Posted 13 years ago
Texcollex
(2 items)
I picked this up at a yard sale just because I thought it was interesting. I've never found out what it is. It is either made of some kind of fired clay or of stone. I think it may be a brick mason's tool for dressing joints, but my father was a mason and has never seen one made of anything like this. I'd really like to know for sure what it is and its age.
This has the shape of a scythe sharpening stone for Carrying into the field
Motoolz is right. This one is quite fine/smooth so would be used to remove burrs after sharpening. You would use a coarse stone to sharpen then smooth or fine stone acts like a hone to remove burrs and bring the metal edge down to razor sharp. I doubt many people have seen them or used them now days but you can still buy them.
It does have that shape, and I do own one of the coarser stones for scythe sharpening. It is about the same size and shape, so that could be it, but I'm not sure that fired clay would do much to finish an edge. I'll keep an open mind about it.
What brought to mind a joint tool for finishing masonry joints is the fact that I got it from the estate of an old brick mason. My dad was a mason as well and the shape of it is like some wooden joint tools he used. The fact that it is very similar in material to fired brick led me to think it could be something fired in a brick kiln. One negative feature is how pointed it is. While not impossible to end at that shape, my memory is that that shape joint tool only got blunter as you used it. A scythe sharpening stone would, I think become more pointed as you used it.
I have never used a scythe but could see where having a stone in the field would be a way of taking a needed break while not stopping completely and still looking productive