File:Whetstone (illustrated by George Scott) (FindID 813567).jpg

English: A broken whetstone, trapezoid in plan, an elongated rectangle in profile and a narrow oval in section. Made from a flat, elongated greywacke sandstone beach pebble from the Crackington Formation dating from of the Upper Carboniferous age (332 to 290 million years BP). Both surfaces and both side margins have been polished to a smooth finish. One side margin is flat, the opposite side margin is curved through repeated use for sharpening metal tools. Both faces are slightly concave.

Both ends have been broken off: the proximal end by a single break perpendicular to the side margins. The wider, distal end has been snapped by two separate breaks: these appear to originate from a central point where, on both faces, the tool has been pecked by percussive blows, in an unsuccessful attempt to perforate the tool, perhaps to create a shaft hole. This apparent attempt to re-utilise the tool seems to have taken place after it was no longer considered suitable for use as a whetstone: when it broke it was discarded, as there is no sign of further wear around the broken edges.

The surface of the stone is uniformly pale brown in colour.

Jones & Taylor (2010) illustrate similar sandstone and siltstone whetstones, which have been derived from river cobbles, excavated from Scarcewater, St Stephen, on page 129, fig.66, nos.505 & 703, which are dated from the Late Bronze Age, c.1100-700 BC.