An Encyclopaedia of Indian Archaeology v1.c21.s18.1

v1.c21.s18.1

Although whetstones and hones have the same function, both being sharpeners, there is a difference between them depending on the different types of objects that were sharpened on them. Whetstones were used to sharpen heavy tools such as axes, whereas hones were used to sharpen tools such as razors, engravers and points. Sometimes both the tools might have been used in sharpening the same object. In such cases the whetstone was first used to remove rust from the object, after which it was honed to get sharp edges.