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275053 Claudio DeLorenzi <claudio@d...> 2022‑01‑07 How did they make and move giant grindstones and mill stones before machines?
There are some scenes with a bit of wood, but this post is about (back-breaking)
hand tool stone work (no wood-working).  Some interesting stone cutting tools
are shown (the ‘wolf’ I had never heard of before).
This B&W video (in German, but with auto-generated English subtitles available)
shows the cutting of giant mill stones and grindstones at a quarry, as well as
loading and transporting the heavy stones by horse drawn carriage.  The stone
diameter was limited to just over 3 meters because of the limitation of railway
passes and tunnels.  It shows the cutting of the stones, all done by hand, as
well as some of the daily blacksmithing required to maintain the hand tools, and
I found it interesting.
Health and safety was obviously never a priority over getting the job done in
those days.
The video is here:
https://youtu.be/HtNLEYQnFRs

Happy New Year everyone and Cheers from Waterloo Ontario
Claudio

Recent Bios FAQ