If you don't have a vice to grip the oil stone you can use an anti slip mat or even a folded piece of carpet underlay.
Braking In Your Trowel
It is very important when trying to get the best finish on plaster to use a trowel that's been well warn already.
You can't by trowels that's ready to be used in a warn state, not even pre warn trowels are ready.
Using this guide you will see how you can get your new trowels as close to a well warn one as you can.
Some images will enlarge once clicked
The idea is to get the edges to a rounded natural taper and the ends sharp.
Fig 1 shows you how pre warn trowels look when first brought, you see all they have done at the factory is grinded the ends to a straight taper which isn't the best it could be.
First of all clamp an oil stone in a vice or use a mat like we have to stop the stone from moving.
Place oil over the stone, machine oil or bicycle oil is fine, it will soak in very quickly but you don't need to keep putting loads on, only every 2-3 minutes or so, or every time you change sides.
Its very simple just keep the trowel at a very slight 1° angle moving forwards and backwards evenly.
To help you keep the angle rest your fingers over the trowel like Fig 2.
It does take some time, 5 minutes on each side then check then if more 
is needed another 5 minutes on each side, once finished it will look a little like Fig 3.
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