The Whetstone Quarry: On Finding a Sharpening Stone

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Underhill shop is an all-hand tools work space.
Underhill shop is an all-hand tools work space.
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Roy Underhill and his daughter at work. Creating new sharpening stones is one of many projects he might undertake here. 
Roy Underhill and his daughter at work. Creating new sharpening stones is one of many projects he might undertake here. 
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A stone from the McCauley quarry, held up against the light, shows a translucent edge. 
A stone from the McCauley quarry, held up against the light, shows a translucent edge. 
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Exposing the flat face that will serve to hone knives and other edged tools for years to come.
Exposing the flat face that will serve to hone knives and other edged tools for years to come.
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After being rubbed for about ten minutes on the side of a broken sandstone wheel that's kept constantly flushed with water, the surface of the whetstone-to-be will shine like marble.
After being rubbed for about ten minutes on the side of a broken sandstone wheel that's kept constantly flushed with water, the surface of the whetstone-to-be will shine like marble.
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Underhill examines a likely-looking outcrop of stone, searching for
Underhill examines a likely-looking outcrop of stone, searching for "pay rock." 
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A whetstone should be kept in a protective wooden box. This century-old white Arkansas stone, shown in its case, will put a mirror-finish edge on the tools it sharpens. 
A whetstone should be kept in a protective wooden box. This century-old white Arkansas stone, shown in its case, will put a mirror-finish edge on the tools it sharpens. 

Roy Underhill is familiar to many television viewers as “The Woodwright,” a down-to-earth fellow distinguished by a pair of snappy red suspenders who once a week departs the big city, saunters down a bustling highway, strolls across a traintrestle, and unlocks the door to his nineteenth century carpenter’s shop. For the next 30 minutes, Roy invites viewers to share his knowledge of hand-tool woodworking —or to learn, as Roy puts it, “how to start with a tree and an axe and make one thing after another until you have a house and everything in it.”

In real life — that is, aside from being the host of the Emmy Award-nominated television series, The Woodwright’s Shop, which is broadcast nationwide by PBS — Underhill is the master housewright at Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg, and author of two books, both of which complement his television series: The Woodwright’s Shop and (this year) The Woodwright’s Companion. MOTHER EARTH NEWS is happy to present a chapter from the latter, in which The Woodwright takes us on a field trip to a long-abandoned whetstone quarry near Chapel Hill, North Carolina and shows us how to make a sharpening stone.

We made our first serious attempt to locate the old whetstone quarry on a day so hot you’d break a sweat just buttering your cornbread. We made several stops along the road where it should have been, but no one we spoke to had seen anything that looked like a mine or quarry. One man said that he had encountered some deep holes off to the west while hunting, but our triangulations on a modern map placed the quarry to the east, so we decided to head on up the ridge and have a look about.

  • Published on Mar 1, 1983
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