> 
> Greetings all,
> 
> With the recent discussion on flattening stones, what about oilstones.
> I use ss and waterstones, but got a couple of oilstones thrown in with a 
> recent garage sale purchase (old workmutt, I never had one before) I 
> thought oilstones were suppose to remain fairly flat, but at least one 
> of these needs some work. It looks like they're in the medium grit range
> beneath the gunk. Is there a best method for flattening them?
> 

Here's 2 surprising (and counter intuitive) facts (*):
1) Coarse stones wear faster than fine stones. This seems to be true for all typ
es of stone
2) All stones are cut away quite easily by Silicon Carbide or Aluminium Oxide ab
rasives.

To flatten a stone, abrasive on a flat surface (typically glass is a good
accuracy/cost compromise) works nicely.

I use 120 grit to get "close" and 220 grit to finish.

	BugBear

(*) information on exceptions welcomed.