Abraders, or sharpening stones, were wet with water or spittle, then tools were rubbed on the abrasive stone until the edges were sharpened. If the tools were larger than the abrader, the abrader could be rubbed on the tool. Abraders could also be used to shape tools. It is abraders that give slate knives and adze blades the bevelled, two-sided point. They can also shape tools like needles into fine points. Abraders were also used like sandpaper to smooth materials such as wood. Like sandpaper, a different coarseness of abraders was used for different jobs.

These versatile and critical tools are one of the most commonly found items in archaeological sites on the west coast of British Columbia. The Snuneymuxw abrader in this collection was found in an archaeological deposit estimated to be 2000 years old. It is interesting that it has been carved to look like a fish. Perhaps finding a piece of sandstone in the shape of a fish reminded the carver of the following story:

"Once a man at Nanaimo dreamed that he would catch something fierce. Soon after his dream, as he was fishing, something jerked on his line and took it to the bottom of the sea. When he pulled the line up, he found at the end a stone shaped like a fish. He took the stone fish home and that night he dreamed that it spoke to him, telling him that he was to catch all the fish he wanted, and that, when his luck was poor, all he had to do was to rub his hook with the stone fish. He kept the stone for many years wrapped up in a hidden box. He grew wealthy, and, when he was an old man, he again had a dream in which the stone fish instructed him to paint the stone in a certain way and to put it back into the water where he had caught it. He did so and, as it was released, the stone 'acted like lightning.' The story illustrates the common belief in the residence of a supernatural power in a material thing." (Story collected by Homer G. Barnett. Published in 1955.)