Polishing Stone

Item number E7433-0 from the National Museum of Natural History.

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Notes

Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/121 , retrieved 1-27-2020: Whetstone made from jade. The entire surface of this tool has been ground and polished. The edges along both sides and at one end are beveled on both surfaces. At the other end a groove that has been cut into the surface of the whetstone holds a piece of braided sinew. The rest of the sinew line, which has broken off, has a blue bead attached near the end. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/62: Whetstones were used to sharpen the edges of ground stone and iron blades of cutting tools, such as adzes, kives and ulus. Jade was a preferred material for whetsones, but other fine-grained stones were also used.