wet stone holder

[jdm]

I saw a picture of one of these on another post and remembered this one . It's designed to hook on your belt with a wet stone for easy  access when doing a lot of knife work. I've seen several over the years. I like this one because of the date.

[Elnathan]

I seen those illustrated as for use by folks mowing hay and reaping grain, to store a whetstone or stick covered in oily sand so they could touch up the edge of their scythes out in the field.

[Nordnecker]

The word "Dengelstock" or similar comes to mind.

[R.J.Bruce]

I'll second it as container for carrying a whetstone for sharpening a scythe in the field. Grain stalks dull the blade fairly quickly, or so I have read.

[T.C.Albert]

Traditional whet stone horns are still available from Austria actually. To prepare an edge, scythe blades were hammered thin on tiny anvil heads stuck into a log or the ground, stoned , and then hung out overnight to rust the edge and give it bite. During field use they were honed with the stone till they needed anvil peening again. The little anvil/hammer sets are hardly ever seen around here any more, the stones either, but quite a few old horns seem to turn up. I suppose files just took over for crude sharpening as scythes and reaping hooks became ditch wacking tools or even just quaint old decorations rather than integral parts of the harvest and their proper use and the old world sharpening techniques developed to maintain them became another lost art.
Sorry to ramble.
Tim A.

[Frozen Run]

Here is a really informative video I watched several years ago, the hired scythe has a similar stone holder on his belt.

[Daryl]

Amazing video.  There was a sythe in the horse barn in back of our house in South Western Ontario. We really sucked at cutting weeds with it.
Of course it wasn't very sharp, which likely was a good thing.