My question: Is there an alternate to honing oils, such as Buck honing oil, that is easily found. I can not seem to locate the Buck oil and am looking for a substitute. Thank You JHW

All honing oil is is mineral oil. I use baby oil since that is 99 cents for a four oz. bottle and it smells pretty. Mineral oil is packaged in many ways: pre-made enema, simple mineral oil, baby oil ect. Look in the drug section of your local supermarket, it will be cheaper than getting a can of "honing oil" unless you want the labeling to say that.

You can also use thread cutting oil.

jhw... I use ATF not only for Honing oil, but for stoning actions and parts. Its got some uncanny "floating" properties.

have you ever noticed the nice pink color of buck honing oil. i was told years ago by a salesman, when i was a buck dealer, that their honing oil was automatic transmission fluid. real cheap at pep boys

There is a guy here from Minnesota that is about the most widely known expert in sharpening knives in the world.

He is the guy you see shaving his beard with an axe in his ads in magazines. .

Well I have heard that he does not think anyone needs to use oil when sharpening with a stone.

He claims to have looked into the situation deeply and says that what people used to think was happening, turns out not to be happening.

He says that we used to think the oil will help float the steel filings up and away from the blade, but he says that when you watch sharpening with a microscope you see that the oil pushes the filing into the way and do not allow the blade to ride on the stone.

However he says that if you have used oil already on a stone then you will most likely have to keep adding oil to it