What is a french buhr?
This is actually the type of stone (like granite or limestone) that was quarried near Paris for use as millstones. These stones are almost always segmented, cemented, and banded together. I believe the main reason they were built in pieces was the difficulty in loading and unloading monolithic stones from ships. I’ve heard other opinions that the veins in the quarries were such that large stones were not able to be removed, but this sounds far-fetched. Anyway, the French buhr has a distinctive pock-marked appearance, which millers believed helped it stay sharp. It is certainly true that French buhr was the hardest rock ever used for millstones, based on the Rockwell scale (granite is a bit softer). These stones are the devil to re-sharpen, and they play havoc with my mill picks. However, once re-faced, they retain their grinding ability for a long time if not allowed to rub. The stone you have is not unusual or necessarily very old. Several manufacturers of stone buhr mills, such as No
