Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
That's a huge paint brush you've got there.
why not engine oil?
- Thread starter kohalajohn
- Start date
That's a huge paint brush you've got there.
If you go on firearm forums they have motor oil threads there too haha.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
When earlier you said "Vegetable oils are also very unhealthy if consumed". I meant you we're painting with a broad brush by summarily lumping ALL vegetable oils equal and unhealthy.
I think many tout the benefits of Olive Oil, Coconut oil, Flax seed oil. Not all vegetable oils are very unhealthy.
For cooking though, I'm happy to use Ghee, lard, bacon grease, olive oil and others depending on what I'm cooking.
Ah, yes a tad broad, those you mention as healthy are indeed so. I was referring to industrial seed oils misnamed as vegetable oil - canola, corn, soybean etc as they are heat and chemical processes and result in extreme omega six. Avacado is good as well. I am, at this moment deep frying chicken in lard. I use Ghee, Olive and Coconut and avocado as well. Basically I live on fat. Wow, sorry about taking this thread off track.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I'm as guilty as anyone, probably more so of making this into a tangent.
True story, since we’re derailing pretty hard... I don’t own any AI tools, but I’ve got some from the other brands there and I always go back to Arkansas stones and homemade slips of wood smeared with JNAT slurry. You and I are definitely not the target audience for a convexed razor hone.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
I have Dastra, Henry Taylor, Pfeil, Stubai for the most part and a few other strays in the mix. I usually sharpen with oil stones, but have a BBW as well and some slip stones too. Here is a relief carving I did last year. https://photos.app.goo.gl/ZurRQoqiLPih2ke27
Still learning. My passion is artistic type carvings like you'd see in churches, old gov't building, homes of the very wealthy, etc.
Tell me more please. You’re stropping tools on wood with Jnat slurry?
Wow man that’s a nice piece! You could tell me it came from the Hay cabinet shop and I’d buy it! I’m a scrub by comparison, I just use them for curved furniture work. I only really got into woodworking because I can’t afford the classic mid century studio furniture.
Yeah it’s free friable silicate abrasive, why would you not?
I just grab dimensionally stable consistent density hardwood, shape it using the tool you want to use or something slightly smaller or larger radius depending on if you’re stropping inside or outside the curve, then slap on the slurry and let it dry.
My favorite is a straight grained section of either mesquite or pear, but those might be unobtanium for a lot of the world. Cherry would be the easiest commercially sourced wood.
Interesting, I'll have to give this a try sometime on my knives. Thanks for the info.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
Another material to strop with that most don't use, silicon carbide. As it embeds in leather it cuts much finer than the grit would indicate. I strop my wood carving tools with 400 and 600 grit. The 600 gives a nice shine compared to what 600 grit sandpaper would do. It wouldn't be what you want for a straight razor, but you could try a much finer silicon carbide grit such as 1200 grit.
I have tried dried belgian blue whetstone slurry and coticule slurry on leather and for some reason they seem to cut larger than they should. I would have thought they'd be great, but meh. I have no jnats so nothing to try there.
One nice thing about the silicon carbide is that because it is so high on the mohs scale (9.5) it cuts quicker than aluminum oxide and I like it better for stropping except it's a bit messier. You need to work some oil into the leather so the silicon carbide doesn't go airborne on you.
I have tried dried belgian blue whetstone slurry and coticule slurry on leather and for some reason they seem to cut larger than they should. I would have thought they'd be great, but meh. I have no jnats so nothing to try there.
One nice thing about the silicon carbide is that because it is so high on the mohs scale (9.5) it cuts quicker than aluminum oxide and I like it better for stropping except it's a bit messier. You need to work some oil into the leather so the silicon carbide doesn't go airborne on you.
Chandu
I Waxed The Badger.
Thank you. I'm learning. I'd like to learn to make furniture, but no real room for the tools/machines I'd want. I like carving by hand, but I have no desire to replicate Colonial Williamsburg for the rest of my workworking, I'd prefer electricity for that. I do appreciate the skill it takes.
