Thread: Soaking question?

In Randy Tuttle's conversation with Obie, he says not to leave hones soaking. Yet, in Masto Livi's video, he pulls hones from a water bath. Would someone care to expound? What detrimental effects are there to leaving hones submerged?

Depends on the hone/stone, I can't think of any one of them the recommends more than 1/2 hour most are less, however if you hone a lot of razors than there are certain hones that can be left soaking...
Before I switched mostly to a Chosera 1k, my Norton 1k and my King 1k, were always soaking, any other stone actually doesn't need to soak, it will be more than wet enough by dunking it in when you pull the 1k out

What I mean by that, is once you start honing, you pull out the 1k and drop your (****) hone in, by the time you get ready to use it, that hone is soaked

Some stones will fall apart if soaked too long - the binder won't tolerate it.

My Nortons OTOH have been soaking for over a year.

About the King 1k...
I find it needs at least 30-45 minutes to not feel kind of gritty.
The 4k&6k Kings seem to be fine with 15 or so minutes and a spritzer bottle helps some.
Granted, I've only been using these things for 2 months so as always,, YMMV.

No matter how long I soak the 1K Norton, that thing is thirsty the minute I get it on the bench. It's running up my water bill!

I used to keep all my stones (1k, 4k, 8k) soaking all the time but I started to get some mold so I keep them dry between honing now and just soak them for about 15 minutes before I start and they are fine.

Norton stones can soak constantly, but most people only wet the Norton 8K right before use.
My Nortons have been soaking for years.
For constant soaking, change the water every couple of months or add a cap full of clorox to prevent mold.
I don't soak other brands, so I can't speak about them from experience.

The most important thing about soaking stones:
DO NOT LEAVE THEM IN THE GARAGE IN WINTER. If you leave them in a freezing temperature the water will freeze and crack the stones. Instead of hones, you'll have hone FRAGMENTS.