construction - Usage of phrase like "The friend of mine"

Referring to a friend like: "the friend of mine" is a common way.

But what about referring to something else, like car, fork or plant i.e. the something of mine? Is there any restriction of using subjects only?

Answer

(First off, it's much much much more natural to say "a friend of mine". I tried but failed to come up with a natural-sounding sentence that uses this phrase with a definite article.)

You can, grammatically speaking, use the "of mine" construction with pretty much any noun that you are capable of possessing.

That looks very much like a fork of mine.
We used a book of mine to settle the debate.

However, be aware that this construction always sounds a bit stilted, and it means something slightly different than the straightforward "my [noun]" form.

He drove a car of mine to the restaurant. [The car is one that I happen to own; I probably own others.]
He drove my car to the restaurant. [The car is probably my only vehicle, and it's the one I usually drive when I go someplace.]

If in doubt, stick to using "my [noun]" except in the set phrase "a friend of mine".