Whetstone

Whetstones

Description

A hard, fine-grain, abrasive stone used to hone tools and blades. Whetstones are usually composed of chalcedony, silica, or sandstone. Artificial whetstones are made with Alundum® or Carborundum. Whetstones are sometimes oiled before use and, hence, called oilstones.

Synonyms and Related Terms

oilstone; snakestone; honestone; rubbing stones; sharpening stone; coticule, Ayr stone; Ouchita stone (from the Ouchita Mountains in Arkansas); Scheifstein (Deut.); wetsteen (Ned.)

Comparisons

Properties of Common Abrasives

Authority

• G.S.Brady, Materials Handbook, McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1971 Comment: p. 869

• Ralph Mayer, A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques, Harper and Row Publishers, New York, 1969 (also 1945 printing)

• Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, at http://www.wikipedia.com Comment: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whetstone_%28tool%29 (Accessed Sept. 20, 2005)

• Random House, Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, Grammercy Book, New York, 1997

• The American Heritage Dictionary or Encarta, via Microsoft Bookshelf 98, Microsoft Corp., 1998