Who are still using Oil Stones.

[Stewie Simpson]

http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af219/swagman001/sharp/DSC_0338_zpsqsvollhg.jpg (http://s1009.photobucket.com/user/swagman001/media/sharp/DSC_0338_zpsqsvollhg.jpg.html)

[ken hatch]

http://i1009.photobucket.com/albums/af219/swagman001/sharp/DSC_0338_zpsqsvollhg.jpg (http://s1009.photobucket.com/user/swagman001/media/sharp/DSC_0338_zpsqsvollhg.jpg.html)

Me, JNAT's as well.

ken

[Brent Cutshall]

I do. I like them a lot better than waterstones.

[Nicholas Lawrence]

I am using ken’s suggestion of an India and Arkansas. Works well.

[Jeff Zihlman]

+1 on oil stones. I use an India, hard Arkansas, and a black Arkansas

[Norb Schmidt]

What are you guys using to true up the Oil Stones? I've seen diamond plates and a whole assortment of things (SiC paper on Granite, etc.), but wondering what works best for this group of stones.

[Robert Hazelwood]

I have been using them for about a year and a half, since I moved to a shop with no running water.

My normal routine is fine india, soft arkansas, then translucent arkansas. I also have coarse india and coarse cystolon stones for heavy bevel work.

Norb, my stones were bought new and thankfully were flat. I do use diamond plates occasionally to condition the stones I want to keep fast-cutting (india and soft ark). This flattens to some extent, though I don't think they go out of flat very easily if you sharpen across the whole surface.


If I needed to true an out-of-flat arkansas stone I would not want to use a diamond stone because it would probably wear out during the process, and would take a long time. Loose SiC on glass, cast iron, or laminate sheets seems to be the best way to go for that job.

[Doug Hepler]

I occasionally use carborundum stones, mainly for coarse work, but I don't lube with oil -- I use honing fluid or most often soapy water. Thick soapy water does not disappear into the stone as fast.

Norb -- I flatten with an extra coarse diamond plate or another "sacrificial" carborundum stone. "Sacrificial" in quotes because the procedure actually flattens both stones.

Doug

[Tony Zaffuto]

I primarily use a Washita, then black Arkansas, for most blades/chisels. For the few A2 or PMV-11 steels I have, I use ceramic Spyderco's. I've settled into this system now for at least 3 to 4 years and works very well.

[Zach Dillinger]

I currently use a vintage combination stone and a trans ark, with a strop loaded with Noxon metal polish for finishing. Gets most things plenty sharp for my needs though I do struggle a bit with A2 steel. My answer is to minimize use of that modern material.

[steven c newman]

I use up to a 600 grit oil stone.

[Kees Heiden]

Me too. India fine, Washita and translucent Arkansas. Plus a strop. I don't always use the ark, stuff gets pretty sharp on the Washita too.

[lowell holmes]

Like I said on the other sharpening string,
I use a diamond hone followed by stropping on rough rawhide leather charged with green stropping compound.
See Paul Sellers blog.

[Robert Engel]

I would use them more but the water stones are faster.

However I do use them on my carving gouges.

Only occasionally on chisels. Handy to keep it bench side. No water. Don't wait till its too dull, tho :-)

BTW many years ago I happened to work in an abattoir at the inspection station. The meat inspector kept his knife absolutely razor sharp and honed it on an oil stone but used soapy water. And it worked QUITE well, as Doug has alluded to.

[michael langman]

I use a coarse, fine india bench stone, medium india stone, hard Arkansas, and then hard translucent Arkansas.

[Bill McDermott]

Stones are for exceptions in my shop. I use a Black Arkansas for curved edges and scrapers.
Other media for straight blades.

[steven c newman]

After that 600 Medium India stone...a $4 pack of these..
381459
Going through each grit. lay them onto the oily stone, add a bit of oil to each sheet. Remove when done with each grit, replace with the next. These go up to 2500 grit. They do sell a 3000 pack..for about the same price as the assorted pack.
381460
Usually after the 2500, I use this.
YMMV

[Patrick Chase]

I use oilstone slips all the time, and bench stones if I want a very hard honing surface or if water is impractical for one reason or another.

