Can anyone tell me if this is a oil sharpening stone or water sharpening stone? It was my grandfathers, and I would like to put it into action, but not sure exactly how.
Asked
Active
Viewed 1,121 times
1
-
1It would help significantly if you at least added a picture! – FreeMan Dec 25 '20 at 00:38
-
Hi, welcome to StackExchange and merry Christmas. We have a couple of previous Q&As here that'll help with generic advice, including the difficulties of IDing a stone from photos, but mainly there are various tips on how to put a stone back into service — see the Related in the right column on this page to get you started. Use the search too if you want to be sure to find all there is here, but do be aware there is a veritable mountail of info to be found on this subject elsewhere online so this is really only scratching the surface. – Graphus Dec 25 '20 at 13:47
-
BTW I don't recall how firmly this was stated before, and in case you don't read it elsewhere either, but the distinction 'waterstone' v 'oilstone' can be largely arbitrary. What this means is that for a large number of stones you can feel free to use water or oil as you prefer. Given the stone was your grandfather's there's every chance this will apply to it, even if the stone was specifically made to work with an oil. Commercial oilstones like Nortons and numerous others can be used with a watery liquid (e.g. screen wash/soapy water) and some users much prefer how they work this way. – Graphus Dec 25 '20 at 13:56
-
Looks like the picture did not load, my apologies. Thanks for the advice though, very helpful. – Rich Dec 26 '20 at 16:12
-
You can edit a Question at will Rich, so you can add the picture at any time. Please try again. And multiple pics would be desirable here BTW, to show one or both ends and definitely both faces if they don't look the same. – Graphus Dec 28 '20 at 10:48
-
Your stone @jdv? Well it's at least arbitrarily an oilstone since: the box. And it has a characteristic look of old oily stones. You'd need to clean it to get any chance of an actual ID, but as mentioned previously trying it and seeing the scratch pattern tells you the important thing (unless you're looking to sell on of course). Surface doesn't look terribly flat (this one at least, the underside could be flatter) and lapping it will clean it if you don't want to go through the whole process. If you are willing to clean it and post updated pics then I think this is deffo worthy of its own Q. – Graphus Jul 27 '21 at 09:05
-
@jdv, BTW chisel looks like it could be an E. A. Berg or another Swedish brand :-) – Graphus Jul 27 '21 at 09:07
-
@Graphus I do have my own collection of "vintage" stones that I dutifully cleaned with light oil, but this one is not me. I just re-edited it for a bit of clarity when I saw the review come up. The person who made the original edit added the pic I think. Which I thought strange, but whatever. – Jul 27 '21 at 14:14
-
@Graphus now that world is in less of an immediate disaster (slow moving disasters notwithstanding) I'm hoping to go looking for garage/yard sales (car boot sales in the UK?) and pick up some vintage tools. I still need some mortising chisels because I'm trying (trying!) to do more trad woodwork and joinery. I'm starting with a simple box to remember how to actually work with wood. The mortising tools are for a proper workbench I'm dreaming about. – Jul 27 '21 at 14:16
-
@jdv, while mortising chisels are really good at what they do as a total hand-tool guy I feel I should mention that you don't at all need them to do mortises (even big, deep ones like you might be needing for your workbench). In fact these days most mortises — if cut purely by chisel at all — are not done using mortising chisels! It's common to drill out the bulk of the waste, then pare the sides, or of course just use a router (esp jigged) and then maybe square the corners. But rounding the tenons is considered an easier option by many... and may actually produce a stronger result [contd] – Graphus Jul 27 '21 at 20:57
-
Of course at expected yard-sale prices if you see mortising chisels by all means get 'em :-) but they're thin on the ground unless you go to a big tool event. I expect you'll see firmer chisels more frequently and I do think it's advantageous to have a few of these for occasional tougher jobs (and I like their looks so I enjoy having them in the rack for that reason also) but many modern bevel-edgers are plenty strong enough. P.S. Car-boot sales are more equivalent to a flea market, we don't really have garage/yard sales here. – Graphus Jul 27 '21 at 21:09
-
Oh, yes. I have a set of everyday Footprint chisels I use for mortise work, and another set of more expensive paring chisels I try not to hit with a mallet. This is mostly about saving some oldtimey chisels from rusting away if I can find them. Any help I can get with making straight mortises... – Jul 28 '21 at 15:49
2 Answers
3
Simple answer: put some water on it.
