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Period pocket whetstone.

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I have an Arkansas stone that I made a pouch for, have not been called out on it …yet. 😆. It’s about 1.5” wide and 4” long.

RM
 

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I found a oval rock about 1/4 in. thick in the river its about 3 in. long and 1 1/2 wide fits nicley in the palm of your hand, thought I would give it a go, works great.
If you can find more of them where you live, you could have a good trade item for the rondies.
No native stone where I live. I am going to get one with a lanyard hole.
 
I am sure frontier hunters would have carried something to sharpen their blades with.
They sure did. My own interest is primarily the trans-Mississippi west of the 19th century, so I'll let the experts tell you about accoutrements further east or from an earlier time. However, here is a quote from George Frederick Ruxton's Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, published in 1847:

Ruxton - Adventures... p.243.png


Note the reference to "a little buckskin case containing a whetstone." This image of mountain man Jim Baker was painted in 1935, and the beadwork looks typical of the later 19th century, but the artist worked for a museum in Denver and had access to the collections. He probably used actual artifacts to copy in his painting. It illustrates what I believe is a whetstone case, attached to the front of that "pocket bag" hanging from Jim's belt:

Jim Baker.png

The western Indians carried whetstone cases very similar to the one in the portrait of Jim Baker. Here is a nice example from one of the auction websites: Arapaho Beaded Awl and Whetstone Cases

I can't say for sure where they got the stones. Edwin Thompson Denig, the bourgeois at Fort Union, said the typical trade knives were of "soft steel," so they were likely pretty easy to sharpen. This is from the Earl of Southesk's Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains:

Southesk p. 214.png


We wonder just how "random" that stone might have been. Antoine may have known just what to look for. My brother has a razor hone that belonged to our grandpa, and it may have belonged to his father before him. It is a chunk of petrified wood, turned to a hard, dark stone. You can see the rough surface of the wood on one side, but the other was somehow worked flat and smooth. Not perfectly flat, but close enough. My dad said they got pieces of petrified wood out of the creeks in Alabama, but I have no idea how the stones were smoothed and flattened.

Interesting topic!

Notchy Bob
 
The one I mentioned has been in my bag for years, it is as smooth as any regular wet stone, it was that way when I found it I would S.W.A.G. it became smoth from the time it was in the water. Also it does a very good job at touching up a knife edge.
 
They sure did. My own interest is primarily the trans-Mississippi west of the 19th century, so I'll let the experts tell you about accoutrements further east or from an earlier time. However, here is a quote from George Frederick Ruxton's Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains, published in 1847:

View attachment 150387

Note the reference to "a little buckskin case containing a whetstone." This image of mountain man Jim Baker was painted in 1935, and the beadwork looks typical of the later 19th century, but the artist worked for a museum in Denver and had access to the collections. He probably used actual artifacts to copy in his painting. It illustrates what I believe is a whetstone case, attached to the front of that "pocket bag" hanging from Jim's belt:

View attachment 150388
The western Indians carried whetstone cases very similar to the one in the portrait of Jim Baker. Here is a nice example from one of the auction websites: Arapaho Beaded Awl and Whetstone Cases

I can't say for sure where they got the stones. Edwin Thompson Denig, the bourgeois at Fort Union, said the typical trade knives were of "soft steel," so they were likely pretty easy to sharpen. This is from the Earl of Southesk's Saskatchewan and the Rocky Mountains:

View attachment 150389

We wonder just how "random" that stone might have been. Antoine may have known just what to look for. My brother has a razor hone that belonged to our grandpa, and it may have belonged to his father before him. It is a chunk of petrified wood, turned to a hard, dark stone. You can see the rough surface of the wood on one side, but the other was somehow worked flat and smooth. Not perfectly flat, but close enough. My dad said they got pieces of petrified wood out of the creeks in Alabama, but I have no idea how the stones were smoothed and flattened.

Interesting topic!

Notchy Bob
Good morning Bob.
I don't know many know this, but as a whet stone wears, they often get hollow in the middle, or rounded off from carrying, and is easy to fix, just take it to any piece of concrete, like the sidewalk or floor with water and rub in a circular motion. It's very fast to make it flat again. It will even smooth the concrete a little bit. This works on all kinds of whet stones, even a hard Arkansas stone, fairly fast.
Squint
 
There is no single solution.
I am sure there are many answers to the question. Stones could be found, made, traded, or inherited. If everyone's kit was the same, the hobby would be less interesting.
Having unique self made stones at the rondy would be cool.
I wonder if whetstones or honestones are on the lists of trading post items shipped or sold?
 
probably worth looking at archeological reports, they are common finds from all periods in the UK with special purpose ones like Devon bats (scythe stones) being exported to north America, Australia, south Africa and others in the period under discussion.
if the area you were in had good enough stone you just pick one up if not you have to trade for one and look after it as you couldn't do with out one
 
I found a oval rock about 1/4 in. thick in the river its about 3 in. long and 1 1/2 wide fits nicley in the palm of your hand, thought I would give it a go, works great.
You beat me to it, my uncle Pat Ryan was an axeman and he showed me the stones that he used to sharpen his axes, all were stones that he’d found in rivers, and all of them were flat, round and fitted the hand.
Years later when ring-barking and sucker bashing (knocking the fresh growth below the ring bark on eucalyptus trees ——not mugging) I collected a few good ones from the Turon River.
So I guess that suitable river stones were widely used and would be period correct.
 
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