Oilstones versus water

[Tom M King]

My Arkansas stones are about the same age as Warren's. I used to flatten the Washita, and Soft with left over Silicon Carbide grit I had from grinding telescope mirrors when I was a teenager. I'd use an old window pane on the flat side of a cinder block. It worked. I don't remember what grit I used, since that was some decades ago.

My Hard, and Black stones were never flattened, or abraded. I don't know if it would have mattered, or not, but they always suited me, and did a fine job.

I did finally thoroughly clean the Black stone with some solvent. I'm thinking it might have been carburetor cleaner, but don't remember exactly. At that time, I found out it was really translucent, and not really black. It's a great stone.

What I bought as a Washita (I think in 1974, or 5) is not like the sought after whites, but is a marled purplish color. I wish I could find another, because it cuts as fast as any water stone (which I mainly use the past couple of decades). That stone is about worn all the way through in the middle. I stopped flattening it when it was apparent that I would just end up with no stone left. That might have been 30 years ago.

[Steve Voigt]

Steve
I don't believe warren said one way or the other to abrade or not. I also didn't read it as he was trying to convince anyone, to do anything lol. He literally was just stating his experience.

Nah, Warren and I have been arguing about this for years. Neither will ever convince the other. It's nothing personal--he's been to my shop, and we've hung out at LN shows and W'burg a bunch of times. We get along fine, but we both have strong opinions.

[Michael J Evans]

we both have strong opinions.

Seems like most do on this forum.

[Rafael Herrera]

The coarsest Washita I have it's my go to stone for honing. Mostly plane irons and chisels. I only use one side since I fitted it into a box with two endgrain blocks on each end. After several months it went slightly shallow. I reflattened it a few days ago and will try to manage it better, but I was wondering what other people did. I have other washitas, but they're harder than my favorite one.

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