This paper presents a historical review of the wear and the structure of vitrified grinding wheels. This review describes the tribological issues surrounding use of vitrified grinding wheels and is discussed in three ways. The first explains the relationship between grinding wheel wear and wheel performance and discusses the interactions between abrasive grain and workpiece material and how it relates to grinding wheel performance; the second investigates the issues surrounding the composition of the vitrified bonding system and how it affects wheel wear, whilst the third explores the effect of reactions in vitrified bonds during thermal treatment of the grinding wheel that affect the performance of vitrified grinding wheels during subsequent processing of common engineering materials. The paper provides a timely review of the microstructural aspects of vitrified grinding wheels.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Jackson, M.J. (2009) 'A historical review of wear mechanisms and the structure of vitrified micro grinding wheels', Int.