Posted 8 years ago
capitoljeff
(2 items)
Long round file type tool with what looks like pumice stone on the shaft. Found this in my basement. Did they use to make files with stone shafts like this or was it made to scrub the foot of a giant?
Stone file of some sort. | ||
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looks maybe to be an old style knife steel. like what chefs use from time to time to help keep their knives honed as they work....
This wouldn't work as a steel because it's too rough. Steels are quite smooth and work by folding back the microscopic flakes along an edge which have become bent as the knife strikes anything hard - a bone, cutting board, other cutlery in the sink, etc. Look at a sharpened blade under a microscope and it looks like a saw. The steel bends back the bent "teeth" and renews the knife's edge without honing off more metal. Any tiny crosswise ding on the steel's lengthwise micro-grooves can damage a sharp blade more than it already was.
It almost looks home-made. IF the grinder sections rotate on the shaft it may be for trueing up a grinding wheel which has worn irregularly.
The grinder sections do not rotate but the nut on top looks like it could be loosened, thus letting the sections rotate. I think "grinding wheel truer" is the best explanation so far.