Thread: wm stinton and son

Originally Posted by BobCochran

Zak, can you please tell me how street grinders worked? I'm new to the topic. Any write ups and/or photos? Is it still done today?

Thanks

Bob

This post rounds up most of the info I've got. There were also, in the early 1800's, people who set up small shops to do that kind of work. Much like you see little 'Computer Fixers' in low-rent neighborhoods now.

Originally Posted by kn4wd

I have only ever seen two of these and the other was 8/8 has the exact same scales and grind. either way was a good find to me

I'll try and get pictures of the ones I've got, but it might be a few days.

Until Zak gets around to it...I'll post some before pics of an 8/8 that I have. It's been restored (but no pics yet)...




WP34

Originally Posted by Voidmonster

This post rounds up most of the info I've got. There were also, in the early 1800's, people who set up small shops to do that kind of work. Much like you see little 'Computer Fixers' in low-rent neighborhoods now.

Zak, thanks a lot for this! The photo of the Washington, D. C. street grinder interests me because my mother-in-law was born in the city around the same time. To me the photo is now about a bit of local history. I suppose there is no one living who had such a grinding wheel set up and could discuss the business side of it -- whether it was profitable or not, for example. It must have been tough taking the equipment home at night. And as your post suggests there probably wasn't much sophistication: one grindstone was used for everything. Someone wanting a truly good razor honing would have gone elsewhere, perhaps. I'm going to ask mom-in-law if she remembers grinders and/or if she or her mother ever used them. Maybe I better ask her if most people still rode horseback in town back then. I don't know what she might answer, she is quite old now and extremely forgetful.

Bob,

The old-time street grinders were more often than not grinding off rust, chips or bad hone wear with those wheels.

Honing would've been done by stones the same way it is now (and in some cases with the same stones!). I don't have any definitive sources on whether or not the same street vendors and small shops did grinding and honing, but it seems like an entirely reasonable assumption.

For things like scissors and many knives, the coarser stones used to grind would likely have been completely sufficient.

The really old-time guys had their grinding wheels built into little pushcarts, like a wheelbarrow. You can see it in many of the illustrations in that post.

The D.C. area guy was late enough he may well have just loaded his getup into the back of a truck, or perhaps it folded up and there were wheels hidden inside the lower potion. If you look closely, you can see he's got two grindstones and what looks like a small bucket of water.

As a profession, it persisted long enough that I have to assume it was sustainable if not actually profitable. My understanding is that itinerant grinders continued to be a thing in the United States at least into the late 1950's.