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Use or stones and slip stones

I use water stones and diamond stones  with water to sharpen my tools . And slip stones for insides  .  Using water for water stones and diamond stones  . But Oil for hard slipstones  . Do I have to wash the tools after using oil on slip stones before going back to the diamond and water stones and cutting on bass wood    ?????

Hi Tom,

I have waterstones but don't sharpen my carving tools on them because I find them soft and easy to damage. I normally use diamond stones for the tool exterior stopping at 1000/1200 grit before stropping. When I use water or oil (for my oil slips) I always just wipe them with paper towels and keep the towels separated to avoid cross contamination. Oil shouldn't hurt the diamond stones but can "gum" them up with the swarth. I always use a paper towel lightly moistened with WD-40 (or oil) as a last step to remove any stropping compound and to make sure any residual moisture is taken care of. If you feel it is necessary, you can finish up with a dry wipe just to ensure there is no transfer to the work piece. It is always a good idea to wash and dry your hands afterward to avoid soiling the carvings.  Have fun.

Hi Tom,

When I used Arkansas stones as my main sharpening stones, I always just used oil (olive oil) for both slip stone and large stone. Simple.

When I went with diamond stones using water (or Windex also works), I discovered that simply using water on the arkansas slip stones also worked just fine. Mixing the water with oil can get messy, and I think I'm just too impatient to wipe off the oil/water when I am working between the diamond stone and the arkansas slip stone. But that's just me. I have found that if oil gets on the diamond stones it does gum it up as Michael says, and probably interferes and changes the grit of the stone.

I hope this helps!

Tom Weir has reacted to this post.
Tom Weir

I use paraffin on my diamond stones, doesn't clog like oil, and no corrosion from tiny bits of swarf left behind.

Interesting. I have never heard of that. The only paraffin I am familiar with is sort of waxy consistency. Is this what you use?

He might mean what would be called kerosene in the US.