Thread: Hones and Geology

Originally Posted by Jasper Kade

Found this passage from "De Natura Fossilium" (May have been posted before..)

Found it very interesting indeed. Anyone want to take a stab at naming the types of Hones that are mentioned here? Some are quite exotic sounding, would be interesting to know if anyone has more info on them...


"Cos (quartzite), that is used to sharpen tools, is the next mineral to be considered. Certainly every man has sharpened his knife on a whetstone as well as the mower his scythe, the barber his razor and the carpenter his saw. And what is more important all iron tools made or used by artisans are sharpened on a whetstone. There are many species, some classified according to the kind of liquid they require, others according to the coun try where they are found. Oil is spread on some stones and these produce the finest edge. They are called olearia. In Germany these are used only by barbers for sharpening their razors. In Italy at one time, according to Pliny, the men who did the mowing were in the habit of carrying a horn of oil fastened to their leg and this was used when sharpening their sythes. The finest of these stones is found today in Germany in the district of that famous town which takes its name from waters. Second quality stones are found in Saxony not far from Garleba. The third quality are found in Bohemia. Pliny writes that for a long time the finest were obtained from Crete and the second quality from Laconia on Mt. Taygeta.
Certain whetstones are moistened with water and these are called aquaria. They are found most abundantly along the rivers of Hesse, especially the Lanus river near Marburg and the Eder near Francoberg. They were found in Italy and beyond the Alps in Passernices according to Pliny. They are found on Cyprus, Naxos, Arsinoe and in Armenia. At one time the Naxos stones were considered to be the best, the Armenian, second.
A third variety of whetstone is most efficient when moistened with both water and oil. These come from Cilicia. A fourth variety is moistened with saliva. According to Pliny these were used at one time by barbers instead of the oil stones used today and he states that the finest of these are the Flamin stones from Upper Spain.
Whetstones vary in color. They are either black, as those from Saxony and some from lower Germany, or green as are some of the Italian and many of the Bohemian stones some of which have a distinctive white vein. Some of the stones from Lower Germany have conspicuous alternating black and white bands. Those found in the rivers of Hesse are usually dark colored. The large blocks from which they make the drum-shaped mill stones have various colors, some being white or gray, others whitish-gray, yellow or red. Regarding softness or hardness the oil stones are soft, softer than the saliva stones used by most men. If they slip from the hand and fall these usually break Water stones, on the other hand are hard. The green stones from Bohemia are usually harder than other oil stones and can be used for the same purposes as the water stones. Stones are not discarded if the white veins running through them have the same hardness as the rest of the stone. These veins may be so soft that oil spread on the rest of the stone will exude from them. Some stones have a natural cubic form. Some are long and need only to be smoothed and perforated. When they are broad they are cut into two or more stones."

This was a good reading. Is there a source for the complete book(it was first published in 1546) Thanks.