A grindstone, also known as grinding stone, is a sharpening stone used for grinding or sharpening ferrous tools, used since ancient times. Tools are sharpened by the stone's abrasive qualities that remove material from the tool through friction in order to create a fine edge. Similar to sandpaper, each stone has a different grit that will result in sharper or duller tools. In Australia, Aboriginal peoples created grinding grooves by repeated shaping of stone axes against outcrops of sandstone.
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Grindstones have been used since ancient times, to sharpen tools made of metal. They are usually made from sandstone.[1][2]
Aboriginal grinding grooves, or axe-grinding grooves, have been found across the Australian continent.[3] The working edge of the hatchet or axe was sharpened by rubbing it against an abrasive stone, eventually leading to the creation of a shallow oval-shaped groove over time,[4] The grooves vary in length from 80 mm (3.1 in) up to 500 mm (20 in), and can be up to 200 mm (7.9 in) wide and 100 mm (3.9 in) deep. They are often found near water, which was sprinkled on the stone during grinding to reduce dust.[3]
Grindstone machines work by spinning a circular piece of stone around its center point. These machines usually have pedals for speeding up and slowing down the stone to control the sharpening process. The earliest known representation of a rotary grindstone,[6] operated by a crank handle, is found in the Carolingian manuscript known as the Utrecht Psalter. This pen drawing from about 830 goes back to a late antique original.[7] The Luttrell Psalter, dating to around , describes a grindstone rotated by two cranks, one at each end of its axle.[8] Around , the early medieval rotary grindstone was improved with a treadle and crank mechanism.[9]
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An early use of the grinding technique was to prepare the cutting edge on edge-ground axes. A ground edge is very robust and can withstand the heavy force use necessary to cut down trees and clear brush. Edge-ground axes were first made in Australia over 40,000 years ago and became common in Holocene toolkits in all parts of the world. Edge-ground axes were used to clear the forests from large parts of Europe for agriculture during the Neolithic period.
Axe-grinding grooves are a form of use-wear caused by attrition to the grinding stone, in this case the bedrock surface. Vast numbers of axe-grinding grooves are found in clusters on bedrock outcrops in parts of West Africa, Australia, and Europe.
Ground surfaces and grooves are types of use-wear from processing hard seeds on grinding stones, metates, and querns, and on top-stones known as mullers or manos.
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