This summer I came across an interesting pendant in the Yorkshire Museum in York. It was a Viking ornament that probably once belonged to a man and consisted of a small oblong whetstone in purple and green banded mud stone on a ring for hanging at a belt or on a thong.
I tried, unsuccessfully, to search the internet for banded mud stone sites anywhere the Vikings might have traded. I looked for geological samples or even paving slabs, but drew a blank until last weekend I went to the Bakewell Rock Exchange in Derbyshire.
Doing a last trawl round at the end of the day, I spotted and recognised this: Moughton Whetstone from Austwick in the Yorkshire Dales.
Moughton Whetstone from the Dales
The Norse, of course, gave us the “wick” ending to names so I believe the museum piece has a very good chance of having come from there.
The lovely gentleman on the stall gave me a good price and I really think that at that moment it was my favourite purchase of the day. The next day I ran it through the diamond cutter, drilled holes and then spent at least four hours watching rubbish on Netflix while shaping and polishing it by hand.
I didn’t get it completely flat but it wasn’t a very thick slab and I didn’t want it to lose strength.
I also did a quick Google search, found pictures of the source, found maps, found discussions on razor afficionado forums (the stone was used in the Victorian era for sharpening razors) and now hope to have a weekend in the Settle area and find some for myself.
I am sure I can’t be the first to find out that the Vikings were harvesting the Moughton stone for whetstones but it feels like a discovery for me and I am still glowing.
Viking whetstone pendant with a silver loop and leather thong by Erica Madelin
Erica Madelin 