Where did the grindstones used in rural areas come from? What is the function of grinding stones?

Most of the millstones in the countryside are natural stones from the mountains. This kind of stone is quite unique, some are sandstone, some are like basalt. Sandstone, usually green, sometimes red, spicy, hard; like basalt, soft, gray-black, fine. These two stones are relatively scarce. Before, when there was no money in the countryside, some farmers went to the mountains to look for it themselves. They were not available in some areas, but they were very cheap to buy at the market. At that time, they only cost about 5 cents a piece.

The main component of the whetstone is slate. There are sand particles on the surface, which can cause friction with metal materials. Now this whetstone has slowly withdrawn from rural life, and sharpening knives before When stones are particularly easy to use, we also have safflower stones, sandstones, whetstones, etc. In short, they basically work and don’t pay too much attention to them. A whetstone is a stone used for sharpening. Nowadays, most of the whetstones used in rural areas are bought from the market. Therefore, many young people do not know where the whetstones come from.

According to the use of different tools, whetstones can be roughly divided into coarse whetstones, medium-coarse whetstones, fine whetstones, and extra-fine whetstones. For example, coarse whetstones are generally used to sharpen wood knives, long knives, and axes, and are used for dirty work, while barber's razors, carpenters' long and thin planers, short and thin planers, and handmade Use a fine whetstone for chisels. Some knives use a medium-coarse whetstone first and then a fine whetstone that is too fine. Because of this, when picking up whetstones in the countryside, you usually look for them purposefully based on your own needs and what kind of stones are produced locally.

Before the grinding stone became popular, the loess layer plus moso bamboo slices were used. The bamboo strips were sandwiched in the loess layer and tamped to dry. However, it was not durable, and the ground rice would be mixed with a lot of debris. Pebbles. With the development of society, grindstones, which were once good assistants to farmers, are now almost invisible in rural areas and have long been replaced by electric machinery. In the past, there were two types of grindstones commonly used in rural areas. One was polished, used for grinding rice and corn flour, and the other was terrazzo, used to grind rice milk and soybean milk when making rice crackers and water tofu in the countryside.