Conditioning the honing wheel

[ionut]

Hi Ken,

I don't really see the issue here. Differences of opinions between responsible and serious people always lead to good things.

Ionut

[Steve Brown]

Yeah, but who's reasonable and serious?

[Ken S]

I meant my comment in a light hearted way.  I also believe all concerned are reasonable and serious.  It certainly livens up the forum.

Ken

[Steve Brown]

Ken,
I don't know, you think that Ionut guy is a serious woodworker?
Steve

[Ken S]

Yes, I do.  Both Ionut and Jeff have helped push the limits of the Tormek and opened new possibilities.  I a grateful they are both part of this forum.

Ken

[williamwagstaff]

Wahl clipper oil is 100% mineral oil (I checked the safety sheet: http://www.worldsgreatestshave.com/downloads/Safety_Info_on_Clipper_oil.pdf). I used this with great success on honing wheel initially. The Tormek manual states to apply 14ml initially  and I would concur that this is about what it took to darken the leather uniformly.

[Ken S]

Good thought, William.  I bought a bottle of mineral oil at the drug store.  It works fine, but is probably a millennium supply, overkill for a retiree like me.

Ken

[tooljunkie]

Does anyone know about the Tormek oil that comes in a small tube, I saw it in this YouTube video Tormek T-4 Bushcraft: Getting Started.

Link here to video
https://youtu.be/RT3CpRPDP_I

[RickKrung]

There seems to be no Tormek product number associated with the little white tube that comes with a new machine.  Label on it says: "100% Pharmaceutical white oil".  Don't know what that means, but based on the above thread any light machine or mineral oil will do.  Also based on the thread above, do not over oil.  I'd say unless your wheel is REALLY dry, I would only add a little compound and hone with it.  Jeff Farris said the oil is only to fill the leather so it doesn't take honing compound to fill it.  Over oiling leaves it too slick for the honing compound to bite into the leather and to any cutting on the blade. 

Rick

[Ken S]

I believe it is a very high grade of mineral oil, possibly food grade, although that level of purity is not necessary. My guess is that it was chosen as much for the size odf the container to prevent overoiling.

I have prepared six leather honing wheels over the years with a variety of products, including 3 in 1 oil, mineral oil, the Tormek oil, and no oil. All worked, although the no oil wheel, done at the suggestion of a Tormek demonstrator, left black dust. A later application of mineral oil solved that problem. With a new Tormek, I would use the included tube. Lacking that, mineral oil works fine.

Ken

[marie]

I believe it is a very high grade of mineral oil, possibly food grade, although that level of purity is not necessary. My guess is that it was chosen as much for the size odf the container to prevent overoiling.

I have prepared six leather honing wheels over the years with a variety of products, including 3 in 1 oil, mineral oil, the Tormek oil, and no oil. All worked, although the no oil wheel, done at the suggestion of a Tormek demonstrator, left black dust. A later application of mineral oil solved that problem. With a new Tormek, I would use the included tube. Lacking that, mineral oil works fine.

Ken

Hello,

Just want to confirm that Ken is correct in saying that mineral oil works perfectly fine (for example light sewing machine oil).
We started including a small tube of oil with our machines around a year ago to make the setup even easier for the user, but as mentioned, any other light mineral oil works as well.

Kind regards,
Marie - Marketing Communications Manager

[Ken S]

Hello, Marie.

I think the idea of including the tube of mineral oil with new Tormek units is very clever. It does make set up easier. In my opinion, the real genius in the idea is not the choice of lubricant;it is the quantity in the tube. Even if a new user uses the entire tube and not the recommended amount, he can't go too far astray. When I purchased my first T7, my set up was interrupted by a trip to the pharmacy to purchase mineral oil. Including the tube also eliminates that interruption.

Good thinking!

Ken

[cbwx34]

I believe it is a very high grade of mineral oil, possibly food grade, although that level of purity is not necessary. My guess is that it was chosen as much for the size odf the container to prevent overoiling.

I have prepared six leather honing wheels over the years with a variety of products, including 3 in 1 oil, mineral oil, the Tormek oil, and no oil. All worked, although the no oil wheel, done at the suggestion of a Tormek demonstrator, left black dust. A later application of mineral oil solved that problem. With a new Tormek, I would use the included tube. Lacking that, mineral oil works fine.

Ken

Hello,

Just want to confirm that Ken is correct in saying that mineral oil works perfectly fine (for example light sewing machine oil).
We started including a small tube of oil with our machines around a year ago to make the setup even easier for the user, but as mentioned, any other light mineral oil works as well.

Kind regards,
Marie - Marketing Communications Manager

The key here is light mineral oil... some of the mineral oil sold (usually in pharmacy/drug stores) is thicker, and doesn't work as well.

[wanderingwhittler]

I'm glad this old topic resurfaced when it did. It came at just the right time to offer me advice and comfort. You can count me among the number who have over-oiled their leather honing wheels. I'll share what happened in case it helps future newbies avoid my mistake.

I dutifully followed the instructions to use what I estimated to be about 2/3 of the included oil to treat the honing wheel that came with my T8. I wasn't sure whether I used enough--and was not aware at the time of the admonition to not use too much--but went ahead and applied compound. So far, so good,

After a few tools and a bit more compound, I started noticed that little bits of spent compound were flaking off as I honed. I didn't realize that was normal, and mistakenly took it to be a sign that there was not enough oil and that the compound was not sticking.

No harm, no foul, I thought and decided to go back to square one. I removed the old compound with a tooth brush and a wire brush and--here's where y'all will cringe--re-oiled the wheel and then added more compound. At one point a few days later I was afraid it was getting a bit dry and added a bit more oil, using Norton Honing Oil now. After that, everything seemed to settle into a nice steady state of happy honing.

Shortly after the final time I added oil, I started noticing several threads cautioning against over oiling. I got a bit nervous, but thought I'd dodged that bullet and resolved to not add any more oil.

Then a couple of days ago, after the machine had been sitting idle for a few days, I was honing a knife and noticed goo similar to what Herman described earlier in the thread:

I'm so glad this discussion took place here.  I've been over-oiling my honing wheel for years.  Today I sharpened every knife in the kitchen.  As I added compound to the wheel it kept coming off as a dirty liquid goo.  I kept removing the goo add adding fresh compound until I got the wheel cutting properly. 
...

I hadn't seen this thread yet, but ended up doing essentially what he did to get things working well again. I put then put the machine away for a couple of days and, sure enough, the goo came back, just like Herman said it would a bit later:

...

I was able to restore it by squeezing out and scraping off the excess oil.  This process has to be repeated, though, as the embedded oil tends to mix with the residue of compound left from the previous use, and after days or weeks of resting more squeezing and scraping is required.

After some persistence, I can get the wheel to cut again.  I would have been much better off, though, had I not over-oiled it to begin with.

Last night I did the scrape and squeeze routine and things are looking a lot better. I'll repeat as necessary. I think it's all going to turn out OK. Mine has never been so bad that it wouldn't cut, it just wasn't operating as well as it had in the past.

Happy honing,
Greg

[tooljunkie]

Thanks for all of you who gave such great answers  to my question on best oil to use for the honing wheel.