Sharpmaker rod maintenance

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

I have tried many things out there and there is nothing that works better or faster than Barkeepers Friend. Last night I cleaned all of my Spydie stones within 10 minutes with minimal effort.

1st I put on a pair of blue nitrile gloves as the stuff eats up my hands.

2nd all the stones go in the sink and I wet them.

3rd I sprinkle the BKF powder on them generously.

4th I wet a paper towel and make a BKF Paste coating the stones and the rods.

5th I take the scrubby green side of the sponge and go over the surfaces.

6th I rinse them.

7th place them on a towel to dry.

lastly clean the stainless steel sink.

Start to finish cleaning 6 Spyderco rods from Medium to UF, a Spyderco Golden stone, Two Spyderco Bench stones Medium and fine, and a pair of Spyderco discontinued field rods in brown and white with minimal effort took around 10 minutes.

Had I attempted comet or some of the other methods, forget about it I would have been there all night wasted far more energy and not gotten them anywhere near as clean, this stuff is magic, just make sure to wear some gloves when working with it.

[kwselke]

Last week I needed to clean my Sharpmaker rods and reached under the sink and came out with a bottle of Soft Scrub. I normally us Bar Keeper's Friend or Bon Ami powders, but gave the Soft Scrub liquid a try. It worked great, and it was easier to squirt a liquid where needed than dust a powder cleaner. It was what I had and it worked for me.

[Cambertree]

Ajax powdered cleanser leaves mine looking pristine.

Now I have used the "commercial/institutional" version of Ajax with the "oxygen bleach" with some good results but I still don't find it as good as the regular BKF. And as cheap as you can get BKF at discount stores to me it's just a "no-brainer".

Thanks for the comparison, JD. Ajax is available everywhere here in Oz, whereas Barkeeper's Friend is not common.

Bloke gave me a tip a little while ago on where to find it, but it hasn't been in the supermakets I've checked so far.

I'm definitely looking out for it though, based on y'all's recommendations. :)

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

Thanks have used soft scrub in the past. For the sake of honesty must report it is on the order of 4/10th as effective as BKF. If it is what you have a scotch brite and lots of elbow grease go for it.

Have to recommend BKF, wish I could get paid for doing so no joke it works period.

[prndltech]

I use BKF on mine as well... toothpaste also works good

[A.S.O.K.A]

I use a little bit of 3 in 1 oil. Removes virtually all the loaded metal.

Now I find this really interesting. I don't doubt you because you sound like your sold on it. But I'm wondering how that would work :confused: ??

Now a few years back there was an old machinist I used to work with that showed me a product called "Soluable D Oil">> this oil would actually mix with water and other liquids>> they used it in machine tool work as a coolant on some machining jobs. But it was also great for soaking overnight and I also found it good for certain cleaning jobs. The only drawback to that is I really don't like the idea of my ceramic stones being soaked in oil if I don't have to. But I'm still wondering how that "3 in 1" oil works :confused: ???

Not sure exactly how it works. I was just messin around one day with the rods. I had a little bit of 3in1 on my fingers swiped the stone with my finger tips and it lifted almost all the metal loaded on the sm rod. You dont need much at all, and you can wipe it off with cloth. No need to leave it on

[Ez556]

Do you clean the diamond and CBN rods the same as the ceramic rods or is there a different way to clean those?

[kwselke]

Do you clean the diamond and CBN rods the same as the ceramic rods or is there a different way to clean those?

I use liquid dish soap (Palmolive or Dawn) and a soft rag to clean my diamond rods. Plenty of hot water too. I make sure the rods are thoroughly dried before storing them away.

[Evil D]

Do you clean the diamond and CBN rods the same as the ceramic rods or is there a different way to clean those?

I just use Dawn and a nail brush on those.

[vivi]

I use soap, hot water and a toothbrush for my diamond rods. In my experience diamond sharpening equipment doesn't get the metal as embedded as ceramic and traditional stones. When I'm reprofiling I wipe the stone off with a wet rag every so often, and that gets them quite clean compared to trying the same with a Spyderco ceramic stone.

[Doeswhateveraspidercan]

I use soap, hot water and a toothbrush for my diamond rods. In my experience diamond sharpening equipment doesn't get the metal as embedded as ceramic and traditional stones. When I'm reprofiling I wipe the stone off with a wet rag every so often, and that gets them quite clean compared to trying the same with a Spyderco ceramic stone.

Hi ViVi I have also used BKF on my diamond paddles on the wicked edge pro 3.

There was some yellowing which was steel rusting as I use soap and water when using the wicked edge pro3

BKF with nothing more than a paper towel wetted completely removed this and rejuvenated the paddles as well.

Might want to remember this for the future if you see any decrease in performance or yellowing.

Agree 100 Percent plated diamond rods, paddles, plates do not load up anywhere near as bad as ceramics or venev diamond stones.

