Anybody made a rotary quern?

[tombear]

I've just started the research stage (read Googled it and red a bit) of making a pair of rotary quern stones. What I'd like is one thing based on a excavated Saxon one, ideally that I could get away ( cosmetically) with as a Roman or late Iron Age one, if that's possibly and they weren't radically unlike.

Has anyone been daft enough to do this by any chance who can give some practical advice? Or can anyone save me all the trouble and point me to a dirt cheap source of excellent reproductions which will save my time and lessen the chances of me removing a thumb during the construction? I'm not holding my breath on the latter....

I've only done a minimal amount of stone working so if this is something I shouldn't be attempting, that is harder than I am currently deluding myself it will be, please put me right now.

atb

Tom

 

[Goatboy]

Morning, the folks over at Roman Army Talk seem to be up on querns and their procurement/construction. May be worth having a chat with them? http://www.romanarmytalk.com/17-rom...ology/121370-rotary-quern-specifications.html

 

[tombear]

Cheers, I may well do that even if it means joining their forum thingy!

What I'd really like is a good old fashioned book showing the types used with details of materials and dimensions. The only really difficult part as I currently see it is if surfaces that do the actual grinding are even slightly sloped down from the centre out. Getting the bottom one domed and the under side of the top one hollowed out to match would need real skill.



Still, early days. The bere has another 2 months to go till harvest.


ATB


Tom

 

[Stew]

The museum my wife qworks at has one. Its a brilliant item.

 

[mrcharly]

Cheers, I may well do that even if it means joining their forum thingy!

What I'd really like is a good old fashioned book showing the types used with details of materials and dimensions. The only really difficult part as I currently see it is if surfaces that do the actual grinding are even slightly sloped down from the centre out. Getting the bottom one domed and the under side of the top one hollowed out to match would need real skill.

Not really. Get a convex curve on one by spinning it on a hollowed harder rock. Rock outcrops often have such hollowed, caused by water.
Then sit the other on top and just turn it - they'll wear each other away to match. You just need almost endless time . . .

The Windmill near me (Holgate Windmill) has a few different stones, from a basic quern, a more sophisticated handstone up to multiple stones driven by the mill.

 

[boatman]

An alternative is to cast the stones from concrete, kelticos.org has a description of the process. http://www.kelticos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=671&p=17073&hilit=quern#p17073

 

[Quixoticgeek]

I've just started the research stage (read Googled it and red a bit) of making a pair of rotary quern stones. What I'd like is one thing based on a excavated Saxon one, ideally that I could get away ( cosmetically) with as a Roman or late Iron Age one, if that's possibly and they weren't radically unlike.

Has anyone been daft enough to do this by any chance who can give some practical advice? Or can anyone save me all the trouble and point me to a dirt cheap source of excellent reproductions which will save my time and lessen the chances of me removing a thumb during the construction? I'm not holding my breath on the latter....

I've only done a minimal amount of stone working so if this is something I shouldn't be attempting, that is harder than I am currently deluding myself it will be, please put me right now.

We bought one a few years back, can't remember where from. Worked quite well.

Will see if I can find where we got it from.

Julia

 

[launditch1]

Never made one but I have found one...Roman, made from Hertfordshire Puddingstone.I hit it with a hedgecutter years ago on a farm I worked on.

 

[Toddy]

I've got illustrations in Archaeology texts Tom. I can send you them ?

I've used rotary querns. They're hard work after the fun of the first five minutes. It takes a surprising amount of work to make a pound of flour for a loaf, and if you don't get decent hard stones then you end up with enough grit in the flour to wear teeth down too.

There is a definite regional typology of the querns, if you're really after authenticity you need to find the region and time that's appropriate and we'll look for that.

To make them (different from trueing them up) it's pretty straightforward to turn one stone on top of another with only their own grit in between to flatten both faces. Again, it's a fair bit of work though.

atb,
Mary

 

[tombear]

Thanks for the input folk, some how the project is looking more doable.

