Unterammergau grinding mill

Making whetstones is a tradition in Unterammergau. All around Unterammergau there are still various quarries where stone has been mined for centuries. Until the 1960s, the last whetstone maker in Unterammergau – Schneiderla Toni – earned his living with this. Then he had to give up his craft. The mill slowly fell into disrepair until the "Historical Working Group" painstakingly repaired the mill in the Schleifmühlklamm with at least 3000 hours of work over the course of 3 years in order to put it back into operation.

So how is a whetstone made?

a) Stone mining
The stone is mined in the nearby quarry, although 95% is blind rock and so-called tailings. Only 5% of the stone quarried can be used for production. Which stone it actually is can only be recognized at first glance after a long period of experience.

b) Cut squint (squint = suitable stone slab)

This stone slab is cut into 4 cm wide strips and ultimately represents the width of the whetstone. The technical term for this is: Stingel

c) Basin of the stone (basin = to knock/hew into shape)
If the stone is “basted”, this means that the stone is roughly hewn to the correct length and shape. This work was typical winter work when there was no field work or other important work to be done. This is why it happened that the stone was temporarily stored in the so-called “cold” until it was time to put it in the pool.

d) Stilts

When a stone is quarried, it is ground to size with the help of sand and water. Grinding one side usually takes between 8 and 10 hours, depending on the stone, after which the stone is turned over and the second side is ground.

e) Kliebschneider (klieben = split)
After grinding, the stilted stone is split into 2 cm wide pieces. In the Kliebschneider the stones were fixed with iron and pieces of wood.

f) Sanding, washing, labeling
The last step to the finished whetstone was grinding, washing and labeling the product.

The finished stone has a width of 4 cm, a height of 2 cm and a length of either 18 - 20 cm, 20 - 22 cm or 22 - 24 cm. The stone already traveled in earlier times. The wagon went to Oberau and the raft continued on the Loisach, Isar and also the Danube. The stone was even sent as far as Vienna and Budapest. Overland to Saxony and Bohemia.

Even today, the committed Unterammergauers proudly show interested visitors how whetstones are made. So on the second Saturday in the months from July to September and on Bavarian Mill Day, always Whit Monday, you can look over the shoulder of Georg Simon and Martin Hohenleitner, now volunteer whetstone makers, at work and join a tour of the whetstone mill.