Did you give the Norton honing oil a try? If so, what did you think?
Best & Most Natural & Least Toxic Honing Oil?
- Thread starter Chan Eil Whiskers
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Sewing machine oil is mineral oil. You can try dish detergent with water, glycerin with water or a variety of petroleum oils. Just pick the poison that suits you. I have seen everything from kerosene, saliva, transmission fluid etc., You name it somebody has probably tired it. 
Least toxic would be glycerin based solutions. You can also try other humectant solutions like sorbitol, xylitol, glycols etc.
Good luck finding your mojo.
Least toxic would be glycerin based solutions. You can also try other humectant solutions like sorbitol, xylitol, glycols etc.
Good luck finding your mojo.
I think my current bottle is albatross/alba. It's like $3ish. Any sewing machine oil will do really. It's clean, it's thin, no smell, doesn't gunk up your rocks.
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- #44
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Way too thick.
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- #45
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I ordered some. Thanks.
Thin appeals to me.
No smell appeals to me.
The fact that it's mineral oil is a plus, but there's mineral oil and then there's mineral oil
I've found something that works - three drops of Norton's Honing Oil + WD-40 - but I think I can do better so I'm experimenting again.
I'm also going to try Ballistol.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Smells can trigger horrid migranes with me so I am really picky. That stuff is awesome, it's refined to a point where it won't gum up the internals of the machinery it is used on should it not be in constant use. Wd40 smells like straight up bug spray
I love Singer sewing machine oil on slate and coticules. If it's mineral oil it seems less viscous than the USP or hardware store varieties. No smell either.
It runs out of the siphon almost like water
Distilled Camelia oil is by far my favorite. Don't use pure camelia oil(has waxes that give idesirable effects) but in it's distilled form is excellent. Non-toxic, no smell, and just the right thinness. Extra Virgin olive Oil is my second favorite and for that one I try and find a yellow one(very hard to find). I live in California and have access to many EVOO and it can be hard for me. The camelia oil I use was specifically made for protecting Katanas and japanese knives. The bottle last me on average of five years and has no hint of it going rancid(very high levels of anti-oxidents). To top it off it is all natural, you can't beat that. The bottle on the left has a very clear yellow-ish EVOO that I found in Napa, it is my second favorite but last time I tried to buy some they did not have it.
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- #50
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Where do you find this stuff? I looked a bit and struck out.
I also looked today and yesterday for Ballistol. Used to be you couldn't go in a gun store that didn't sell it. Now they might remember having it a long time ago. Some of the younger clerks had clearly never heard of it. I went to several gun stores.
Amazon has it.
I'm not sure what I'm going to use tomorrow when honing on the Ark. Maybe I'll give WD-40 a try. Maybe glycerin and water; although that doesn't appeal to me, it's not like I've tried it.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Hida Tool in Berkley, California. Get the 245ml bottle for the best deal.
Baby oil.
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- #53
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Thank you, sir.
Caveat, I don't own an arkie yet.
But I've been talking to Jarrod about them. And to the folk at Dan's whetstones. And I use gun oils a lot.
From those discussions I plan to use watered down Ballistol when I get my stone. This is why.
It's mineral oil. So it's safe. But mineral oil on its own is too thick. And you can't diute oil with water as they don't mix. Unless you add a surfactant.
Which is what the makers of gun oils do. Alcohol works. So does acetone. Ballistol uses both.
Now the oil is thin enough to penetrate everywhere. A second benefit is that if this mixture comes across a drop of water, the surfactant in the mixture causes the drop of water to be absorbed into the mixture. That creates those white droplets you see. Removing the water is good as this avoids corrosion on metal.
All gun oils and protecting oils are made the same general way. Mineral oil that is thinned out with alcohol or acetone. If you prefer the smell of another brand instead of Ballistol, use that.
I've used many brands. Now I use Ballistol just because I can buy it in liquid form, not aerosol. I like to pour it into my own spray bottle and spray it without aerosol.
https://www.amazon.com/Ballistol-Mu...ballistol&qid=1551883594&s=home-garden&sr=1-1
So for arks, 5 to 1, being 5 of water to 1 of ballistol. Since you have to dilute it with water you can't use the aerosol cans.
At least that's what I've been told.
I think when you buy honing oil, you're perhaps over paying for what is just gun oil diluted with water.
But I've been talking to Jarrod about them. And to the folk at Dan's whetstones. And I use gun oils a lot.
From those discussions I plan to use watered down Ballistol when I get my stone. This is why.
It's mineral oil. So it's safe. But mineral oil on its own is too thick. And you can't diute oil with water as they don't mix. Unless you add a surfactant.
Which is what the makers of gun oils do. Alcohol works. So does acetone. Ballistol uses both.
