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

• Ralph Mayer, 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, 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