Dressing the Stones

"Dressing" of the mill stones involves making the surface of the stone the correct shape and then cutting the furrows and "stitching", fine grooves running parallel to the furrows, into the stone. As the runner stone rotates the grain is cut into pieces at the edges of the furrows. The process is repeated as the grain and ground product moves outwards to the edge of the stones. The mill stones were dressed before they were used to grind flour in 2011 and we decided that they should be re-dressed in 2022.

Mill wright John Bedington visited us to dress our French Burr millstones. This involves ensuring the surface is flat, using blue colouring to show the high spots, which can then be removed using traditional mill bills. The pattern of furrows are then marked out and cut into the stone. This would have been done by hand but the use of angle grinders speeded the process up. The stitching was done using the traditional bills.