Now the oil is thin enough to penetrate everywhere. A second benefit is that if this mixture comes across a drop of water, the surfactant in the mixture causes the drop of water to be absorbed into the mixture. That creates those white droplets you see. Removing the water is good as this avoids corrosion on metal.
All gun oils and protecting oils are made the same general way. Mineral oil that is thinned out with alcohol or acetone. If you prefer the smell of another brand instead of Ballistol, use that.
I've used many brands. Now I use Ballistol just because I can buy it in liquid form, not aerosol. I like to pour it into my own spray bottle and spray it without aerosol.
https://www.amazon.com/Ballistol-Mu...ballistol&qid=1551883594&s=home-garden&sr=1-1
So for arks, 5 to 1, being 5 of water to 1 of ballistol. Since you have to dilute it with water you can't use the aerosol cans.
At least that's what I've been told.
I think when you buy honing oil, you're perhaps over paying for what is just gun oil diluted with water.
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- #55
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
I'll check out the other gun oils, too. Thanks.
The only actual honing oil I've used is Norton's. To me, it is way, way, way too thick.
Interesting that Ballistol has acetone. I don't think it's 100% safe, but I've used it a lot when I worked in a lab and never worried about it as compared with the other organic solvents well know to be very toxic (and many PhD biochemists I worked with put their hands half way up to their elbow in tanks or toluene and such as if they weren't toxic at all). I know the toxicity is all relative.
Great information coming our way from SS in your post. Check the video and particularly the written material accompanying it for more of the same.
Happy shaves,
Jim
If you don't like the acetone (and it must be tiny tiny amounts) I suppose you could just add some alcohol to mineral oil. Then you have mineral oil that can mix with water. Then you add lots of water. And now you have honing oil with no acetone.
And maybe you don't need the acetone. The acetone is probably in there because it helps aggressively clean out carbon residue from gun barrels. Maybe it helps clean off swarf from honing stones too though...
I know Jarrod is using tons of it on the thousands and thousands of razors he is honing on his ark. So let's watch him and if he gets sick, then we'll know.
But seriously, guys have been splashing Ballistol over their hands for a hundred years and no lawsuits so far.
I mean, unless you use vegetable oil with its risk of going rancid, you're going to be using a petroleum product. You're still getting petroleum over your hands. But in our modern world there's no avoiding that. My lawnmower exposes me to way more of it than honing razors does.
And maybe you don't need the acetone. The acetone is probably in there because it helps aggressively clean out carbon residue from gun barrels. Maybe it helps clean off swarf from honing stones too though...
I know Jarrod is using tons of it on the thousands and thousands of razors he is honing on his ark. So let's watch him and if he gets sick, then we'll know.
But seriously, guys have been splashing Ballistol over their hands for a hundred years and no lawsuits so far.
I mean, unless you use vegetable oil with its risk of going rancid, you're going to be using a petroleum product. You're still getting petroleum over your hands. But in our modern world there's no avoiding that. My lawnmower exposes me to way more of it than honing razors does.
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- #57
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Oh, I didn't mean I wouldn't use Ballistol or anything with a minor level of risk. I'm not likely to live to be 150 no matter what I avoid. I was just mentioning the acetone.
See my next post.
Happy shaves,
Jim
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- #58
Chan Eil Whiskers
Fumbling about.
Today I honed a couple of razors - my Pipe Razor and my 350 razor - just on my finishing stones.
I used on my Ark the 3-in-1 stuff mentioned by a member in this thread. How did it work?
Today I shaved with one of the razors honed today. If you're interested in the results go to this link and read a couple of posts. I'll post again in that thread when I use the second of the razor's honed today, my 350.
So what about this stuff.
Great stuff. Toxic? Maybe, but how much exposure did I get? A tiny amount of exposure. It's gonna be hard to use anything else.
Oh, I bought it at Lowe's.
Happy shaves,
Jim
Camélia oil doesn't goes rancid, nor hardens. Some of the reasons is used to protect expensive steel. It does great on stones, I like it a lot, but haven't resupply in a long time.
Extra virgin oil is mentioned on old literature to be used on coticules. It does great, and is what I use most of the times I want to use a stone with oil. No draw backs so far, but clean the stones after use.
But use mostly water with a couple of drops of dishwater. It works and is easier to use.
Never got the hand with glycerin. At least it didn't improve my edges.
Extra virgin oil is mentioned on old literature to be used on coticules. It does great, and is what I use most of the times I want to use a stone with oil. No draw backs so far, but clean the stones after use.
But use mostly water with a couple of drops of dishwater. It works and is easier to use.
Never got the hand with glycerin. At least it didn't improve my edges.
Name five.
Is that the same as the olive oil they sell at pharmacies for softening ear wax? The pharmacist told me it does not go rancid. I hadn't thought to try it for honing.
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