Years ago - decades in fact, I bought 2 oilstones.  I was young, and thought I’d
wear one out, and have a spare.  (  ! )

One I used as an oilstone - with oil of course.  After a while I used the ther
with water, ‘cos I’d heard about these new fancy waterstones that were
everywhere, and thought I’d try it.  So I just used water on the oilstone.  I
keep that one flat for planes, and the oily one is the general purpose one, and
it may get a bit hollow from chisels, and be ab-used from time to tie for
weirder stuff like billhooks when I have nothing better to hand.


What happens to the water?  It lets the metal particles go rusty if you leave
them, but it’s a dream to keep clean - rinse under a tap, or you can sneak it in
the dishwasher without harm.  I can guarantee that if you sneal in the oilstone
you won’t be able to sneak it out without SWMBI noticing.  ‘nuff said


Try water - if you don’t like it you wait for it to dry then use oil.  You can’t
get oil out of the stone though - I’ve tried.   Not real hard, life’s too short.
Nowadays I have one or two more that came home, so I’m not precious, as log as I
have a good flat stone for blades that matter,


YMMV


Richard Wilson
Northumbrian Galoot