Cleaning waterstone

[oldtimer]

I have picked up a decent full sized fine grained water stone in good condition apart from one thing. Unfortunately it has had oil applied to the surface. I've tried cleaning it with detergent and a nagura stone, but it still develops a nasty, sticky paste when I try to use it.

Does anyone have any advice?

 

[Perrari]

I had one the same a few years ago. I cleaned it using washing powder & boiling water.
Initially I scrubbed it with washing powder & hot water using a nail brush to get most of it of (wear a pair of marigolds to help with the hot water, I will leave the colour choice to you).
After that I just soaked it a few times in boiling water & washing powder (probably about 3-4 times),replacing the water & powder each time then left it running under a tap to get rid of the detergent. I have used it quite a few times after that and the more I used it the better it got.

Maybe soaking it in some kind of degreaser you could get from a motoring shop could work as well ??? but never tried it.

 

[robin wood]

waterstones are designed to be cut back, folk in the UK rarely cut them back as hard or regularly as in Japan. I would put some coarse emery paper on a plate glass and cut the surface away or if you have a diamond plate use that.

 

[mountainm]

I use talc to soak up oil and grease marks on clothes - then wash the talc off. Maybe it'd work on your stone too?

 

[calgarychef]

Find a flat piece of rock, concrete, brick etc. and simply abrade off the offending guck. I've been truing my water stones like this for years and it works brilliantly.

 

[dwardo]

Another vote for glass and glass paper. Cut it back as it probably needs truing anyways.

 

[oldtimer]

Thanks for the advice. I had been nervous about the use of boiling water which had seemed like a possible solution. The stone had been a new one and so hadn't needed truing but now I'll know what to do in future.

 

[dancan]

I just finished boiling a used water stone to get the oil out
I have previously cleaned it with a can of automotive degreaser but was not happy with the results .
After reading this thread I took a chance and boiled it with a bit of dish detergent three times until I didn't get any scum floating to the top , it appears to have worked YMMV

 

[The Edge]

Hi dancan

I was reading recently about using oven cleaner for this purpose.You can pick up the aerosol cannisters pretty easily here,and the trick rather than to simply apply,is to soak the stone in some of the solution overnight.

You could try a small plastic tub for this,and wash-scrub-repeat as necessary I think.By cleaning [And I've heard of some very old and dirty stones being cleaned as such]you save the stone.Flat only when necessary.

Let us know how you get on if you try this method.

 

[dancan]

I think the boiling out the oil did the trick .
This was a stone that I bought at a boot sale and found that it was different after I cleaned it and flattened it , I would absorb water when I went to use it so I let it soak and it absorbed a lot of water , now that it doesn't have the smell of old oil (how bad is that ? sniffing rocks LOL) I think it will be fine , now to try and figure out what grit but it seems harder than my 6000 .
I might have to try the ovencleaner trick on the next one , thanks for the tip !

 

[The Edge]

''Hi dancan''

ARRRRRGH !,Done it again !!,Meant oldtimer !!!


Yeah,Have heard of people using biological detergent on stones.
I'd be worried boiling one with soap though for fear of the pan boiling all over the place like some crazy lab experiment gone wrong ! .

It might be the stone oldtimer has,wont let out the oil that's been absorbed too easily though,and just keep contaminating the surface as it's used.He did say it's a fine grade.

The stone I'd heard off being cleaned with caustic was a carborundum.This would have been a lot finer in terms of grit [1000 approx],so would soak/wash out easier than a 3000 or 6000 I'm thinking.

Hey Ho