sharpening

[snow leopard]

is it okay to attempt to sharpen a knife on an arkansas stone without honing oil? if not, is there an alternative lubricant i could use, not having access to sharpening specific oil? thanks for any help.

[KHALVERSON]

yes
you will have to wash the stone in dishwashing soap and water when it loads up
i have had good success with other lubes such as wd-40, and 3 in 1 household oil
the oil helps float away the steel paritcles
and keeps you stone from loading up and
decreasing  the cutting effiencyof the stone

[snow leopard]

thanks very much, kevin.  i appreciate your response.

[kbaknife]

Little bit of kerosene works well.
Or some gun oil.

[Bobby Urban]

I sharpen my knives and arrow heads at the kitchen sink and just periodically run the stone under the faucet.  I usually use diamond stones but it work with all of them for me.  

As mentioned above, oil just keeps the micro steel particals from filling in the micro cutting gaps in the stone.  This does help keep with sharpening but any light oil will do.  I would imagine vegitable or olive oil would work fine and it would clean up easily enough.

Bob Urban

[snow leopard]

thanks for the info, guys.