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Thread: Who are still using Oil Stones.

  1. #16
    Join Date
    Feb 2007
    Location
    Libertyville, IL (Chicago - North)
    Posts
    360
    Stones are for exceptions in my shop. I use a Black Arkansas for curved edges and scrapers.
    Other media for straight blades.

  2. #17
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    twomiles from the "peak of Ohio
    Posts
    12,120
    After that 600 Medium India stone...a $4 pack of these..
    IMG_3558 (640x480).jpg
    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.
    chisel strop jig.jpg
    Usually after the 2500, I use this.
    YMMV

  3. #18
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Dublin, CA
    Posts
    4,119
    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 :-)

  4. #19
    Join Date
    Feb 2014
    Location
    Lake Gaston, Henrico, NC
    Posts
    8,973
    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.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  5. #20
    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.
    Making furniture teaches us new ways to remove splinters.

  6. #21
    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.

  7. #22
    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.

  8. 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.


    image.jpg

    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.
    Last edited by john jesseph; 03-16-2018 at 1:30 PM. Reason: linkiest linkies

  9. #24
    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.

  10. #25
    I use them for all my knives except my D2 knife.. No complaints about their speed or performance on conventional steels...

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