Shapton Pros as oilstones
- Thread starter esoo
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I’m under the impression, right or wrong, that they know what they’re doing. Or someone at some point did. Not sure I’ll ever use oil on shaptons tho. They have a pretty decent woodworking focused stone selection.
I can’t go there anymore, there’s too much cool stuff to buy.
I can’t go there anymore, there’s too much cool stuff to buy.
The Shapton FAQ says it
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DitmasPork
Senior Member
Are there any advantages to using oil over water for sharpening? Curious, since I've only used water for sharpening.
No idea, have never tried it.
I'd think it depends on the stone. For porous stones like Crystolons and Indias, the thicker viscosity of the oil help suspend swarf.
Since those stones are so readily available, well priced, effective and already oil impregnated, I'd see no reason to use oil on Shaptons.
If the steel is super reactive and your sharpening session ends with unwanted rust/patina on the blade, I could see an argument for oil. Though some say baking soda in the water will suffice. Maybe some synthetic waterstones include a rust inhibitor already?
Stones that use magnesia as a binder are automatically more basic, rather than acidic.
In what I've seen in my limited testing, some stones "work" slightly better with oil than water, but my guess is the main advantage is that you can keep using oil/water with these if you were using oil/water with the previous stones in the progression.
I've used oil on all sorts of natural stones, though admittedly never on a synth waterstone. Probably just because I kinda assumed they had been speciically designed for use with water, and so no point experimenting with something that wouldn't work as well. I find it interesting that Shapton reckon otherwise.
Anyway, the following are generalisations in regard to various natural stones I've played around with it on. There are exceptions to these observations:
If used without a slurry raised oil generally makes a stone a little faster, and also more often than not - finer finishing too. In essence for sharpening work - oil is probably better than water.
However the speed benefits of oil can be negated in the case of stones that cut on slurry. Using a raised slurry or trying to generate a slurry with oil is usually much more difficult or impossible.
Because of the above, almost no stones polish well with oil.
Oil might be more difficult to use than water on harder or finer stones.
For particular types of stones that cut because of their surface structure and porosity, use with water will clog them more quickly than oil.
And quite a significant one, which I hadn't really noticed or thought about until the other day... water is considerably more thermally conductive than oil. And it's cold at the moment; if you try sharpening for any moderate length of time with unheated tap water during the winter your hands will go numb and you'll have to stop. I did 8 hours straight earlier this week on what I believe was the coldest March day in the UK for 10 years, and I was very pleased indeed that I had a Washita for it.
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