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Thread: Oilstone box

  1. #1
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    Aug 2019
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    Oilstone box

    Hello,
    I came across some Mahogany at a salvage store and decided to make a box for my sharpening oilstone. I got the idea from a Bill Carter video (https://youtu.be/cdDSkDjyolQ) to add an end grain block on each end of the stone so one can use the whole length of the stone. Does anyone have any experience with this design? Most of the examples I’ve seen do not have the end grain blocks.
    Cheers,
    Rafael

  2. #2
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    Can't get to youtube from behind my of office's firewall server. I did build a wooden box for my one oilstone, with a sliding lid. I have to take the stone out of the box to use the stone, but the box keeps the stone clean in my shop and I mostly just sharpen awkward stuff like axes and lawn mower blades anyway.

    A wooden box you can leave the stone in for sharpening sounds like a neat idea.

  3. I'm not sure I see the advantage. So you get a slightly longer stroke on the stone?

  4. #4
    It doesn't hinder anything and might keep the stone from breaking if dropped in box with top secured. Sometimes
    "secured" was a rag tied around the box. It's hard for moderns to understand how tight money could be. Breaking a stone
    could be a real set-back.

  5. #5
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    Yes a longer stroke, especially at the end. It means you get to use the whole stone without dropping the bevel over the edge. It keeps the stone flatter, dishing is very wasteful when you re-flatten a stone and takes a long time with an oil stone. It lets you skew sharpen the blade far more easily if you wish.
    I would guess keeping the stone flatter is a bigger benefit than the longer stroke; but you can have both!
    Water stones would benefit from the same treatment but they are soaked in...water. They are much easier to flatten so people don’t bother but the waste is considerable.
    I picked up two high quality water stones at a re-store recently, they were so badly dished the previous owner must have sharpened chisels only in the middle. Even with a coarse CBN plate the 400 grit stone took a considerable time fo flatten.
    ​You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!

  6. #6
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    I watched the video. I thought the oil stone boxes are wonderful and adding the end grain blocks are a great idea.
    Aj

  7. #7
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    I'm an accumulator of stones and have made some fitted boxes as well as a wooden base for several. The video shows a method to use more of the stone, but, why not learn free hand sharpening, and you can use every bit of a stone, even one 5" X 2"!

    Bit of advice for those of you looking for stones at flea markets or antique malls: look for stones in nicely made boxes. Chances are those were prized (expensive/natural) by the owners. More times than not, I've picked up top notch hard arkansas and washita's for sometimes a couple of bucks.
    If the thunder don't get you, the lightning will.

  8. #8
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    As some of you noted, the idea with the box is to protect it, use it while in the box, and to delay dishing by using the whole surface of the stone.

    I'm making the box mostly by hand and started to carve the recess last night.

    This box will house my largest Washita stone, which came in a very dirty wooden box. A few passes of the smoother revealed that it was made of mahogany, this was a cherished stone.

    I'll post more pictures as I make more progress.

    Cheers,
    Rafael

    20191227_230139.jpg
    Last edited by Rafael Herrera; 12-28-2019 at 9:24 AM.

  9. #9
    I read about the end grain blocks about forty years ago and I tried it once by clamping blocks to a stone. It works passably well. However, the problem with stone wear is not in the lengthwise direction, but in the side to direction. We can easily tolerate 20 times as much hollow lengthwise as side to side.

    In order to avoid dishing crosswise, we need to overlap the tool with the side edge, learning to balance the tool on the stone with a portion of the edge overhanging. In this way we are able to wear the stone the full width and control the wear. My soft Arkansas might have sharpened 100,000 tools since I last flattened it, but when checked with a straightedge it does not show light in either direction.

    There are 18th century illustrations of oilstones in boxes, but not with end blocks.

  10. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Mickley View Post
    I read about the end grain blocks about forty years ago and I tried it once by clamping blocks to a stone. It works passably well. However, the problem with stone wear is not in the lengthwise direction, but in the side to direction. We can easily tolerate 20 times as much hollow lengthwise as side to side.

    In order to avoid dishing crosswise, we need to overlap the tool with the side edge, learning to balance the tool on the stone with a portion of the edge overhanging. In this way we are able to wear the stone the full width and control the wear. My soft Arkansas might have sharpened 100,000 tools since I last flattened it, but when checked with a straightedge it does not show light in either direction.

    There are 18th century illustrations of oilstones in boxes, but not with end blocks.
    As usual Mickley has good advice. That is one of the reasons when you find good older stones they tend to be narrow. The extra wide stones you find sold today are good for using jigs but not so good for stone maintenance. Full disclosure, my favorite Black Ark polishing stone is 3" wide. I got it before I knew what I was doing and thought wider was better.

    ken

  11. #11
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    I see the live edge black walnut, have one just like it drying!
    ​You can do a lot with very little! You can do a little more with a lot!

  12. #12
    Great thread, been waiting until someone brought this up

    I've been doing this method to keep the stone flat, definitely more effort on a wider soft ark which I'm using just for the minute/I'll give it another 6 months kinda thing.
    In my case laminating reclaimed hardwoods, over 90% of my time on the stone is spent honing plane irons.
    Since I don't have a good light near the stones to check with a straightedge, I have recently used a no.8 iron on the stone and found that gave me the best impression on the topology
    of the stone compared to other methods of quick inspection.

    I normally hone a pair of no.5 1/2's and no.4's for use with the close set cap iron, those shouldn't allow too much of a chance to get my soft ark hollowed out.....
    Yet, I can't seem to keep or get those side edges at the same plane or lower than the middle of the stone.
    One side is always wider and has less pronounced dipping, than the other side has.
    I basically just use the long edges of this stone, and the corners.
    This means rotating the stone often, so much so that I nearly need to do this for every hone to get that camber even for a 64th setting on the cap iron, when the wood calls for it.
    Swapping hands to try and eliminate any spots I've missed also, but the high edges remain.

    Is this relatively common to find a stone which looks a fairly even colour throughout, but with more durable sections?
    My soft ark alongside the washita.




    Another wee addition in my honing setup that I found useful is a whiteboard to check your camber.

    Nice to see a good discussion about stone maintenance.
    Looking forward to read some folks techniques.
    Thanks
    Tom

  13. #13
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    Hello Warren, that's a good point about the side direction flatness of the stone. I have three Washita stones that came in very old boxes without end blocks. All three were dished in both directions. It was not difficult to flatten them with coarse sand paper. I like the look of end blocks in the oilstone box, so I don't mind adding them. Perhaps the end grain blocks didn't take in the American woodworking tradition. We'll see how it goes in the next 10 or 20 years.

  14. #14
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    Hello, William. Yes, it is. I'm working it mostly by hand. It's challenging since it has the grain going in different directions and tends to tear out. It needs a few more hours of work.

  15. #15
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    Quote Originally Posted by Warren Mickley View Post
    In order to avoid dishing crosswise, we need to overlap the tool with the side edge, learning to balance the tool on the stone with a portion of the edge overhanging. In this way we are able to wear the stone the full width and control the wear. My soft Arkansas might have sharpened 100,000 tools since I last flattened it, but when checked with a straightedge it does not show light in either direction.
    Hi Warren, I’m betting you have said this before, but how do you hone your tools...perpendicular to long edge, parallel, somewhere in between, figure eight, etc.? I know you have said that you don’t grind and hone frequently so the edge stays well sharp.

    Thanks as always for your advice.

    Kevin

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