Stone Tool of Some Sort

[paleomaxx]

Every now and then I come across a stone that just doesn't look right for the area. I don't have much experience with artifacts older than the 1700's so I figured I'd run this by the experts!

This piece had weathered out of a hillside and didn't match the local stone (basalt and massive habit white quartz). Also the edges are distinctly beveled and there appear to be work marks on the tapered end too.



The real question is was someone just messing around or is this a native tool? If so, what was it used for?

 

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[quito]

Interesting. I have no idea what it could be, But...

I see things that make it appear to have been ground down, and an edge or two that show something like pressure flaking but worn.

 

[joshuaream]

I wonder if it’s a modern/historic whetstone or sharpening stone of some sort?

 

[sawmill man]

Could be native, but i would guess whetstone, been thousands if not millions of pieces bought and sold over the years that were sharpening stones from the 18th to 19th century . of all shapes and styles like pieces that were thought to be manos, atlatil weights and chisels . even been alot of experts fooled. know a guy that found five atlatil weights in a logging camp and sold them to a collector ,to find out they sharpened there axes in the woods with them. so i guess we never know what alot of stuff was used for.

 

[Charl]

I would also lean toward a modern or historic era whetstone, although I really have not much experience with actual examples.

Of course, the natives utilized whetstones as well. In my region, they were often made of sandstone, argillite, and schist. I can show you some examples of native whetstones for purposes of comparison with your find.



This one is not mine, and appears to be made of New England argillite:



And this one is a multipurpose sandstone sharpening stone, with bone awl sharpening grooves, and as seen here, this side shows usage as a whetstone. Sandstone is a natural in these stones, since it basically is a kind of natural sandpaper:

 

[paleomaxx]

Thank you all! A whetstone makes a lot of sense. It does appear to be a schist so it's soft enough to be worked, but hard enough that it would be perfect for imparting a sharp edge to metal blades. The hillside I found it coming out of is right next to a river/series of falls that flows into a marsh and the top of the rise is a flat overlook for the whole area. Someone could easily have been sitting there sharpening and either dropped it or forgot it. And it could very well be European as opposed to native made as there was some activity here, but it was relatively early (mid to late 1700's) and the land has long since been abandoned and grown back to mature forest.

 

[RGINN]

In pic 5 of the end it almost looks like a piece of bone. Are those scratches recent, do you think?

 

[paleomaxx]

In pic 5 of the end it almost looks like a piece of bone. Are those scratches recent, do you think?

It's definitely a schist (stone); along the side without the scratches the fine grained mica is visible. Initially I thought the end was broken off, but if you look closely it was leveled off so the rock was already broken there before they chose to work it into its present shape. It's tough to tell with the scratches though. They look too deep and wide to be from a metal blade unless they were continually sawing at those spots.

 

[RGINN]

It's pretty interesting. I always pay attention to scratches. A buddy of mine once picked up a buffalo rib bone and noticed some scratches on it. He didn't think too much of them, but cleaned them off and saw they were tally marks and a depiction of a guy on a horse. I been checkin out scratch marks ever since hopin to find something that cool.

 

[Tpmetal]

sharpening stone used for sharpening scythe, carried in fields when cutting to rehone the edge every so many cuts. then every so often the scythe blade needed peened back out from the repeated sharpening. easily lost as it was carried while working