when you are done and it's like new. Having said that, I don't use them any more. If I'm in a hurry, I use dry diamond hones. I really prefer wet or dry emery paper like the body shops use laid on a Corningware cutting board used dry.
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Offline kyelkhunter3006

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Re: Oil, water, or dry?
« Reply #6 on: November 25, 2008, 12:07:13 PM »
I've always thought that the emery cloth would work well for sharpening, but I've never tried it.  Maybe I will now, but it's hard to beat the Lansky system, IMO.
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