bought three nice 2x8 whet stones ( oil stones ) for knife sharpening the other day at a farm auction. Can anyone tell me the best way to get the dirty junk off of them. Looks like they were in the guys blacksmith shop for years. Thanks for any advice

gone

I have used my 4" bench sander to resurface softer stones.

But, I routinely abuse my sander, and I didn't mind loosing a little bit of the stone in the process.

Try Dan's trick first , but if the are really really dirty you may have to soak them in ascetone or a degreaser solvent of some kind. Then re scrub with the soapy water, dawn dishsoap works good I have found. let air dry for several
days, wrap them in a old towel and bake in the oven on warm, or omit the towel and place it on top of the wood stove for a few hours, then re- oil

CORY-- If you have a dishwasher. Run the stones through a couple of cycles. This should really help them.

The you can concentrate on the deeper stuff. Going the degreaser and acetone route.

I have some ceramic stones that I have just washed with a dishwasher liquid and a wash clothe.

I have washed and cleaned up Norton stones with a fine nylon(read: tooth brush) brush and liquid dish soap.

Good Luck

Chuck

By trihone's body goes in a sink full of warm, soapy water regualrly. I use my hands or maybe an old toothbrush to work the metal and oil crud out of the pores. I let it air dry for several days before I use it again.

This seems to work for me. I need to resurface my medium grit stone, though. It has a sway back and will go to the belt grinder soon, I guess.

WD40 works to clean and sharpen ,it might not be the answer but it works for me .

Cory, beings as I am old fashioned, I use my Dad's solution to old dirty, swayback stones.

First thing I do is to flatten to almost true by hand on the side of a concrete block. This gets rid of a lot of the crud along with trueing the stone.

Then wash real well with a stiff brush in kerosene, and work a little more by hand on the concrete block, scrubbing occasionally in the kerosene.

Let dry thorougly in the sun and then one last finish trueing on the other side of the concrete block.

Get an old pan (one you never want to cook in again).
Put the stones in the bottom, half fill with water and boil on the stove for a couple of hours.

This shifts the soaked-in gunk from inside the stone, as well as whats on the surface.

It also stinks, so I usually do it outdoors on a camping stove.



one_rod.

WD40 is the best - in my opinion.

Here is a neat product for flattening sharpening stones ( especialy when precision bevels are a must )
http://www.japanwoodworker.com/product.asp?s=JapanWoodworker&pf_id=02.099&dept_id=13122