Thanks to all the great suggestions, tips, and ideas I got in response to my post, I may have found a reasonable replacement for my Grandmother’s aging tool. Turns out what I’m looking for is called a carborundum stone. Well of course, knowing that would have made my searching much more fruitful. Because once I copy and pasted that word into Google, I got all kinds of results. One of which was an eBay auction of three different sharpening stones. The tricky part with these old stones is being able to figure out if they are coarse, medium, fine, or a combination. Two of the ones in the lot I won were described as being combination. So maybe Grandma gets one and I get the other?
I seriously could not have solved this problem without everyone who commented on the blog or emailed me directly:
Lara – Your email brought tears to my eyes. Thank you for your spirit.
Emily – It was your reference to carborundum that pulled all the pieces together.
Beth – Unfortunately the folks at Lombard Hardware weren’t able to solve this problem but they really tried to be helpful. Best of all, they sharpen knives with same day turnaround. So when I can’t get to Frank’s in Hamilton, I can try Lombard.
Elizabeth – I’ll let you know how it goes with these stones in case you want to try and get one for your kitchen.
Bon Appetit Hon 
Wendi, I’m so glad you found something! Sorry the folk at Lombard didn’t know what it was, but they are really great, and generally so much more helpful than people at the big box stores.
Beth, one of the guys working at Lombard the afternoon I went in was a Craftsman expert. He knew when they stopped using the old logo and all kinds of detailed info. Crazy. The also suggested trying a sharpening stone but unfortunately didn’t have any in stock.
And in a totally unrelated area, they were able to tell me that what I needed to sand the bathroom ceiling was a pole sander. It’s funny, and in complete contrast, that when I went to Lowe’s to pick one up (Lombard didn’t have any) the guy in the paint department looked at me like I had three eyes when I asked where to find the pole sanders.
Ah, the beauty of people who do hardware for a living.
Good luck with the NYT cookies. I made them for a while, before switching over to the baked recipe. Don’t skip the sea salt!
Merry Christmas indeed!
Oh cool! good job figuring it out!
yeah that would be a cool tool to have in the kitchen
The Craftsman box looks familiar. Kind of like something we used to have when I was a kid. This is the right track! Glad to be of assistance