source for oil stones.

[eugene thomas]

I currently use Norton water stones to sharpen chisels,their 220/1000 and 4000/8000. they work well but hate the dealing with water.want to get set up with three stones and then when working with tool and edgeneed little care can just take care of it and get back to work. Not really sure if what stones to buy. any help wouldbe much appreciated.
Thanks Eugene

[David Weaver]

I have bought some stones before, as todd hughes says, I guess I soft of collect them....here are some of my thoughts:

* I like the vintage black and translucent arkansas stones better than the new ones, but if you use a guide, they will not be wide enough.
* The vintage white washita branded stones (it MUST be vintage, because there is a huge difference between what is called washita now and what was sold as washita 80 years ago) are fantastic one does-it-all chisel stones. They are expensive, though. Pike or Norton branded lily-white, Rosy-red, woodworker's delight, pike #1
* Norton's new black stone is nice (not cheap)
* Nortons translucent is OK as far as translucents go, but good overall
* Dan's translucents are great (and expensive), their black stones may be, too
* Everyone has an acceptable soft or hard if you would use one (you could use india stones instead)
* a cutter named NaturalWhetstone cuts big stones cheap, and they're uniform
* the halls stones I've bought haven't been flat, and getting them flat is something you want to avoid. Whatever they do to cut the stones, they don't put them on a lapping machine afterward. Dan's laps their stones, and naturalwhetstone either laps their stone or has a very accurate diamond saw.

If you were going to set up three oilstones to use, I would have a medium india, a hard (not translucent or black) arkansas that you could use both sides on and a hard translucent or hard black stone for finishing.

And some sort of DMT 220 or 325 to agitate the india stone and one side of the hard arkansas stone (the hardest stone is always much finer if it's left alone).

If you have a DMT to agitate a hard arkansas stone, it will cut faster than a medium waterstone of any kind. If you don't agitate or lap the same stone, it will cut much finer than any medium waterstone of any kind.

The only trouble you'll get into with oilstones is A2 and tougher steels if you have a stone that you don't want to lap, and it's not really trouble so much as it is speed. With a slurry on the surface, the soft and hard arkansas stones will cut most of the alloyed steels just fine.

The one other thing I've noticed is that an oilstoned edge responds very well to a bare leather strop, whereas waterstone edges only really respond at that level when the cut is very fine (it's easy to get a very clean armhair shaving edge off of a soft or hard washita with clean bare leather strop, but a medium waterstone will shave hair sort of catchy if it's stropped).

[Jason Coen]

My Arkansas stones (soft, hard, and black) all came from Dan's Whetstone. I like larger stones and went with the 10 x 3 size. The more I use them the more pleased I am with oil stones. They're not sexy or HSLD, but they certainly get the job done without any stress or mess. The black Arkansas lives on the bench, and I am now constantly touching up tools where before I'd wait until I had enough blades to do a marathon sharpening session.

Compared straight up, my Arkansas stones aren't as fast as my waterstones and don't leave as nice an edge off the finish stone (but stropping takes care of that). However, the simple convenience they offer more than makes up for that, and I'm finding that my edges are, on average, better than when I was only using waterstones simply because I touch them up more frequently.

[David Weaver]

Did you have a target to spend, btw? Because if you're limited in dollars, you can certainly buy a medium india and only one very fine stone, and scuff/lap one side of the fine stone but not the other. The particles even in the finest stones are big enough to cut fast if you scuff the surface of the stone with a DMT.

[David Weaver]

Compared straight up, my Arkansas stones aren't as fast as my waterstones and don't leave as nice an edge off the finish stone (but stropping takes care of that). However, the simple convenience they offer more than makes up for that, and I'm finding that my edges are, on average, better than when I was only using waterstones simply because I touch them up more frequently.

At the risk of sounding like an enthusiast, the hard natural stones of any type generally offer more stimulation and satisfaction in use, too.

[Jason Coen]

At the risk of sounding like an enthusiast, the hard natural stones of any type generally offer more stimulation and satisfaction in use, too.

Yeah, but I like my left arm too much to give it up to get a natural waterstone. :)

I know what you mean, though. I don't like sharpening, but I do have to admit that my black Arkansas stone and Chosera 10k (even though it's not a natural stone) make me smile a little each time I use them. Those two stones are why I have so many coarse stones - I keep trying to find other stones that will replicate their experience. And as much as I dislike sharpening, I have all the trappings with which one might suppose me an enthusiast.

[David Weaver]

The chosera 10k was the one stone in the back of my mind when mentioning that natural stones are more stimulating, it is the exception. With a soak, it has a fantastic feel - they just want so much for it given what it is. But it is good.