By Theodore R. Hazen Oliver Evans greatly improved the milling business through his inventions and did a lot to better the life of the miller. However, he did nothing to improve things for the millstone dresser. Evans advocated sharpening the millstones twice a week, instead of the usual once a month. Because of Oliver Evans devices it was then impossible, with improvements in gearing systems, for mills to have more millstones and therefore grind more grain. The traditional itinerant millstone dresser was an independent man who has wanderlust.
Many millstone dressers has beards.
This may not have been just a fashion statement or to protect them from the cold as the miller did, but beards did double duty to protect their faces from flying stone chips. The miller was always glad to turn this laborious job of dressing his millstone over to a millstone dresser. They wore the mark of their trade in their hands and forearms which were speckled blue from embedded steel chips lodged under the skin. This did not mean he was highly skilled at dressing millstones, but that he had experience in dressing millstones. I visited the mill years after his passing and saw that the mill pick that he used was still laying next to the millstones, perhaps where he last used it and laid it down.