Old stones

[phil harold]

My lovely wife brought me home a couple of sharpening stones. A carborundum and a franz swaty
Any tips on how to use them
The carborundum is a combination stone looks relatively flat but dirty
Any way to clean it before use?
The franz swaty looks like it is more for honing
Is there a preference on what lubricant
And what equivalent Veit would it be?

Thanks

[phil harold]

A picture may help
franz swat stone.jpg

[Mel Fulks]

David Weaver says the ceramic hones are on the coarse side for razors and were used mainly to thin the bevel . That is they made faster work with the pastes and strops and didn't change the actual cutting edge. They were used with water
or water and shaving cream. The carborundum stones are used with light oils,or something like wd40

[Stew Denton]

Phil,

If the carborundum stone is soaked with heavy oil and dirt and particles from the stone itself from long use without cleaning, it can be soaked in mineral spirits to dilute the old oil and crud and then scrubbed with a small brush. Paint thinner will also work. After one shot, dump the old mineral spirits and go with a fresh clean soak. It should not take a big volume of mineral spirits, just enough to cover the stone to a depth of 1/4" or a bit more. A small shallow tray will work, and use some 1/4" dowels or twigs to get the stone off the bottom of the tray so the solvent can work on all sides of the stone at the same time. I don't think it will hurt it to soak 24 hours at a crack. I have cleaned carborundum stones that way.

Others have used soap and water I think.

Stew