The Finnish whetstone, or grinding stone, takes us to stories of the unique Finnish bedrock and Finnish knives (puukko), and tells about the very essentials in the daily lives of peasants.
Peasants have been the majority population of Finland throughout most of our history. Our livelihoods have depended on cultivated land and chopping wood to use for heating and cooking. In fact, Finland’s population has been mainly poor, and when under Swedish rule, we were affected by our host country’s decisions of taxing and war activities, in addition to the unpredictability of harsh weather. Tools were not in abundance, so their proper maintenance has been vital due to scarce resources. Keeping your scythe working for harvesting, your axe sharp to ensure fire wood and your puukko (Finnish knife) sharp to have a handy tool on hand for every day tasks was vital.
According to some sources, the occurrence of the phyllite stone Wästikivi uses in its grinding stones was discovered in the 17th century. It has been used even since and the quality of the stones was at one point respected all the way in areas, such as Russia, Baltics, Turkey and even the Americas. The industry is smaller now as there is less need for daily sharpening of tools, but the quality still applies and we now get to bring the sharpening stones to our kitchens, hiking trips and gardening.
Before industrialisation impacted the traditional ways of living, whetstones from the area of Längelmäki were exported as far as the Americas, and the industry employed over 300 people in the area.
The material the whetstones are made of is called phyllite, where the main minerals that make up the stone are quartz, feldspar, and mica. The stone has formed slowly, which makes the surface fine-grained for good metal-cutting ability making it great for grinding.
Imagine having multiple ice ages where kilometres thick ice carve and slide away the sediment and soft rock of ancient mountain ranges. What's left is hard and old bedrock. Some of the oldest found in Finland is over 2 billion years old.
