will develop undesirable curves on the blade. In order to prevent this, a whetstone may be levelled out with sandpaper or a levelling or flattening stone.

Terminology

The term is based on the word whet, which means to sharpen a blade, not on the word wet. The modern verb to describe the process of using a sharpening stone for a knife is simply to sharpen, but the older term to whet is still sometimes used, though so rare in this sense that it is no longer mentioned in, for example, the Oxford Living Dictionaries.

Natural stones

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