In a discussion a while ago the subject of different viscosities of mineral oil came up.
In searching on this it seemed acquiring lighter oils was expensive partially due to many vendors requiring a purchases in bulk amounts.
Then someone mentioned baby oil. Interesting enough, while grocery shopping today the aisle with baby oil was visited. All of the different brands were in clear bottles. This made judging viscosity an easy task of just wiggling the bottles.
The store brand appeared to have the lightest viscosity. It does have trace amounts of a few other items; fragrance, vitamin E and aloe. Not sure that is the right order.
The Johnson's baby oil, if my memory is working, is only mineral oil and fragrance. It cost twice as much and looked to be a bit thicker.
My current oil is store brand mineral oil from the same store. Norton honing oil is a little thinner. Those have been mixed 50/50 and works fine.
The regular mineral oil works well, but its high viscosity seems to lubricate better and slows the cutting action.
The baby oil seemed much thinner on the stones. It came out of the bottle much quicker and spread out on the stone faster by gravity.
So at less than $3 for a 20oz bottle it may be worth a try.
My plan is to mix baby oil with regular mineral oil to create a viscosity between the two.
Of course…
YMMV!!!.png
jtk