Before mechanized crushers, miners and surface workers used this solid block to manually break apart large chunks of raw ore. The worker places the mineral on the knockstone and strikes it with a specialized hammer to shatter the matrix and liberate the valuable metal inside. It requires a hard, durable material that will not crack under repeated heavy blows.
Heard on the job
Bring that quartz chunk over to the knockstone and smash it down to pebble size.
Also heard as
- bucking stone