Natural sharpening stones you can find on a

[Novaculite]

Murray Carter demonstrates on YouTube how to use newspaper to hone the final edge on a straight razor. He also shows us how to sharpen a knife with a cinder block. A thousand year old cathedral in Braunschweig, Germany, has a doorway with a heavily worn out section of sandstone that is said to have been used to whet the swords of crusaders back in the 1200's, most likely while leaving the church after attending mass. Lots of people use stoneware pots to sharpen knives. We can spend a good sum of money on a set of Japanese waterstones and get a fine product in return, and we can also achieve decent results with very primitive means, and save money in the process.