The birth of the sharpening stone industry in the United States dates back to 1823 in a small New Hampshire village, when a farmer discovered that stones in his pasture were ideal for sharpening scythes and axes. This excellent deposit of mica schist became the foundation of the Pike Company – the first supplier of commercially available natural sharpening stones in North America. Using the nearby Connecticut River for transportation, the Pike Company was able to distribute the ever-growing product of its quarries to a broad regional, national and eventually world market. As time went on, the company expanded its original product offering to include over twenty varieties of natural stone, including the Arkansas line. Quarried from the Novaculite deposits near Hot Springs, AR, these stones soon replaced the mica schist as the quality standard in premium natural sharpening stones. They remain so today – no other natural stone can…