Care of sharpening stone

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I just purchased an old grinding stone/whetstone at a flea market. The stone itself is round, 21.5 inches across and two inches thick. It's pure white and is a very fine grit. It's mounted on what appears to be a bicyle-type tubular frame with an attached metal bicycle seat. The stone is kept moving via a combination of foot-operated pedals and lingage to arms attached to the axel through the center of the stone.

The frame was very rusty so I wire-brushed and sanded it and gave it two good coats of red rustoleum paint. It looks real good now and sharpens just fine.

My question is whether I should use it dry or keep it wet with water or oil or whatever when I'm using it. I don't want to damage it in any way as I hope to get many many years of use out of it.

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me.

-- John Downing (John_Downing@clr.com), October 14, 1999

Answers

I used a wheel such as the one u described when I was a child. I remember that it had a water trough up where handlebars might be found with a small drip hole above the stone. It alsohad 2 pieces of leather on front and rear that drug on the stone(prevented water splashing) and distributed the water across the stone. I do not know if dry sharpening hurts the stone but it would certainly cause it to wear faster.

-- JOEL Rosen (Joel681@webtv.net), October 14, 1999.

Yes you want to use it wet, that will keep the stone in good shape as well as cooling the tool you are sharpening. you should be able to set up a drip can, don't use oil.

-- Bob Henderson (redgate@echoweb.net), October 16, 1999.

Joel & Bob,

-- John Downing (John_Downing@clr.com), October 18, 1999.

I have a stone like that. It belonged to my grandfather and the frame was made of wood, which has long since rotted down. It is a hand turned stone, with an iron handle in the middle of it. Mother said that when she was a girl it was her job to turn the stone and pour water from a cup onto the sharpening surface as it turned, while her father held the axe at the proper angle for sharpening. Maybe you could just enlist some one to hold a cup of water and slowly pour it on the stone.

-- A.C. Green (ratdogs10@yahoo.com), October 21, 1999.

I, too, remember one of these from my childhood, about 50 years ago. I wish I could find one today. They were designed to turn quite slowly, and ALWAYS needed water for a lubricant. If yours has been used dry, don't panic. Look at the stone and find if there are imbedded pieces of steel from dry sharpening (It will look "gray" from the steel). If not, great. If so, you need a cleaning stone, and this is nothing more than a very abrasive bar than will clean off the steel, and part of the stone.I think you can still get these at good farm/hardware stores, since water lubricated (albeit electric) low speed sharpening stones are still available. Good Luck!

-- Brad Traver (homefixer@mix-nert.net), December 28, 1999.



-- sumpn (adod@wht.com), November 30, 2000.



-- eekamouse (eeek@mouse.net), November 30, 2000.

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