Thread: Viking Whetstone

I found this site selling Viking (from Sweden) and Finnish whetstones. May be too coarse for razors, but no loss if you also sharpen knives. I'm going to give them a try on a razor anyway.

If it doesn't work out, I'll tell SWMBO she has a new Viking necklace.

Great! Please do post your observations; I was wondering about those Jasper stones as well.

Would be nice to try one but the Viking stone is terribly small: 3x3/4".

Being reproductions of actual originals, I thought it was interesting that they actually used a ~ 3" hone. Probably even for long knives, axes, and swords.

3" length isn't too difficult. I do use 2 different "dogbone" knife sharpeners that are also right at 3" in working length, and 1/2" in width, on knives (and sometimes razors) of all lengths.

If you like to sharpen knives, these are the two "dogbones" that I use (also handy to carry in-the-field for knife touch-ups if you prefer ceramics over diamonds):

• Lansky Crock Stick
• Gatco TRI-CEPS

I agree: for knives it is fine, you just move the hone along the edge. But razors have to be flat on the hone, so if you have a 5/8 razor you only have a bit over 2 inch to complete your X-pattern stroke. It is doable I guess, it just means more strokes on the hone. if these stones are really as fine as a surgical black or translucent Arkansas hone it might be worthwhile asking if the could cut a larger hone and see how it works.

This is my Swedish hone:

Originally Posted by Kees

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This is my Swedish hone:

Nice looking hone. Never saw one of those before. Any idea where it was quarried/manufactured?

The ones with the blue droplet mark in Sticky's link are Västiläs. No answers in old threads on Kees' Swedenstein here and on B&B. It might be from Sigtuna?

If you want to check out what the Vikings used to sharpen their swords and axes and even to throw at their opponents, google Eidsberg schist.

They didn't use novaculite until they conquered North America which, when things were a bit slow, was the time the Vikings carved the Kensington runestone from otherwise worthless rock.

Yup, the ancestors were a busy bunch.

Howard at the Perfect Edge has a nice picture of several Eidsborg hones here.

Thanks Bruce, I was mixing things up. Eidsborg is the traditional Nordic hone place. No idea though whether these Norwegian hones were marketed as Schwedensteine. Sigtuna has nothing to do with hones other than it is claimed Swedens eldest grindstone was found there. That one came from Orsa.