A whetstone is a stone used for sharpening knives and other cutting tools and is usually made out of ceramic or a hard mineral such as quartz or novaculite. Stone can refer to any of the following: Stone may be used as a building material, as in this dry stone wall The Rolling Stones, the Worlds Greatest Rock and Roll Band. ... traditional Norse knife A knife is a sharp-edged hand tool used for cutting. ... The word ceramic is derived from the Greek word ΚεÏαμεικος (the name of a suburb of Athens), and in its strictest sense refers to clay in all its forms. ... This article is about minerals in the geologic sense; for nutrient minerals see dietary mineral; for the band see Mineral (band). ... Quartz is the most abundant mineral in the Earths crust. ...
Whetstones come in a variety of shapes. Some shapes are designed for specific purposes such as sharpening scythes or drills.
Whetstones also come in various grits, coarser grits being used for rapid removal of metal, and finer grits for polishing a fine edge on a cutting tool such as a knife.
Though whetstones come from a vairety of sources, some of the best known are Ouchita or Arkansas stones from the Ouchita mountains in Arkansas. These come in various grades and colors, with the finer stones being denominated "surgical black" or "transparent white".
All one needs for brass "knife tools" is to take a four to five inch length of brass stripping, ¼ inch wide by.025 inches thick, trim one edge to a point with heavy-duty wire cutters, and then sharpen the edges of the point with a whetstone.
One collector has made "chisel tools" out of thicker brass rods, and indeed the kinds of knives, needles, scrapers and other cleaning tools that one can make are limited only by how artful one is at trimming, grinding and sharpening brass, and by one's imagination.
It is advisable, when sharpening the tools, to wear a leather work glove on the hand holding the whetstone, to protect the hand from cuts if the tool slips while it is being sharpened.
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