I also use oils of various sorts to lubricate diamond compounds, films and stones :-)

[Tom M King]

I still use them if we are working somewhere without running water. The four stone set, in the picture, I ordered over the phone from Smith's in 1974, from an ad in one of the Whole Earth catalogs. They were sold as Washita, Soft, Hard, and Black Arkansas stones.

I don't know exactly what the purplish stone to the left, sold as a Washita is exactly, but it cuts Really fast. That one is almost worn through, and I wish I could get another one.

A tornado hit a shop of mine in 1988, and the stones were tossed out into the yard, after losing a whole wall across distant miles. The Soft and Hard were broken, and I never did find the other part of the Soft. I used them like that for a few years, and bought the other set of three-Soft, Hard, and Black larger stones.

The newer, larger Black stone is not as fine cutting as the Smith "Black", but that Smith stone is really translucent. Graham, if you're reading this, that's the stone I've been trying to figure out how to get to you.

I think it was in the early '90's that I started using Norton stones. The Sigma stones I use now, preferred if we have running water in one of the museum houses I work on, are at least a factor of ten faster to sharpen with, and many factors more than that faster to flatten.

In the pictures, the oil is not completely cleaned off of any of them, so the colors are nowhere nearly true to what the stone looks like.

[Matt Evans]

I do a major sharpening session about once a month in my shop, basically pulling out everything I've used and and sharpening it . For this I started using water stones about a year ago.

For everything that I sharpen in between those sessions, I use oilstones. I have some vintage stones that I couldn't tell what the grits are, but I keep on of them on my bench most of the time to touch up chisel blades to a mirror polish. The lower grits are double sided Norton ( I think)

For flattening I've done stone on stone with the oilstones. The lower grits go out of flat a lot faster than the higher grits, unsurprisingly. The two finest oilstones I have I've never had to flatten.

[Warren Mickley]

I was trained to use oil stones in 1962. I still use them. When I go to Woodworking in America or other hand tool events, the only planes that give the same surface quality as mine are some of the Japanese planes, presumably finished with traditional stones. I have seen expensive planes, freshly sharpened by their makers, that produce mediocre surfaces.

Around 1983 I started to use 800 King water stones for coarse work, but still finish with Arkansas. The use of water stones for cutting and oil stones for polishing has a very long history.

[Mike Baker 2]

I went from oilstones and Arkansas to diamond and water stones. I previously used a Medium India, Soft Arkansas, and then to a piece of slate. I think that was the weak spot. I have a Black Arkansas, but it is used for straights, and I'm loathe to use it for anything else. I might give it a go just to see how it compares to my 6k King. If it works out well, I'll have to start saving for a decent Black.
I much prefer Oilstones to water, but right now, without a Black or Translucent, the waterstones are more practical.

[john jesseph]

Here's what I have to experiment with. The stone on the rear left is new to me. I don't know what it is, and I know it's impossible to say based on the picture, but any thoughts on it would be appreciated. The other boxed stone (rear right) is a medium India. There's a big translucent Arkansas that I got in a bulk purchase, and a hard black something or other that I bought, intending to gain exposure to oil stones.


381575

The black stone is polished on the under side, and the stone is uneven thickness. The seller flattened and polished it. The face I have up in the photo is the one that is square to the sides, but it has an area of discoloration or something. I don't know if that area would be a problem for sharpening, but I considered using that face as the sharpening surface, and making a box for it using the Bill Carter videos on youtube as inspiration.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-62acG8vpqY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz5Z-IsvXfE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UAdQ03seSE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOr4fwMjkwc

I also found my Hand American green powder! Woot! Getting back in the shop is like Christmas.

[Warren West]

I use them. I've got the typical India and Arkansas setup that I use for my carving tools. I do tend to use diamond these days up to 600 grit and then to the Arkansas. I have ceramics too, but there is nothing they give me that I can't get from the Arkansas save for a bit more speed. I've tried various water stones over the years but always found them too soft, especially for carving tools. The more I learn about sharpening carving tools the more I'm convinced the old timers were right. It is hard to beat oil stones and a strop for a good carving edge.

I'll use sandpaper too in applications where it excels and for me that is typically being formed around a curved edge or very thin surface to get to the inside bevel of carving tools if I don't have a slip stone that fits well enough.

I guess it's a case of know your abrasives and what application they have to your use case.

[John C Cox]

I use them for all my knives except my D2 knife.. No complaints about their speed or performance on conventional steels...