A small piece of stone for sharpening slide-rest tools may be occasionally held in one hand and applied to the tool without unfixing it from its tool-holder. Several classes of small tools can be thus sharpened, although the stone may not be fixed in a frame or holder of any sort; but for large tools, it is convenient to fix the stone at one end of a wood holder, instead of near the middle. An oilstone thus fixed is shown by Fig. 455, and the outer end of the stone is made to extend about an inch or half an inch beyond the extremity of the holder, which allows the workman to use the stone while vertical, horizontal, or in any other position suitable for the tool to be sharpened, and the holder can be gripped with both hands of the operator instead of only one.