Bill, thanks for the info and reference.  I'll have to go back and  
read that section of St. Roy.  While we are on the subject of natural  
sharpening stones----what do you folks across the Pond and in Oz or  
elsewhere for that matter use for sharpening stones?  I am sort of  
assuming that people everywhere had to find local resources at some  
point in their history even if they are using man-made or imported  
stones today.

When I was a boy I mowed a lot of cemeteries with my grandfather-- 
lots of relatives who didn't share the same religion so they got  
buried all over the place! The old man always used a file and  
carborundum stones on mower blades and relatively rough work.  But,  
he had what appeared to be a local stone in that it was sort of  
irregular.  It was tan and as I remember was very very fine---this  
was for pocket knives, kitchen knives and butchering knives before  
they were stropped. He used kerosene on it and it was well-dished,  
but he didn't seem to mind.  Of course, I have seen folks sharpen  
with water on limestone or spit on old flat marble tombstones! Seems  
like where there is a will to sharpen, something always seems to turn  
up.  Paul in Normal

On Sep 13, 2006, at 11:04 PM, Bill Kasper wrote:

> according to st. roy, in "the woodwright's companion", the  
> following comes from "the annual report of the geological survey of  
> arkansas of 1890," chapter 3, "whetstones and novaculites of  
> arkansas".
>
> forthwith:
>
> ohio:  sandstones are found at berea in cuyahoga county, amherst in  
> lorain county, hocking river in hocking county, manchester in  
> summit county, and farmington and mesopotamia in trumbull county.
>
> new hampshire:  a fine-grained stone from lisbon in grafton county  
> was known as the "chocolate."  those from orford came from the  
> shore of indian pond and were sold under the "indian pond" brand  
> name.  other grafton county stones are found at littleton,  
> haverill, and piermont.  a silurian novaculite is found at tamworth  
> in carroll county.
>
> new york:  there is silurian and cambrian novaculite slate in  
> columbia county at clermont, germantown, greenport, livingstone,  
> rogers island, stockport, and stuyvesant.  there is sandstone at  
> labrador lake in cortland county and beaver kill river and  
> monticello in delaware county.  silurian whetslates are found in  
> rensselaer county.
>
> vermont:  there are oilstone quarries on an island in lake  
> memphremagog.  the island is about seven miles west of stansted  
> village.  one quarry is now entirely underwater and the other  
> partly so.  these were large quarries with stones of good repute.   
> there is cambrian novaculite slate at thetford in orange county and  
> at guilford and marlborough in windham county.  huronian mica  
> schist is in windsor county at ludlow, plymouth, and stockbridge.   
> cambrian mica schist is found in newport, trasburg, and  
> brownington.  there is huronian talcose schist at northfield in  
> washington county and mica schist at berkshire and fairfield in  
> franklin county.
>
> at least it says where "chocolate" is from.  without knowing if the  
> deerlick stones were of a fine-grained sandstone (silurian  
> sandstone can be remarkably fine-grained) or of novaculite, it'd be  
> harder to narrow it down further than this, i guess.
>
> paul's slate could be novaculite slate, either cambrian or  
> silurian.  true arkansas novaculites are lower siluran, and are  
> fairly thickly-bedded (hence their abundance).
>
> i am a hard-arkansas/lily-white washita/medium india man, myself.
>
> cool thread.
>
> bill
> felton, ca
>
> On Sep 13, 2006, at 7:52 PM, Dennis Heyza wrote:
>> When I first tried to track down this company I found references  
>> to the following types of domestic honing stones: Deerlick,  
>> Seneca, Niagara, Chocolate and Lake . States identified as sources  
>> were New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, and Ohio.
>>
>> One reference implied these were all of "lesser quality" than the  
>> Arkansas, although it sounds like the Deerlick Company was at  
>> least moderately successful, with distribution across the 48 (or  
>> however many states there were c1900) and overseas.
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Paul Schobernd"  
>> 
>> Subject: Re: [OldTools] Re: Deerlick Oil Stone Co?
>>> Dennis and Galoots, Does anybody know if the Deerlick Stones were  
>>> Novaculite or another mineral?  I never thought about what other   
>>> types of natural stone in the U.S. were sold other than the  
>>> Arkansas  Novaculite. I do have a couple old stones that appear  
>>> to be closer  to slate than anything else, but that is about it  
>>> for diversity in my  stable.  I remain a diehard user of Arkansas  
>>> stones, but I'd like to  hear what native stones others are  
>>> using.  Paul in Normal
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Paul and Beth Schobernd
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