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1553 J. Withals Shorte Dict. f. 20/2 A rubber stoone to sharpe the sieth, hooke, or other instrumentes with, cos acuaria.

1623 C. Butler Feminine Monarchie (rev. ed.) iii. sig. F1 Rub it [sc. the hive] well with a Rubber, which is a piece of rough grind-stone or sand-stone, as great as your hand can hold.

a1728 J. Woodward Attempt Nat. Hist. Fossils Eng. (1729) i. 18 This..is used for whetting of Scithes, and..is call'd Sand-Stone, Coarse-Scithe-Stone, or Rubber.

1789 J. Abercrombie Compl. Kitchen Gardener 506 Previous to the business of mowing, [scythes] should be furnished with proper rubbers or whet-stones.

1811 J. Farey Gen. View Agric. Derbyshire I. 439 Those intended for round Rubbers are then reduced to an octagon nearly, by the point of the Pick.

1854 A. E. Baker Gloss. Northants. Words II. 186 Rubber, a coarse sandstone whetstone, for a scythe... The name is also given to a shoemaker's whetstone.

1880 R. Jefferies Hodge & Masters II. 122 [He] searches for the rubber or whetstone, stuck somewhere in the side of the rick.

1906 Rep. & Trans. Devonshire Assoc. 38 105 Hut Circle 19... Here were found the usual stones and fragments of a well-worn rubber or whetstone.

1942 W. Rose Good Neighbours xii. 102 It was safest and wisest to keep the rubber always handy, to save unnecessary steps to find it when the scythe wanted sharpening.

2004 T. N. Khazanchi in M. K. Kaw Kashmir & its People i. 15 For sharpening the tips of the tools while staying in the pits, rubber stones were used.