suggestions and ideas on researching local whetstones
I feel confident that back in the day no matter where "home" was people where able to sharpen implements on stone sourced locally. Granted some are better suited than others. Back then, your life very well may have depended upon your having a sharp, knife ,axe or hatchet.
(I've never before, wished I were a geologist with a minor in mechanical engineering lol.)
Occasionally I suffer hone envy when I see $1000,00+ Japanese stones. I'd be shocked if there weren't some very fine stones lying about this very moment at mLong story short I grabbed a piece of rock I saw edging a garden in an abandoned home nearby, one side a perfectly flat, There is an active limestone quarry very close by and I think it's chock full of quartz. So nothing ventured nothing gained, imagine my surprise when I worked up a little bit of slurry, which had a habit if turning gray and black. It's no holy grail but...
Perhaps someone can steer me towards a primer of some sort so I can develop a local stone theory. It seems as if once the U.S. began it's love affair with Arkansas novoculite, and the various and sundry bonded concoctions that any local tradition/ lore was forgotton or lost.
Thanks, Mike