Best Way To Clean A Deburring Stone?

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TORQUIN

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These are the stones I use to make sure surfaces are flat/burr-free before mounting on a table, in a vice, etc. They have gotten buildup of grease/crud in them and I need to clean that out. I have tried a wire brush but it isn't very effective. I don't want to damage the stones and am wondering what the best way to clean them is.

Thanks,
Chris
 
A coarse (and flat, some are not) diamond stone will flatten stones like Norton "India" stones quickly and will stay flat itself. Keep your deburring stones stored in a shallow bath of mineral spirits which will fill the stone and keep the gunk from drying and loading the stone. It will also be the cutting lubricant. Aside from periodic flattening, they will require no other maintenance.
 
Bob has it right, store then in a shallow pan of mineral spirits to keep them clean. I really don't like using "India" stones for flattening. To me they tend to leave scratches on the surface. I prefer a semi-soft oil stone soaked in mineral spirits, but without the oil for honing flat surfaces with. This is also my preference when doing scraping and fitting, too. Ken
 
Soak them in naphtha or mineral spirits overnight, then take a vegetable brush or something similar and scrub them down. Oil and dried gunk will clog the stone, and this is the easiest way to just clean them. After the solvent scrub, if you want like new clean, get some strong degreaser like purple power or simple green and give them a bath. Rinse well. None of this involves flattening, which they may not need and you didn't ask about, and if they aren't flat, then proceed as recommend above.
 
I actually do not use India stones for many tasks, though I do take care of them as I posted above. The fine grit ones are good for rough bur removal on Morse tapers and the like, and the round and square shapes are useful for those types of jobs. For fine work like looking for burs on a mill table I use a 600 grit white ceramic stone, flattened by a a coarse flat diamond stone, and use cheap generic Windex for the lubricant/cleaner, a great tip I picked up from Ulma Doctor.
 
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One of the issues with oil and stones is that when people think of oil they think of things like cooking oil or motor oil. Neither of those are good choices for honing and sharpening stones. Honing oils are more like kerosene or mineral spirits than like motor oil. Those thick oils will load your stone and they will make it harder work to stone the surface. The thicker oils are used to keep surfaces apart from each other and thereby reducing or eliminating wear. Wear is what you want with a honing or sharpening stone, the two surfaces must come into contact with each other to remove metal. The thin honing oils and solvents help to keep the swarf in suspension and clear it from the stone to metal interface instead of clogging the stone and protecting the work like the heavier oils do.
 
all great points!
dollar store windex is just great and very cheap,
to flatten use a large sheet of 100 or 150 grit wet/dry sandpaper affixed to a sheet of glass.
tune up your stones in a figure 8 pattern using as much of the sandpaper as possible
kerosene, PB Blaster, mineral spirits and WD-40 will also do the job, but will loosen the grit rapidly on the wet dry sandpaper and stink up your hands and clothes

i relegate india stones to honing a razor sharp edge
 
I use a 4" round bench stone a lot, and blast it out with carb cleaner when it gets loaded up. Periodically I have to true it up by chucking it in the lathe and giving it a dust off with a diamond wheel dresser.
 
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