SCOTTISH STONE HAND QUERN AH3981C by DEEPEEKA Quern-stones are stone tools for hand-grinding a wide variety of materials. They are used in pairs. The lower, stationary, stone is called a quern, while the upper mobile stone is called a handstone. The Deepeeka AH3981C is a functional replica of a Traditional Hand Quern. It consists of 2 traditional hard stone wheels, upper and lower. The hand driven wood pin rotates the upper against the lower. Grain is poured in the center which feeds between the stones, smashing and grinding and finally being expelled out the sides where the two stones meet.
• Stone Diameter: 13" • Stone thickness: 2 1/4"ea 4 1/2" total • Material: Carved Stone • Handle: Hardwood • Weight: 48 lbs*
Specs may vary slightly from piece to piece.
*Oversized Shipping will apply to this item
Various Scottish legends give miraculous power to Quern-stones and several have been found which have been re-used as tomb stones. The association between quern stones and burial may be because they are used in the process of making bread, the staple of life. A broken or disused quern therefore can be seen as symbolic of death. There was a legal requirement in Scotland for tenants to pay for use of the baron's mill. Early leases of mills gave to the miller the legal right to break quern-stones which were being used in defiance of thirlage agreements. The obligations of thirlage eventually ceased to apply, but thirlage in Scotland was only formally and totally abolished in 2004 by the Abolition of Feudal Tenure etc. (Scotland) Act 2000.
Garnett in his 1800 tour of Scotland describes the use of a hand quern as follows: "The quern consists of two circular pieces of stone, generally grit or granite. In the lower stone is a wooden peg, rounded at the top; on this the upper stone is nicely balanced, so as just to touch the lower one, by means of a piece of wood fixed in a large hole in this upper piece, but which does not fill the hole, room for feeding the mill being left on each side. The corn being dried, two women sit down on the ground, having the quern between them; the one feeds it, while the other turns it round, relieving each other occasionally, and singing Celtic songs all the while."
