An old engraving of dressed millstones showing the variety of patterned grooves in the stones – each was best in grinding a specific grain. It is from a Victorian book of the 1880s. Some of the stones are ‘quarter dress’ (where the face is divided into various sectors – top stones) whilst others (towards the bottom) are ‘circular dress’ stones. Millstones (mill stones) are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains into flour. The furrows (grooves) and lands (flat areas) are arranged in repeating patterns called ‘harps’. A typical millstone will have six, eight or ten harps.
An old engraving of dressed millstones showing the variety of patterned grooves in the stones – each was best in grinding a specific grain. It is from a Victorian mechanical engineering book of the 1880s. Some of the stones are ‘quarter dress’ (where the face is divided into various sectors – top stones) whilst others (towards the bottom) are ‘circular dress’ stones. When rotating the advance edge of a furrow or groove is the ‘leading edge’ and the other edge the ‘trailing edge’. Millstones (mill stones) are stones used in gristmills, for grinding wheat or other grains into flour. The surface of a millstone is divided by deep grooves called furrows into separate flat areas called lands. Spreading away from the furrows are smaller grooves called ‘feathering’ or ‘cracking’. The grooves provide a cutting edge and help to channel the ground grain to the outer edges of the mechanism (skirt) for collection. The furrows and lands are arranged in repeating patterns called ‘harps’. A typical millstone will have six, eight or ten harps. The pattern of harps is repeated on the face of each stone, when they are laid face to face the patterns mesh in a kind of ‘scissoring’ motion creating the cutting or grinding function of the stones. When in regular use stones need to be ‘dressed’ periodically, re-cut to keep the cutting surfaces sharp. Traditionally the grooves and cutting faces were sharpened using hand operated, mill ‘bills’.
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Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
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