Whetstones

Whetstones, or HONES, are used for sharpening cutting instruments of all kinds. For scythe and other large steel blades stones of a coarse texture or grain are used, but for putting a fine edge on chisels, razors, penknives, and engravers' tools fine-grained hones are employed. There are few known localities for such as have suitable fineness, hardness, uniformity of texture, and 'bite' combined in such a way as to form a first-rate hone. The three most favourably known are the Turkish hone or oil-stone from Asia Minor, composed of about 73 per cent. of silica intimately mixed with calcite; the Arkansas hone, consisting of 98 per cent. of silica; and the German razor hone, from near Ratisbon. The Washita hone, found in the same state and county, is cheaper and better suited for ordinary tools than the Arkansas stone. In Great Britain the best hone slates, as they are sometimes termed, are the Charnley Forest stone (Leicestershire); the Welsh oil-stone, or Idwal stone; the cutler's greenstone, also a Welsh rock; and the Water-of-Ayr stone. This last, a fine-grained argillaceous rock, rather softer than most hone-stones, is used for numerous other purposes besides sharpening tools. Several kinds of hone-stones are used for polishing hard surfaces—that of silver, for instance. Hone-stone, or Novaculite, is a very hard, fine-grained siliceous variety of clay-slate. Any hardish slate of smooth uniform texture will make a fine hone, and few countries are without some sharply gritted rock from which serviceable whetstones for sharpening large cutting blades or edge-tools can be made. There are instances of 'whetstones' made of wood with the pores filled up with some hard substance.