Toothbrush is a great idea.

[JD Spydo]

I use a little bit of 3 in 1 oil. Removes virtually all the loaded metal.

Now I find this really interesting. I don't doubt you because you sound like your sold on it. But I'm wondering how that would work :confused: ??

Now a few years back there was an old machinist I used to work with that showed me a product called "Soluable D Oil">> this oil would actually mix with water and other liquids>> they used it in machine tool work as a coolant on some machining jobs. But it was also great for soaking overnight and I also found it good for certain cleaning jobs. The only drawback to that is I really don't like the idea of my ceramic stones being soaked in oil if I don't have to. But I'm still wondering how that "3 in 1" oil works :confused: ???

Not sure exactly how it works. I was just messin around one day with the rods. I had a little bit of 3in1 on my fingers swiped the stone with my finger tips and it lifted almost all the metal loaded on the sm rod. You dont need much at all, and you can wipe it off with cloth. No need to leave it on

Well thanks for sharing that with us. I'm going to give that a try myself this upcoming weekend because I do a lot of my sharpening jobs on Saturdays.
That's really got my curiosity going and I'm now wondering if that Soluable D might have similar results. There has got to be something in that particular product ( 3M: 3 in 1 Oil) that lifts metal out of ceramic rods.

Again like I was saying earlier I had that old machinist tell me to soak my stones in a solution made with "Soluable D" oil>> and just soaking them overnight made a huge difference. I'm really curious as to the "science" involved. There's just got to be a compound of some sort in that 3 in 1 oil that separates the metal from the ceramic. This is really interesting.

[JD Spydo]

I use soap, hot water and a toothbrush for my diamond rods. In my experience diamond sharpening equipment doesn't get the metal as embedded as ceramic and traditional stones. When I'm reprofiling I wipe the stone off with a wet rag every so often, and that gets them quite clean compared to trying the same with a Spyderco ceramic stone.

Hi ViVi I have also used BKF on my diamond paddles on the wicked edge pro 3.

There was some yellowing which was steel rusting as I use soap and water when using the wicked edge pro3

BKF with nothing more than a paper towel wetted completely removed this and rejuvenated the paddles as well.

Might want to remember this for the future if you see any decrease in performance or yellowing.

Agree 100 Percent plated diamond rods, paddles, plates do not load up anywhere near as bad as ceramics or venev diamond stones.

Toothbrush is a great idea.

Most of the time with diamond stones I mainly just use a stiff bristle toothbrush or a brush with similar properties. However I just don't have the diamond stones load up like the Ceramic stones do.

Try the BKF with even a ScotchBrite pad you can get from your local grocery store. You'll be amazed at how well it works. I've wondered what the companies who make these diamond sharpening stones recommend for cleaning them???

[Tdog]

I also use soap and water with a toothbrush to clean my diamond/cbn rods. Make sure they are dried well both outside and inside. Lansky makes an eraser block that I use on the medium and fine rods. I use this occasionally followed by a quick rinse. It does seem to renew the stones well. Most of the time, like others I use the bkf and a scotch green pad/sponge. Sometimes I'll add a drop or two of Dawn to the mix.

[Ngati Pom]

BKF and ScotchBrite are my choice for the Spydie stones and I have had success cleaning Edge pro/Hapstone diamond stones using an eraser.

[Chris_P_Bacon]

Oxalic Acid is the magic ingredient in BKF, that isn't found in comet, or ajax iirc

So if you cannot find BKF you can try ZUD, or just type Oxalic Acid on amazon and get the stronger version in a 2 lb bag. Just wear gloves with the stronger version and have good ventilation.

[JD Spydo]

Oxalic Acid is the magic ingredient in BKF, that isn't found in comet, or ajax iirc

So if you cannot find BKF you can try ZUD, or just type Oxalic Acid on amazon and get the stronger version in a 2 lb bag. Just wear gloves with the stronger version and have good ventilation.

The only problem with ZUD is that it is quite a bit more expensive. Now this bulk product you can get with Oxalic Acid does it also have the abrasive stuff that's in BKF as well? Because a friend of mine told me that BKF has a mild abrasive called "feldspar". Not sure if it contributes to the cleaning of the stones or not. But I will just probably stick to the BKF>> I can buy the big cans at our local Dollar STore for about $1.85 a can. It is interesting to know however that you can get a stronger compound with the Oxalic Acid in it.

AS far as using any Oxalic Acid product I even highly recommend using gloves with BKF too. It will also dry out your skin extremely fast and cause your hands to literally crack open if you use it bare handed. But I even use gloves with Comet or Ajax too. I'm to the point to where I use gloves even cleaning with that very strong version of Dawn Dish Soap i.e. the Platinum Dawn 4X. I've had it dry my hands out pretty bad a couple of times. I just don't trust any chemical ( even most cleaning soaps) using them bare handed.