I keep my wet stones for sharpening on a shelf set on brackets above my sink. I lift that shelf off the brackets and set it right over my sink for sharpening.
On the edge of the sink is a bottle of dishwashing liquid which I use to wash my hands and coffee cup.
One day I had the idea to squirt a little dishwashing liquid on my stone as I was sharpening. I found that for the higher polish stones it has a great effect. It lubricates the stone better than just water and helps to keep the stone feeling as though it were freshly leveled because it seems to lift out the glaze/swarf left by the sharpening process. Another benefit is that when I rinse off the stones under the faucet when I’m done they are left squeaky clean. Most importantly it seems I get a better edge from that stone with the detergent than I do with water alone.
I always re-surface my stones before sharpening and find that the detergent definitely adds something special. For example try sharpening without it as usual for a minute or two, then add a squirt and continue, and let me know what you think of the difference.
Replies
Interesting... I'm going to give this a try.
Let us know how it turns out for you.
I'm curious to hear what others think of its effect. For me, it seems to make my good stones cut even better.
questions
The related question, of course, is whether it's better to use a Japanese detergent vs. an American brand? Or, how about a spritz of Simple Green? ;-)
Dishsoap or Simple Green?
From what I remember of Simple green, it doesn't have the same viscosity and slipperiness that dishsoap brings to the stone. Hmmm..... You got me thinking though, I wonder if one brand or type of soap would be better than another.... Maybe Fine Woodworking could do another of the scientific comparisons they are so famous for. lol
Oil on a water stone?
Dusty, I'll leave it to you to try that one. The water stones are so porous I have a feeling that oil on them will clog the pores with metal swarf and gunk. Anyone else here ever try oil on a water stone, or vice versa?
For that matter, prior to adding water or oil to it, what makes a water stone a water stone and an oil stone an oil stone?
Is there a fundamental difference between the qualities of the materials used to create them?
Oiled water stones
I converted all my water stones to 'oil' stones. I first experimented with an extra 1200 stone, liked the results and soon continued with all other stones. Quite satisfied with the results. Also less messy than water.
I did saturate the stones with Marvel Mystery oil (agreable smell) - used a good quart . Now I only need a few drops, as the oil stays on the surface. for what's worth.
best wishes,
Metod
What would Norton say?
If detergent works, I bet the makers of water stones would be interested. My only question is what does detergent do to the binders in the water stone. Have you asked Norton if detergent has any adverse effects on the stones. I know you just use a dab and clean it all off, but if it truly improves performance, I bet the manufacturers would want to suggest it's use too.
Peter
I keep a spritz bottle of water with a good shot of dish soap squirted in it to clean the granite counter tops in my kitchen. I wonder if that would be an easy way to put a limited amount of soap on a waterstone, you would be wetting it and adding some soap at the same time. But I also wonder about what the soap will do to the binder over time.
dish detergent's effect on the binder in the stone
So far, so good. I have not noticed any adverse effects. It's just dish soap. If the binder could be broken down by that, then water alone would probably be a problem too.
I don't think you would get the same lubricating effect from a spritz of soapy water that I get from a smal dollop of straight dish soap on the stone. Give it a try and post back on here and let us all know what you think of it compared to sharpening with water alone.
been doing that for years. I started when I picked up a secondhand stone that had been used with oil that I wanted to try as a waterstone. it took a while to get enough of the oil out of it that it started to function like a waterstone, and in the meantime I came to appreciate what detergent did to the steel/stone interface.
generally speaking putting oil on a stone means that that stone is oil only from there on out.
as an aside, the other night I used alcohol as a honing fluid on a washita stone. it cut very well, although it did feel a little "thin" and didn't do much to stop metal imbedding in the stone. on a hard arkansas stone it would probably work better. on a diamond stone it works very well.
<science!>
Detergeant is a surfactant, that is, it has a hydrophobic end and hydrophillic end. The hydrophobic end burrows into anything that isn't polar while the hydrophillic end tries to stay in the water. That is how soap cuts grease, it literally divides it small enough that it can be washed away with the water. This is also why soaps cut the surface tension of water: the soap molecules gather at the air-water barrier and since the soap doesn't have surface tension, the water looses its own. This makes the water less "sticky".
Since waterstones operate on the the principle of sloughing off spend particles and exposing fresh, sharp ones, the detergeant is probably accelerating the process by forcing cutting particles to shear off earlier because of the detergaent forces and move out of the way faster because the water is less sticky. So the particles are sharper and the duller ones are shoved out of the way faster, leading to a finer and possibly faster edge.
</science!>
Soap On Oil Stones
Great idea. Thanks for passing it along.
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