hi all,,I have found a whetstone and need some help with it. I will
post photos in the next day or two. The whetstone is about the size of
a hammer handle and is 10 inches long. this artifact may be important
or may mean nothing but i am trying to find more information on
whetstones.

Last week while at the kensington runestone museum i was waiting for
julie, the director, and ron the archiver to get out of a meeting and
so took another look at the runestone and the dozen artifacts
displayed with the runestone. One of these other artifacts was a
whetstone that was the only other item found with the kensington
runestone. After olaf ohman found the runestone he and a neighbor went
back and dug a seven foot square hole under where the runestone had
been found in the roots of a tree and found a whetstone.

The whetstone i have i actually found last summer on the same day i
had just found another mooring stone. i had looked at it briefly and
though it to be more of a modern time and so put it in my backpack and
continued my search. i had pull the whetstone out at home and was
puzzled by a bit of a rod exposed that runs up the middle of the
whetstone. i had assumed that it had been repaired but was still very
amazed how they had gotten the rod into the stone.

The whetstone i found is identical to the one ohman had found and i
also saw two hairline cracks running around his whetstone but it is
not chipped like mine. i then had the idea that there must be a rod in
this whetstone too and asked julie if she had more info on the
whetstone of ohmans. i told her of my whetstone and asked if i could
open the cases and take the whetstone of ohmans out and test it with
my metal dector for the presents of a rod too. ron and i did that test
on tuesday and it did detect the metal rod inside ohmans too.

We took a few pictures of the whetstones together.
We are all excited about this new discovery and the many possible
implications. After an hour on the internet i have not found any
whetstones with a metal rod in them. this rod is about 3/32,s of an
inch in diameter and runs end to end. now that we have two of these
there must be more and possibily an explanation of how they made these
in addition to who made them and when these were made.

Ohmans whetstone was brought to the museum in 1958. they are both gray
and 10 inches long and are a half to 3/4 of an inch thick. mine is
worn on one end and the crack around the middle has exposed a rusted
metal rod.

If any one has more info on whetstones or has time to research them
your help or input would be very appreciated and perhaps you could
help solve this puzzle. Are they 600 years old or 60ty?

I have limited internet at a local coffee shop here in northern
minnesota and so do not have a way to do good searches of the many
sites and museums that may have clues to solving this mystery stone.
i have no idea how they were made and are they made like a brick and
then dried or fired? or are they cut or chipped from a larger piece of
rock.,,,and just how did they ever get that rod in the stone?

I see many whetstone were made in norway from the viking period until
present and they were a big exporter of them. this whetstone is soft
and sandstone like and feels like an 80 grit piece of sandpaper. the
vikings also had a superstition that they should leave something with
the runestones.(?whetstone?)

The kensington runestone is possibly the greatest artifact in north
america.. the archaeologist would say to be a great artifact it would
have to contain the 4 w,s. The who, when, where and why.

the runestone says they are 8 goters and 22 norr in the year 1362.
they are on a journey of discovery to vinland. there then is also
directions that tell of them having lost ten men at a location a day
north from this runestone. this site has never been located but using
these directions i have been searching a small lake 20 or so miles
north of runestone hill that is at the source of the nearest river
that flowed past runestone hill. this is rural farm country and very
hilly and the lake has no cabins and homes and is only about ten feet
deep. it has 25 miles of shoreline and after two weeks of hiking
around the lake i had found two mooring stones and this whetstone.

thanks
sincerely
steve