Subject: Telling the difference
From: "David White"
Date: 11/12/04 22:38 GMT Standard Time
Message-id:

How do you tell the difference between an oil-stone and a wet-stone?

Firstly it's 'whetstone' not wetstone.

'Whet' is actually a word. It means the work period in harvesting between the
time a scythe is sharpened and when it needs sharpening again. So a whetstone
was originally a stone used for sharpening scythes - or knives or swords.
Usually used dry and often a big cylindrical millstone type affair worked by a
foot treadle.

An oilstone is used wet. Usually lubricated by light oil or paraffin. The
reasons for this are complex but the lubricant combines with particles that
break off the stone and forms a slurry which does most of the sharpening and
actually protects the surface of the stone. Used dry these types of stone will
not cut very well and will abrade and deform rapidly.

There are also Japanese water stones developed, or perhaps discovered, hundreds
of years ago for making katanas which are used soaked in water rather than oil
and are commonly thought to be the best knife and blade sharpening stones in
the world. A carbon steel katana made by an Ayasugi master can cut through
several inches of bamboo or a human body in a single stroke. Not that you would
dream of using a master's sword for such things and Takegiri, the art and
practice of cutting bamboo trunks, is one of the most demanding of sword
skills.
--
Dave Baker - Puma Race Engines (www.pumaracing.co.uk)