Quote Originally Posted by doorsch View Post
Up to date iam researching i bit in my region in Germany. Near Lindenfels which is in Hessen in Older Literature they wrote that very good whetstones have been quarried there, comparable to the ones which were quarried in Milan. So if these were ever brought to light there i am shure we talk about some coarse stones. Interestesting thing is that up to date nobody knows about them. A request to the city hall and the museum did not deliver any information....

The region here is named the crystaline Odenwald which contains a lot of different minerals mostly no slate, so in general not a good area for looking up stones for honing....I got a reply from a geologist here and he told me that he is quite shure that i am searching for "Corundum" Rocks, as these occur in certain areas in our region. He named these as dark black stones...

Also in our region there are a lot of layers of Granite and Diorite which are mixed up with Matamorphites. These Metamorphites are named as "Slate Chains" here, they contain a lot of different minerals like marble, mica-slate, graphite quazite, etc..

So i will just have a look around if any of these minerals might be useful when it comes to honing. as mentioned these are probably coarser stones. Also Quartz Diorites are minerals which are around in masses, if anybody is interested here is a Link to the Felsenmeer which is like a big sea of big Stones ;-)

Felsenmeer (Lautertal) – Wikipedia

@thebigspendur:
what do you think ? Might quartz diorite usable in thinking of honing ?
As I recall the term Felsenmeer is translated into English means "block city" which refers to weathering effects on certain rocks that have similar structure so they weather the same and develop a look that would make you think someone planted all these rocks there on purpose but it is a natural phenomena. In the U.S good examples can be found in Acadia National park in Maine.

I personally don't think Quartz in general is good for honing if you mean razors and the same for Diorite. Quartz is the most common rock/mineral out there and it comes in many many forms and can be found in all rock types. Of course I'm no honing expert. For axes or large instruments most anything can be used and has been used.

Like the guys have said if you find something and want to experiment just use it and see what happens.