I have just come across a quest .. I think it was for learning Mining III, that mentioned "nary a nub" .. I think this might cause some problems with non-native English speakers. Personally (English is not my 1st language) I was a bit unsure about whether it meant "all the way" or "leave some", and no, I did not google while I did this, it is a timed quest and had problems moving around at the time.
For the record, I tried both used and unused rocks/metal .. and they all registered as "hits" when I ground them down to the ground.