As far back as primitive times, the stone axes, bone needles and ornaments with various materials were all made by grinding. At that time, the abrasive that people use was natural. By the end of primitive communes and matrilineal societies, a variety of daily pottery with patterns and decorative patterns could be fired. At that time, mineral materials containing iron oxide were the man drawing material, which was also produced in the long-term process of grinding.
Among the unearthed relics in Shaanxi Banpo Ruins Museum, there are very delicate grinding tools which existed more than 6000 years ago. They were stone mortars and pestle used to make painting material, and after thousands of years, the red color of iron oxide still exists vaguely on the surface!
The world was shocked when the millstones and rods for grain processing were unearthed in Zhengzhou, Henan province, because the granite grinding tools were made through hard grinding.
Until the Yin, Shang, Qin and Han dynasties, the grinding and processing of jade had reached a new peak. At that time, on the jade plane with the diameter of about 200mm, hundreds of soybean-sized bumps were ground out, and the surface of them was very smooth and warm. In addition, the jade burial suit made out of more than 3000 pieces of copper-sized jade stitched together with gold thread which was unearthed in the Tomb of West Han Dynasty’s King of Liang. Each piece of jade had four 1mm holes, and more than 12,000 holes in total. It's really hard to imagine how high the level of grinding was at that time.
The first ceramic grinding wheel was made by the NORTON Company in 1877 using natural abrasives. Artificial abrasives were not widely used until the modern industrial period.
