Originally Posted by
daisydebby
Just out of curiosity... You know when you buy the tomato pincushion that has the strawberry attached....what is in that little strawberry that sharpens our needles? Maybe we could put that in the pincushions we make. What do you think?
Emery sand is what is inside those strawberries and lots of people are still using it in pin cushions.
As a rule, it is the minerals...sand, emery powder, silica, glass beads, clay cat litter...that sharpen pins. It's the same as using whet stones, grinders and files to sharpen metal tools like saws and pruners.
It's the vegetables...walnut shells, rice, beans, sawdust...that dull pins. Same as sawing lunber, pruning trees, and cutting fabric and paper dulls metal tools like saws, pruners, rotary blades and scissors.