This is part of the Ark family, but bottom right corner is a random chunk of 6-8ish oz. leather covered in JNAT slurry too. So I guess even my Ark finished, softer tempered tools are still sort of JNAT finished...
Another interesting tid bit is up and to the right of the vintage oil can is a chunk of live oak or post oak off an industrial shipping pallet that serves as an anvil. You can see the closest corner is rounded over for “tapping out” the urasuki on laminated steel Japanese tools. It’s got a bunch of tiny divots in the top from peening razor pins, but its proven plenty tough to get it done. Worst case I divot it to crap and saw off 1/8” and start over, but I’ve only done that once so far in a few years use. Also never had a super hard tempered tool steel hagane crack tapping out yet, knock on wood. Everyone I know who has an actual anvil has suffered at least one tragedy.
I’d love some machines too haha! Right now I just do everything by hand and take forever. It’s far from cost effective.
You should check out the most recent Hay shop carved Mahogany table by bill pavlak. It’s one solid board somewhere around 36” wide with no easily spotted slips or mistakes anywhere on it. Mind blowing.
Straight grained red spruce might be the ticket
Negative spruce/pine/fir woods all vary greatly in density/hardness/porosity across the rings quite a bit. The result will be accelerated wear of the early wood while the late wood holds up for a while making ridges and valleys in your strop. Same thing happens over many years with spruce handles or spruce floor boards. The magic of certain fruit and nut trees is a high janka hardness combined with a very even density and nearly zero porosity outside of end grain. Pear is my favorite, but not super common where I am. Beech or maple work pretty well too and are sold in most of North America.
I have high hopes for my recently made mesquite slips because it’s about double the janka hardness of white oak or hard maple, and probably the most dimensionally stable hardwood in North America. Heathens around here try to burn it all for BBQ but that’s not the best use.
- Thread starter
- #59
Hey, Kiawe wood, what we hawaiians call the mesquite trees that grow here, it is excellent for bbq. Super dark rich flavour. Marinate your pork in teriyaki then slow roast it over Kiawe. It's ono.
Is awful for fence posts though. Trying to pound nails into it just makes you cry.
I saw my thread jump the rails ages ago, so what the heck, I'll talk bbq now. In fact I may spark up some Kiawe for the bbq tonight. I think we've figured out all we need to figure out about using engine oil for honing. It's not the best idea. Onward. Onward to bbq and a rum cocktail tonight.
Having said that, realizing that I can use engine oil for my rifles, means that I'm no longer running out of Ballistol, so I now have plenty for honing. So that discovery was good.
Engine oil for rifles, Ballistol for honing and mesquite for cooking. Got it.
Is awful for fence posts though. Trying to pound nails into it just makes you cry.
I saw my thread jump the rails ages ago, so what the heck, I'll talk bbq now. In fact I may spark up some Kiawe for the bbq tonight. I think we've figured out all we need to figure out about using engine oil for honing. It's not the best idea. Onward. Onward to bbq and a rum cocktail tonight.
Having said that, realizing that I can use engine oil for my rifles, means that I'm no longer running out of Ballistol, so I now have plenty for honing. So that discovery was good.
Engine oil for rifles, Ballistol for honing and mesquite for cooking. Got it.
Call me weird, but that oil can caught my eye, I have a blue one just like it.
I have always used plain water on arks that I have used in the past, but those were soft white sticks that I use for touching up and polishing tools at work.
I recently got a hard surgical black ark that I have only used water with so far, but have been thinking of using some type of light oil.
I don't think that motor oil or Lucas stabilizer fits the bill, as they are designed to prevent wear.
Several light oils that I have thought of using that I have lying around would be Lemon Oil or Dunlop 65 string conditioner( guitar stuff). I even have some Ronsonol lighter fluid I could mix to make them thinner. Not sure of the toxicity level of that stuff though.....
Lucky for me I also have some Blitz, which is the lubricating oil used in surgical tools, so I will be using that!
prof
