Another grinding stone?

[JoshEllis1982]

Hello. I was supposed to post these a while back so better late than never I reckon. Again, I can't give a location for any of these because they belonged to my late Grandpa. The grooves on this one fit my hand perfectly.

[Charles Jones]

Looks like a grooved hammer stone to me.

[smbore]

Definitely a hammer stone / axe. cool.

[JoshEllis1982]

That's cool. Thanks fellas!

[WAH]

Nice find

[sailorjoe]

I agree Charles Jones and smbore. I never saw one before. IMO, that is a rare find

[flintguy]

Not to throw cold water on a find, and it's just my opinion...but that looks like natural erosion in a layer to me. I can see a few areas across the stone that look weathered in bands, it's just the one layer washed out more. Also if it was an ax, the "bit" wouldn't be round. Doesn't look like it has any cutting edge.

[Stansbery]

I agree with flintguy that it was primarily shaped by nature, That being said, on one side it almost looks like the groove may have been enhanced and polished some? My have been an easy quick hammer.

[Jon E. Busch]

Mother nature plays these type of tricks often. I would have picked it up, understood what its form was, and set it on a log and kept on hunting.

[CMD]

I believe one has to consider the “side notches” portion of the groove. I know what folks are saying in terms of a somewhat “natural” look, but I’m not sure I can conclude those side notches are anything other than man made. Perhaps if we had photos of the interior surface of those notches. I’ve just seen things like this too often. Those side grooves are deliberate, not natural. JMHO, obviously. We have many grooved axes that are actually only grooved on the sides, not the blade face, as seen in the top left example in this illustration.

But, I do not see pounding wear on what would be the hammer bit, unless it was pounding something soft. But, as is, one is going to be very hard pressed to convince me those side grooves are natural.

When layers weather out, they do not do so in a way that leaves two very well defined grooves on the side of the stone. There absolutely can be natural notches, for instance some stones like that can be mistaken for deliberately notched weights, when they are natural. But I do not believe that is the case here. A softer layer weathers in the face, but also weathers in a way that leaves two deep, well formed grooves on the side? I don’t think so….

[smbore]

yup.....