hello everyone tonight

Hi Dave Mc.

That sure was a nice link, took me down memory lane somewhat-----

One thing that struck me was the bed and grinding stone shown, were fabricated from single pieces of stone

Ours were burr stones, they were manufactured from pieces of this special stone that come from one area in France

let me say one thing about burr stone it is very unusual with shells imbedded along with microscopic air spaces mixed together, this feature along with its unusual hardness creates a grinding surface of sharpness, and cooling that has no rivals

you can tell a burr stone because it has a wide metal band around its perimeter that holds all the segments together, I am not sure but expect that the metal band was heated to a very high temperature in a forge, dropped over the segments and after cooling and shrinking permanently contains the segments

we used carbide tipped chisel hammers to dress the stone's surfaces due to its hardness,-- years ago they used high carbon steel mill picks, especially manufactured to dress burr stones, a good blacksmith could produce these and then heat and sharpen them as required

have to go now will be back tomorrow

enjoy

richard