Whetting Stone
Rising along the southern more rural part of Belgium, away from the coastal plane of the low lands, is the rather vast expanse of rolling hills and forest known as the Ardennes. Historically this area is known for three major battles during the world wars—the Battle of the Ardennes (August 1914) in World War I, the Battle of France (1940) and the Battle of the Bulge (1944–1945) in World War II.
The battleground of Ardennes, 1944
Today the area is quiet and peaceful. Tucked along its southern stretch, nestled in the pictur- esque village of Petit-Sart, sits the offices of Ardennes Coticule—owners and operators of the only mine in the world still quarrying Belgian Coticule and the Belgian Blue, some of the finest whet stones in the world.
A Valley in the Belgian Ardennes, oil on board, c.1933 by Louis Dewis
A whet stone, or sharpening stone, is used to sharpen steel implements and tools. They can be synthetic or natural. The Belgian Coticule and Blue have been quarried in the Ardennes since the Roman times and are highly prized for their beauty and fast cutting surface. When used with a cutting fluid, a slurry of
phyllosilicates and spessartine garnets forms, which serve to enhance sharpening and carry away swarf. There are few words more fun to say than swarf. Swarf is the debris or waste resulting
from machining, woodworking, or similar subtractive manufacturing processes. Sawdust, for example, is wood swarf. Whet, incidentally, does not refer to the adding of fluid, but rather is an archaic word meaning ‘to sharpen a blade’.
Cluster of well formed orange spessartine garnet crystals
Knowledge Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ardennes
https://www.ardennes-coticule.be/en/contact
http://www.coticule.be/faq-reader/items/how-does-a-belgian-blue-whetstone-compare-to-a-coticule-40a-story-about-garnets41.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swarf
https://www.mindat.org/min-51294.html
https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/lggduc/ardennes_belgium/
Image Sources
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ardennes_battle_Dec1944.jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_Valley_in_the_Belgian_Ardennes_(Louis_Dewis).jpg
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spessartine_crystal.jpg