A Tip For Cleaning Sharpmaker Stones

[Catamount123]

For those of you who haven’t found out, Mr. Clean Magic Erasers work fantastic for cleaning Sharpmaker stones. I had been using Barkeeper’s Friend, but these are cheap, and way easier and more convenient. Just take a piece wet it a little, then go to town and throw it away. They are wonders for all kinds of other difficult cleaning tasks too. If nothing else works try one.

[Superflex]

A Paper Mate White Pearl pencil eraser does just as good and 1/10 the price of a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and last 100x longer

[jwbnyc]

White polymer erasers work well too, with the added advantage of being reusable.

[vivi]

I'll have to try that out. I use barkeepers friend too, and while it works well it isn't the most convenient process.

[THG]

You can use a regular pencil eraser too

[vivi]

I tried it out. Better than soap and hot water and a rag, but worse than barkeepers friend and a green scouring pad.

[Albertaboyscott]

Comet and a scouring pad works well

[Pokey]

In order of ease of use and sloppiness I've used old school rubber erasers or newer polymer erasers for a quick job of cleaning up the TriAngles or Benchstones. I've used Walmart branded magic erasers. (cheaper than national brands) And for the best cleaning job, once or twice a year, Comet or Ajax cleanser.

[Hopweaver]

I keep it simple and use warm water with a toothbrush. Removes majority of debris.

[Striple765Rider]

**** I’ll have to try that out! Thanks! I’ve always been happy with barkeepers friend and a green pad or sometimes I just rub the barkeepers friend with my fingers.
I know with my Edge Pro diamond matrix they recommend just using rubbing alcohol and a rag until they’re really dirty and then using the silicone carbide grit and water on a glass plate

[JD Spydo]

I tried it out. Better than soap and hot water and a rag, but worse than barkeepers friend and a green scouring pad.

I have used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser with Bar Keeper's Friend and had great results that way. And I do agree with you that scrubbing the stone with BKF does a really thorough job of giving the stones a really good and even abrasion property. I've often wondered if using most types of hard rubber erasers may leave small bits of the eraser material impregnated in the stone thus reducing it's abrasion properties.

I've just had excellent results overall with the use of Bar Keeper's Friend cleanser over the years on the ceramic material in the Spyderco stones. However if these erasers work well for you guys then more power to you all. Oh by the way I've also got a regimen of soaking the stones with DAWN 4X dish soap before I clean them
with BKF and it seems to really help with the process.

[Fastidiotus]

I'll have to give this a shot. After playing around with way too much aus8 I tried a normal eraser on my medium grit stone without much luck. I was getting to the point that I was going to set the stone in water to saturate it and spray the top of the stone with an iron remover. Then pray it didn't absorb the smell from the sodium thioglycolate.

[Traditional.Sharpening]

I'll have to try that out. I use barkeepers friend too, and while it works well it isn't the most convenient process.

It's not ideal either from perspective that BKF has an abrasive in it. You don't want to use anything abrasive to clean the stone as it will possibly dull the abrasives of the stone. Eraser compounds, especially the polymer kind are likely to be quite low in abrasive.

[Guts]

I use them for water stones, resin bonded diamond stones, and diamond plates. Work well for those too. Although on the Spyderco ceramics I've found they don't work super well if the stones have been really loaded up for awhile. Like someone else mentioned, pencil eraser works really well too on the spyderco ceramics, at least when I tried it, but I only use it if I feel like the magic eraser didn't do a good job.

[Deadboxhero]

I'll have to try that out. I use barkeepers friend too, and while it works well it isn't the most convenient process.

It's not ideal either from perspective that BKF has an abrasive in it. You don't want to use anything abrasive to clean the stone as it will possibly dull the abrasives of the stone. Eraser compounds, especially the polymer kind are likely to be quite low in abrasive.

No,

It's glass oxide, max hardness would be ~800 Hv, very gentle.

The the spyderco ceramic by comparison is 1800 Hv

Regardless it's not working abrasively.

BKF works as a chelating agent, That's why it's so effective at removing the metal particles that are clogged in the ceramic.

So, It's not abrasively removing the ceramic to remove the embedded metal particles.

[vivi]

BKF is the only method I've found that gets sharpmaker stones looking new again. Other methods come close for me but metallic streaks are still visible. If there are metal particles visible, the stones performance is at less than 100%. So BKF is 100% essential for my sharpening because otherwise the stones won't function as well.

[Spicy Suplex]

Interestingly, I just looked around for some official wordage on the cleaning process, as I'm sure I've read Spyderco themselves say: all of our stones are machine washable (may only apply to larger benchstones) and, "To clean: wash with fresh water and scrub metal particles from the stones with a plastic scouring pad and abrasive powered cleanser." Searching this exact phrase will yield many results, as this is what was recommended as recently as within the last few years when I've been newly acquiring these products.


https://www.spyderco.com/catalog/detail ... -Medium/82

Now the wording no longer mentions "abrasive" and just says "can be easily cleaned with household cleanser, a scouring pad, and water"

I imagine this must be "legal bracing" in their wording, and I'm still going to use BKF on my stones, but I thought it was at least interesting to note. The going theme around here seems to be that the original M/F triangles last about 10 years with doting care and love, but I really don't mind if I have to replace them at a measly 9 years instead, if that tradeoff means I get to feel the awesome sharpening response they display after some BKF.

[cabfrank]

I think sal said the white ones last even longer than that.

[Sharp Guy]

I tried it out. Better than soap and hot water and a rag, but worse than barkeepers friend and a green scouring pad.

Someone suggested the Magic Erasers awhile back. I tried it and went back to using BKF and a scouring pad

[Mushroom]

I’ve used Bar Keepers Friend for years as well. It worked so well or me the first time I tried it that I’ve never bothered trying anything else.