Grinding

Grinding involves rubbing a stone against a more abrasive stone, wearing away the surface and progressively forming the desired shape. It was often done with water to wash away the dust that was produced, and to keep the dust from clogging up the pores on the grinding stone. Sometimes grit was added to the grinding slurry to speed up the attrition.

Shaping by Grinding

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.

Adena Stemmed Point

Facetted Axe

Shaft-Hole Battle Axe

Stone Adze

Stone Adze Talisman

Stone Arm Ring

Stone Axe

Stone Axe

Ulu

Resharpening by Grinding

Stone Axe

Ulu

Grinding Use Wear

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.