Bench / Oil Stones

Whetstones may be natural or artificial stones. Artificial stones usually come in the form of a bonded abrasive composed of a ceramic such as silicon carbide (carborundum) or of aluminium oxide (corundum). Bonded abrasives provide a faster cutting action than natural stones. They are commonly available as a double-sided block with a Metric grit on one side and a fine grit on the other enabling one stone to satisfy the basic requirements of sharpening. Some shapes are designed for specific purposes such as sharpening scythes, drills or serrations.When the block is intended for installation on a bench it is called a bench stone. Small, portable stones (commonly madeof bondedabrasive)arecalled pocket stones. Being smaller, they are more portable than bench stones but present difficulty in maintaining a consistent angle and pressure when drawing the stone along larger blades. However,they still canform agood edge.Frequently, finegrained pocket stones are used for honing, especially "in the field". Despite being a homophone with wet, whetstones do not need to be lubricated with oil or water, although it is very commonto doso.Lubricationaidsthecutting action andcarries swarf away.Finer grades of whetstones intended for use with oil (though, again, water may also be used) are called oilstones. Oilstones usuallycome in the form ofbench stones.