Keep Your Nose to the Grindstone

How many times have you heard or said the phrase, "Keep your nose to the grindstone!" and then wondered what it really meant? Why would you want to grind your nose, or even have it anywhere near a grinding stone? I've heard some pretty strange ideas about the meaning and origin of this phrase, and only recently did I learn the truth about it.

Old grinding mills that used heavy stones were commonplace 150 years ago. The stones were huge disks cut and shaped from rock, weighing in at a ton or more each. Mill stones work in pairs, with one turning against the other, usually stacked like pancakes. Usually only one stone turned while the other remained stationary. The power source that turned the mill stone had to be steady. Water was a common source of power, and in Holland the windmills did the work. Sometimes mules or other beasts of burden were used, hitched to walk in a circle, turning a series of cogged wheels that were connected to the mill stone.

The grain that was to be ground into meal or flour was dropped so that it would fall down a center hole in the top stone and then be crushed between the turning stones and pulverized until it was finely ground. As the stones turned, the ground flour or meal would be pushed towards the outer edge of the stone, and there was usually a slot or chute opening where the finished ground grain would pass through to be bagged.

There has to be a very tiny space between the two mill stones to allow the tiny particles of meal or flour to pass through. There is always a minute amount of flour or meal left between the stones, almost like a residue coating the two facing surfaces. If the miller wasn't paying attention and allowed the stones to keep grinding after there was no more grain, the friction between the stone surfaces would heat up, and the grain residue would begin to have a strong burning smell. This heat could damage a mill stone or even ruin it for good.

Cutting mill stones was no easy task, and transporting them was even more difficult. Each new stone would need to be custom cut to fit the particular mill. The damaged tons of rock would first have to be removed from the mill, and then the new stones would have to be carefully set into place in the machinery. It could take months to get a new mill stone cut and delivered.

So if the miller paid attention to what he was doing, he also kept an alert nose so he could detect any overheating of the stones. Mill stones under a watchful nose could last for a hundred years or more before they were too worn to grind properly. Woe to the miller who did not keep his nose to the grindstone!