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Description: | A fragment of a gritstone ??scythe stone?? of unknown date but probably post medieval. The stone is cylindrical with broken ends and many irregular grooves on the surface. It is 84.1mm long, 36.9mm wide and 35.6mm thick. It tapers slightly towards one end, which is rather more oval than circular in section. This stone was initially thought to be a hone stone, but on further consideration it was realised that this use would produce a rectangular stone with concave sides where the tool has been rubbed to sharpen it, not the neat circular shape evident on this example. It has since been identified as a ??scythe stone?? or ??cigar stone??; a specially designed hone for scythes. It is not possible to date the stone precisely, but a post medieval date is most likely. ??A scythe needed constant sharpening, perhaps every quarter of an hour or so, hence a farm labourer could use two or three whetstones a day during harvest time as they often broke (http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/archive/stones_ahrb_2005/cfm/Public/details/RockDetails.cfm?RockCode=HSCYTH&BCnt=1&Choice=4). This suggests that many scythe stones should be found in areas of arable farming. The stone is light grey, composed of rounded grains and contains much mica. It is light weight for its size. A similar object made of sandstone was found in the same area; see the related record. For a modern synthetic example see http://shop.btcv.org.uk/shop/level3/17/stock/240 . | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Creator: | Cooper, Amy - Portable Antiquities Scheme | Identifier: | http://www.findsdatabase.org.uk/hms/pas_... | Language: | en-GB | Go to resource |
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