Millstone Tools

The Miller, Millwright and Millfurnisher, 1882

Millstones were used for grinding grain, pigments, graphite, and other granular substances. As millstones wear from use, they need to be dressed, meaning resurfaced, as shown in the YouTube videos below. The primary tool used is a mill pick, also called millstone pick or a mill bill and thrift, which is a steel mill pick head that is wedged into a thick wooden handle. This article, "The life and times of Michaelchurch Mill" has a picture of millstone dressing tools. The high spots on the stones are checked with a wooden paint-staff onto which red oxide or chalk is rubbed. The paint-staff is can be checked for straightness against a cast iron proof-staff.

• Dressing oatmeal millstones at Montgarrie Mill, Alford, Scotland
• Dressing the Millstones - Old Stone Mill, Delta, Ontario
• Philipsburg Manor's millstones
• Mill Stone Dressing at George Washington's Gristmill
• Het billen van molenstenen op De Zandhaas. Dressing the millstones of De Zandhaas windmill.
• Meadows Mills, Inc.: How to Dress Millstones in Meadows Stone Burr Mills (long)

Most US manufacturers of stone mason's tools made mill picks at some time. Several small businesses and probably many individual blacksmiths specialized in forging mill picks and resharpening them. Used picks would be delivered or mailed back, to be heated, the edges drawn out, tempered, then sharpened on a grindstone. These small US makers included John C. Higgins & Son of Chicago, IL, J. Knight of Baltimore, MD, and J. G. Pollard of Brooklyn, NY.

The Roller Mill, Vol 17, 1898

Millstone pick, J. Knight, Baltimore

The Roller Mill, Vol 17, 1898

Millstone pick, Norway (missing one bit)