Originally Posted by
roughkype
Heavy draw if the corn stalk was still wet, but I'm imagining you'd use them dried (like they are now). In that case I think they'd be pretty slick and surprisingly abrasive.
Then of course you open up the whole question of organic stropping abrasives... maybe ragweed pollen, diatom shells? Seriously, I've thought of messing with diatomaceous earth, mixing it in varying proportions with plaster, to see what sort of hones you could come up with. Might be too coarse; I don't remember the usual dimensions for diatoms. And I haven't found a place that would sell me just a little bit of diatomaceous earth.