To pin down a time and a place, 9th/10 century Dane Law / north east Mercia. Any information would be great. The Internet so far had provided only the sketchiest of information. Dimensions cross sections and materials s what I need most. Thank fully I'm a mind numbingly patient man. Also I intend to use power tools for the rough shaping which should speed it up, possibly after buying the stone machine cut to the right thicknesses. We are on grit stones here but ill get hold of what ever is th most correct material since this will be a one off project so I want to get it spot on.

atb

Tom

 

[tombear]

Ok not a quern but stone and related to foodproduction.

while reading a book on HMS Pandora and the wreck site I saw a picture of a large stone mortar that had been recovered which got me thinking. I then pottered outside in my slippers and recovered this from under a bush in the top back garden

Now I'd previously written it off as another piece of concrete poking out of the ground to eventually be got rid of but on closer inspection its made of stone ( im pretty sure) and has chiselled decoration around the edge and horn things. A quick look on the interweb wasn't a lot of use as they were used from medieval times into the 19th century.

Theres some damage on the rim and 2 of the horns but nowt to stop me using it.

Now here's some questions,
Can it be dated?
How do I clean it without ruining it to make it food safe?
What would the pestle have looked like
and finally, what wood would the pestle be turned from?

i think we should break out the metal detector and give the garden a good going over! We already found the 13 lb sledge hammer head and metal cutting chisel thing at the far end.

im rather chuffed with this find!

atb

tom

 

[tombear]

So folks, does anyone know of a not toxic way of getting the mould off of stone?

Not had much joy finding a date for it. I doubt its medeivil but it could possibly be late 18th C rather than 19th as theis place was supposedly built back then.

Being so big it should be good for grinding up nuts and stuff.

atb

tom

 

[Toddy]

Only you would find a stone mortar, in your garden, just when you're in need of one

Eh, scrub it with fairy liquid and warm water with the sink scrubber; that'll take a lot of gunk off it and not damage the stone.
Then figure out what kind of stone it is, and see if it's safe for washing soda or vinegar. I think I'd find and old pair of socks to put on my hands and a bucket full of sand, myself, and just scour it.
Wait and see, I'll have said that and it'll turn out to be Roman or the like and I'm suggesting obliterating an ancient artifact with my housewifelyness

atb,
M

 

[British Red]

A good bleaching (dilute) should prove effective Tom. Rinse well after mind you.

 

[tombear]

Cheers folks! That sounds doable, I'll work my way through all of them, building up to the most aggressive / risky.

it's probably 19th C but I really like having some thing that's been hand chipped out by some guy way back when.

i can't believe I've been ignoring it for nearly 10 years amongst the rubble under the big bush thing at the near end of the garden. Better have a good poke about under there, see if there's owt else.

Anyone have any thoughts what sort of wood to turn for a pestle? I think I'll do two, one for using on a table and a long one like they use in Asia and Africa with the mortar on the floor and the user standing.

ATB

Tom

 

[Toddy]

No idea tbh. My mortar, and pestle, are granite.
I do have ceramic ones, and a wee cast iron set for stuff like charcoal, but the granite one gets a fair amount of use one way and t'other.
How about fruitwood ? I could rescue you a chunk of the gean that we cut down ?

M

 

[tombear]

Oh I forgot to say, it looks to be some form of Gritstone, which could be local.

Cheers Toddy, ill get back t you when I look up what gean is!

ATB

Tom

 

[British Red]

Just a local word for a bird cherry

 

[tombear]

Cheers! So nice dense stuff?

 

[Toddy]

Sorry Tom, wild cherry, the native one.
White flowers in spikes and black fruits.

"The wild or sweet cherry, which is native to both Eurasia and North America.
Prunus avium, family Rosaceae
Origin - mid 16th century: from Old French guine, of unknown origin."


Ehm, I suppose it is. How big a bit do you want ? I'll take the laplander to the biggest trunk tomorrow if you like ? I have two of the geans in the garden, they keep trying to shade out my greenhouse so I prune them bag kind of vigorously, but occasionally they get away from me. Himself had to take a bowsaw to them last time, and that's where this big trunk came from.
We just put it outside the fenceline in the woodland to rot down, but it's kind of dry at that bit and it hasn't done much tbh. The bark is still intact.

cheers,
Mary

.....I thought ours were Prunus Padus though