Who,how made old treadle grindstones?

IaLeo

Well-known Member
Dad had one with a piece of car tire under the stone to hold water. There must have been thousands of those made. Where? Brand name? Location. How stone made, what kind of equipment trued the stone to round? Any one know?
Leo
 
Lots of those around years ago; we had one but I was too short at the time to peddle it, but I did have to turn the crank on a lot of things on the farm.

It left the farm; I think Dad traded it to someone for something else. He did have a hand crank sickle grinder that I spent a lot of time turning the crank - no electricity at the time.
 
I remember dad grinding the sickle segments of either the McD binder or the JD #3 horse drawn mower, usually in the evening after milking. He pedalled and held the whole sickle bar at an angle while the grinding noise and the trickling water carried up on the rotating stone blended with the cooling night air and the chickens murmuring at dusk. Leo
 
I was in an antique store yesterday and found parts and pieces of one. One area there was a foot pedal device and then in another area was a stone about 2 foot in diameter.
 
We had one on home farm in Pa. My one handed grandfather sharpened his pocket knife on it every few days.Also, had sickle grinder; Iturned it four years in 50's and 60's.Try Sears they sold everything for the farm.
 
When I was a little kid I got severely reprimanded for working one of them grindstones and a butchering kettle over with a hammer.
 
Beats me, but I love the one I have. The old ones with a water bath under the stone were never round in my experience. Where the stone sat in water wore faster than the dry parts. Maybe someone with better technique than I have wouldn't mind.

When I found one with an almost round stone, and no water bath, I set up a drip above the stone. Works great. My primary use is scythe sharpening. American hardware store scythe, I've never spent the money to get a European one.

Too coarse for any knife I own. They get Japanese water stones.
 
I peddled a lot of those mower knives as well. Still have the outfit, need to do a bit of repair on it. Was told a make on it a few years ago but do not remember what it was. Red frame. They came with a water drip can. That was replaced with a wood trough then with that piece of tire. Water was never left set in it tho. The drip can did not drip enough water to keep the whole stone wet all the time so the pan that was made.
 
I have a 1/4 hp on 10 inch wet. It like the one I found on ebay. It took all day to ture the stone. I used everything from files, old grinder wheels to get it perfect. I then modified mine to sharpen 13 inch planner blades and 6 inch jointer blades.
old wet stone.
 
I would love to have one like that but not the use to spend the money that I do not have.
 
I have had mine for decades and never really used until I needed a way to sharpen planer and jointer blades. Now the wet stone is priceless. Saves me a load of money too.
 
I have one made by Keen Kutter. Mine is not the one pictured. Mine does not have the vertical rod to hold the water bucket. I feel the arbor bearings are very light duty for holding a wheel as heavy as they are. The bearings on mine are totally shot.I saw one on e-bay that had as opening bid of One hundred dollars, it never received any bids by closing time.
I paid $65.00 for the one I have. After buying new bearings and pipe for the legs. round stock for the legs at the bottom and round stock from the pedal to the arbor, and also tie rods ends to use at the arbor I have more in it than it is worth and it is not original anymore. I just thought it was neat when I bought it.

The picture of the wooden made one with the handles and also the Keen Kutter oneI just took off the internet. I feel any of these that have been used a lot have a lot of wear on them and are pretty beat.
a184984.jpg

a184985.jpg
 
Mine must be a Keen Kutter also, looks just like the picture but all rusty, no bucket hook either. Bought it at an estate sale many years ago and a couple of spare stones. The wife uses it to decorate outside, it sits under the porch of a pre-Civil War spring house.
 
W_B, there are several that look similar to the
Keen Cutter. On the splash guard mine says keen
kutter.

There are a lot, or maybe a few made of wood frames
similar to the one pictured. I feel the bearings on
the arbor are very light duty. That might be their
weakest point.
 

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Back
Top