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
|