Ark with only mineral oil?

Can you use plain mineral oil with these stones or do you need honing oil? I saw that some use mineral oil and kerosene but not just plain mineral oil.

You can use plain mineral oil, bit it might be a bit slower than with the thinner varieties normally used for honing - you can thin it if you have a suitable solvent like kero or what have you. Any light oil will work though, so you may want to pursue a less odorous route. Whatever the case, you don't need much. A few drops to a thin line should be plenty adequate, depending on the stone and how porous it is.

I use the norton honing oil, which is highly refined
mineral oil. Works fine for me.

Some guys even use water with soap or glycerin also.

I have some glycerin. Would this be better than mineral oil? Also if you start with medium can you then change to something else or are you stuck using what you started with?

You can also use Smith's honing solution. My local Ace hardware carrys it.
I'ts a lot less messy than oil.

If you want to try the glycerin, I think most guys use it mixed with water. Try a 90/10 water/glycerin ratio and see how it feels when honing, adjust if necessary. Personally I prefer oil. You hardly need any, so I never understand people saying it's messy, but YMMV. You can switch to any viscosity of oil at any time, no need to worry about that. After using oil you may need to clean the stone to use water again though or it will just bead.

You can use mineral oil, but it's very thick, so you'll get a lot less contact with the stone.

I use Dan's honing oil for the most part, wearing nitrile gloves. About the switching back and forth: it depends on the stone's porosity. A soft/medium Arkansas will absorb oil, whereas a translucent or a black hard will be more resistant. So, if you're using a soft Arkansas with oil, it will be hard to undue the oil effect, whereas if you use a trans or a black hard with oil and wash this off with soap and water afterwards, it will more or less remain adaptable.

With one rare exception for reference purposes, I only use honing oil on my Arkansas stones. There is a commonly held belief that oil is "messier" than water, but I don't think so myself. Two-three drops of honing oil on the surface, the oil staying there, rather than water splashing about everywhere. And if you're hand-holding the stone, the oil basically defies gravity. Very easy to use, but there is a method with it.

I guess I need to try less oil. I usually run a line down the center of the stone.

The finest sharpening system when it was available was from Norton and was a covered tray, which was filled with mineral oil and three grades of stones were set in a drop-in fixture in a triangular format. While you were using the top stone, the other two were soaking in the mineral oil. I don't think you can ever use too much oil. The oil not only acts as a lubricant, but keeps the steel particles from imbedding in the stones surface. The sharpening stones were usually man-made india stones. If you use a white/grey natural arkansas stone, just remember that is is way less pourous than the man-made stones and won't absorb the oil as well. Usually give a finer finish though.

You only need enough oil to cover the surface of the stone with a very thin layer, just enough to look wetted. This is usually only a few drops with a translucent or hard black Ark. Try starting with 2 drops and use a small bit of paper towel or your fingers to spread it around to see if it will cover the surface. If it does, that's enough. If not add whatever you need to wet the surface entirely. Any more than that and you're just wasting it IMO, as once it's wetted it's wetted.

More oil is always better. The oils job is to remove swarf. The more there is, the better it does that job. The oil's not there for the interface, it's there to keep the stone clean. Maybe a few drops will be sufficient, but more will be better. Is oil messy? Depends on how you look at it. When I sharpen white steel knives on waterstones I need to dry the hell out of them after or risk undoing the work I've done. With oil, a wipe and I'm good to go. They each have their advantages. Have an area set up for oilstones and go to town.

I am afraid I must disagree on that point for a finishing stone; the oil is there to keep the swarf from sticking in the stone and resulting scratches being put in your honed item. It doesn't remove anything, merely helps the swarf not stick to the stone. A minimal amount of oil accomplishes that just fine. I have many old small Ark slipstones from 20 years working in machine shops, and none were ever used with more than a few drops of oil unless I was careless. They all worked equally well whether I made a sloppy mess of it or used only a few drops.

On a soft Ark I would agree completely, because the amount of swarf produced can be overwhelming. On a fine finishing stone, it is far better in my experience to use a few drops of oil and give the stone a quick cleaning with a dry bit of paper towel or lint-free wipe after every 20 - 30 laps and add a couple more drops of oil. Sometimes it's even better to leave some swarf behind also, as it can help burnish the surface a bit and provide a bit smoother and more polished of a surface. Really though there's no "right" or "wrong" way O.P. so you'll need to try a few things and see what works for you and gives you the results you like best.

A couple of day ago I was trying to set a bevel on a razor using a soft Ark. I was kind of experimenting so I used some Dan's honing oil (probably to much) but when I did some half strokes with pressure it felt like the blade was not even touching the stone, and know swarf to speak of was created. I cleaned the stone and used some Smith's solution, and completley different feel. Lots of swarf was generate from the half strokes.

Yes, with a very smooth stone an excessive amount of oil can sometimes really reduce the amount of work done with the same number of strokes. It basically floats the steel on the oil like a hydrodynamic bearing. Slowing down the strokes to a crawl can sometimes help combat that. Sometimes the thicker oil can have a slight effect on the finish also. This is why I mentioned earlier it might be a good idea to thin an oil that was pretty thick.

Again, two-three drops on the surface of a 6" x 2" stone works for me at the start. Makes no difference, soft or hard (old terminology here)--okay, well maybe an extra drop for the soft to account for more surface irregularity. In either case, when the surface starts to appear dry, I add a drop and continue. The point is to have just enough to keep a thin skim on the surface. More additions with the soft, as it is more porous; and when the oil* there is blackened with swarf to the point where it looks like a car engine needing an oil change, I flush the surface with oil, sort of squeegeeing off the excess with my forefinger. Repeat this another time, as needed, until it's running clean again. Beyond this, it's time to wipe the stone down with kerosene. Not really the same principle applies with the hard stone though. There, it is rather when the oil starts to get tacky that it's time for a wipe down with kero.

When I started out with the oil stones, I followed the water-stone method I was familiar with. Lots of oil, looking for it to wash up on the blade. Then, after a conversation with one of the folks at Dan's, I was encouraged to use a minimal amount of oil on the surface. In this, one no longer looks for oil to wash up on the blade; but one can gauge the state of things by the oil trace left on the stone at the end of a pass--it actually lingers there. Closest I've come to this with water-stones has been with the Sigma Power synth line, where the stones in question are intended to be used in a dampened state.

*Dan's honing oil, or 1 pt. mineral oil to one part kerosene.

Jayber Crow said:

A couple of day ago I was trying to set a bevel on a razor using a soft Ark. I was kind of experimenting so I used some Dan's honing oil (probably to much) but when I did some half strokes with pressure it felt like the blade was not even touching the stone, and know swarf to speak of was created. I cleaned the stone and used some Smith's solution, and completley different feel. Lots of swarf was generate from the half strokes.

Click to expand...

I haven't used Smith's, but I imagine there must be some sort of solvent action going on to have such a different reaction. And if that's the case, I'd be curious to know what effect the solvent is also having upon the blade.

Baby oil and Kleenheet (odorless kerosene) 50/50. No bad smell of petroleum products.

I haven't used Smith's, but I imagine there must be some sort of solvent action going on to have such a different reaction. And if that's the case, I'd be curious to know what effect the solvent is also having upon the blade.[/QUOTE]

Alan, here's the MSDS for Smith's solution. It has the same evaporation rate and boiling point of water, plus a
"Mixture of emollients, lubricants,
cleaners and a mild corrosion inhibitor"
Not sure why the feedback from it is different than oil.

Okay I have seen Dan's honing oil and Lansky honing oil. Does it matter? Oh you also listed Smith's