If you have an old oil stone, then it probably still has some oil buried in the nooks and crannies. If you put water on it, some of that oil will probably lift off and make the water "oily". You'll see various artifacts of water and oil - a film, a rainbow sheen, drops suspended in the water, etc.
If it's a water stone, well, you'll get nothing except maybe metal particles.
aghast
- 296
- 1
- 5
-
This helps with one aspect of the Question but doesn't necessarily help the OP get the stone back into service. More fully fleshed responses will have to wait on a photo or photos, since we don't yet know anything of its condition. If it was previously used with oil there's every chance it's pretty filthy (nearly all old oilstones are for some reason LOL) so at least some cleaning is called for, if not a thorough stripping or something more compehensive. – Graphus Dec 27 '20 at 01:40
1
Can anyone tell me if this is a oil sharpening stone or water sharpening stone?
Now that we have a photo to go on it's at least possible to say this was definitely an oil stone in its day, because of the case. Honing-stone boxes don't come to look like that unless they've been used around oil for a long, long time. And also waterstones aren't stored like this anyway.
What is it?
As covered in a previous Q&A How can I identify sharpening stones?? currently nobody can tell. It's literally impossible to even guess.
While the stone appears to be black or dark grey (and there are stones in this colour range1) it could be entirely surface filth! As you'll see if you look around online many old stones are found in a very dark state, close to black in some cases, but after cleaning their native colour is found to be something completely different (and often much much lighter, as in the example in the link above).
The distinction 'waterstone' v 'oilstone' can be largely arbitrary. What this means is that for a large number of stones you can feel free to use water or oil as you prefer. So for your stone despite it previously being used with oil — and even if the stone was specifically made to work with an oil — if you prefer it you can now use it with water, soapy water or any number of other watery liquids such as screen wash, Windex or equivalent window cleaner (I would, however, strongly steer you or anyone away from commercial honing liquids2).
In addition to going from oily mess to watery mess, many 'oilstone' users report that their stones work much more efficiently when not used with an oil of some kind.
I would like to put it into action, but not sure exactly how.
While you might be able to use the stone as-is, as covered in my previous Answer it'll work a lot better (like it was new) if you clean it first; and this is vital if you wanted to seek a firm ID on the stone type elsewhere online.
Cleaning
There are various methods as outlined in the previous Answer above, and also in How to clean sharpening stone in wood case? which can be used singly or together depending on what you find as you begin to work on it. Start with just a wash in hot soapy water (as hot as you can bear with gloves on) and go from there.
Flatten it
Also the surface is likely not flat — most old stones that were users in their day are not even reasonably flat when found, and this looks like it might have a localised hollow that it would be very advantageous to get rid of. In addition to getting a flatter stone lapping is one excellent way to get at least one face back to original colour since the abrasion can expose an entirely fresh surface.
But check the underside first before you do this. Sometimes only one of the two faces of a stone was used and the second one could be pristine! I've been lucky this way a couple of times among the numerous vintage stones that I've bought in recent years.
Box too
If you wanted to you could spruce up the case as well using some of the same methods used for stones. Solvent cleaning especially will be found to be very effective for oil-soaked wood. You can even fully immerse wood in solvent to dissolve out absorbed oil; you'll likely need to weigh it down so it doesn't float. And no, this doesn't harm the wood, although it will look really dry and 'parched' when the solvent evaporates afterwards.
After as much sanding or scraping as you're comfortable doing and then a thin application of literally any finish and the wood could end up looking surprisingly fresh, quite close to new in some cases3.
1 Including natural slates, black Arkansas stones, carborundum stones originally manufactured by Carborundum and later by many others, and Crystolon stones from Norton which are still made today.
2 Because they are usually grossly overpriced — more expensive than good single-malt whiskies! — while being nothing more than glorified window cleaner in many cases.
3 This box though won't end up looking as-new, it's beat up enough that it'll still have plenty of dings and scratches, stains and rounded edges that show it's an old piece. So you won't lose all signs of its age unless you want to.
Graphus
- 65,691
- 3
- 50
- 139