I picked up a Dan's 6/2 black Ark and was wondering what you guys recommend I use as lubricant. I am used to using water on my synthetics and jnats. I do have one oil stone for rough work that I do use oil on. I have seen threads where a lot of people use everything from oil, oil/water, dish soap/water and just plain water. Seems confusing. I plan on using this stone as a finisher for my razors, sort of to have some variety on edge feel.
New Black Ark, now what
- Thread starter skyfire1
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The type of oil you use isn't going to make or break the stones performance IMO. I'd start with what you have on hand and go from there.
I just picked up a bottle of dollar store baby oil, that’s very lightly perfumed and only a little thick, I’m gonna try cutting it with some refined mineral spirits. I think about ten to one would be right, it’ll wind up costing about 2.50 a pint, Won’t stink, and will work as well as anything. It’s got pictures of Sesame Street characters on it
Wd40 seems to me like it would work. Personally I’ve been having good luck with the honing oil Dan’s sells. Smells like kerosene though.
I've heard a guy or two say that WD40 can damage synthetics and can penetrate the stone and gum up internally with nats. Never seen it in practice, but it's always scared me away from it.
That’s a good idea. I have a bunch I could use. I know they also sell a thinner version. I usually use it on my hair clippers as a lube.
"Sewing Machine oil" is supposedly mineral oil refined to an almost perfect consistency for honing, but I've never tried it. That's probably the same stuff as you use on clippers.
I did not know that. Thanks for the heads up.
I’ve been using wd40 to soak the surface as my first cleanup step after honing. Then I soak that up with layers of paper towels backed by a strong magnet to remove any steel dwarf before a hot soapy bath to finish cleaning my black from Dan’s. I guess I’ll stop with the spray down.
To be clear I know a lot more guys who USE wd40 than who warn against it... but the guys who warned against it weren't guys to make that sort of stuff up... hence my caution.
WD40 won't hurt an Ark. Keep it away from synthetic water hones of the likes of Shapton and Naniwa. Some of those types of hone can be used with oil and some can't, (in my own experience it can cause binder damage, making the stone super soft - not good for a fine hone) but you won't know which way it will go with your hones until you try it and possibly damage the hone.
Ballistol oil all the way...2 or 3 drops is plenty, plus it does not go rancid like many oils.
That’s outrageous... the original formula WD-40 is just fish-derived oil. Very non-toxic and not in any way shape or form gummy or polymerizing. Even if it did somehow gum up it’s not any different then letting any other oil slowly thicken on a surface over many many hours/days/weeks via evaporation of the more volatile molecules, and it could still be removed with any good solvent or cleaner like any other mineral oil.
This is like how the world was supposed to end in 1999 and then again in 2012. People need to just chill.
That said I just use pharm grade mineral oil cut with “Everclear” high proof (95%) drinking alcohol, because it’s cheap, non-toxic, and I can cover a huge viscosity range varying the blend. If I wanted to go thinner I’d for sure be cutting WD-40 with alcohol.
I use Smith's Honing Solution. It's available locally, it comes off my hands easier than regular honing oil, and it just goes together well with my Arks.
I think the argument was its penetrating function actually carried dwarf into the stone rather than away.
Huh... I may need to experiment WD-40 penetration on a Washita or two. I really doubt it’s a thing because the WD-40 stayed on top of the stone when I used it, and it would have to penetrate quickly enough to generate some force in order to move swarf into the stone. If it were possible it would only be on the most porous Washitas.
WD-40 is a water dispersant (hence the WD in the name, eh?) and not really a lubricant. I was advised NOT to use it for lubrication except in the case of the brake on my old IBM Executive typewriter with the caveat that it needed a good spray down on a regular basis to keep the mechanism running. It definitely gums up with age, I've had a few watches some idiot sprayed with it that required using a razor blade to cut the gum off so I could the the wheels out. Not good.
By the way, if you remember Dan Rather geting fired for "faking" a document with variable pitch type during the GW Bush election, IBM bought the design for the Executive series typewriters in 1949 and sold them up to the mid 70's. They were indeed variable pitch -- a lower case I was one space, and upper case M was four, and a huge pain to keep running. I bought one at a yard sale in 1984, still have it.
By the way, if you remember Dan Rather geting fired for "faking" a document with variable pitch type during the GW Bush election, IBM bought the design for the Executive series typewriters in 1949 and sold them up to the mid 70's. They were indeed variable pitch -- a lower case I was one space, and upper case M was four, and a huge pain to keep running. I bought one at a yard sale in 1984, still have it.
Yes it’s “water displacement formula 40”. It’s a non-toxic fish derived light mineral oil and dries out via evaporation of the most volatile molecules just like any other oil left standing long enough. It doesn’t have any magical or truly unique positive or negative attributes, and more importantly it has no additives which would adversely affect stones over time. There is no reason not to use it in this application other than it may be a bit too thin for your liking or you may not like the smell. Both of those are valid reasons though, and the scented baby oil would be tempting for thin oil.
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Isn't this an oxymoron? My chemistry is not good by any means, but Wikipedia say's that mineral oil is from mineral sources.
It is indeed fish oil derived, and it does indeed turn to varnish with time. Try it, you'll never use it again for anything that will sit and oxidize, it's very very difficult to remove. Just like linseed oil paint, in fact. Took a long sonicator bath in methylene chloride to clean that watch up.
The residue starts to get gummy in a month or so, and eventually becomes almost like hard varnish. I would never ever use it on oilstones, there are far too many good alternatives.
The residue starts to get gummy in a month or so, and eventually becomes almost like hard varnish. I would never ever use it on oilstones, there are far too many good alternatives.
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