This blog entry (in Chinese) showed a hiking route with a photo of a pair of Quern Stones in an abandoned village in Sai Kung. It has a route map in the bottom.
The Quern Stones are very heavy, and would take a considerable turning force to rotate. If this is the top stone that rotates, then I suppose the notches (recesses) are for radial "arms" or spokes, used to turn the wheel.
The axial hole appears to be octagonal, as if it was to be fitted with a post
Millstones I have seen before (in wheat country) would have a top stone of maybe 10-20 cm thickness, whereas the one I saw was about 40cm thick, and those in the blog look to be 60-70cm. This indicates a much higher grinding pressure - why is this required. Does rice require a such a high pressure. Has anybody seen one in "operational condition" ?
Comments
Re: Stone object
Hi there,
It is some sort of/part of a traditional grinder or a mill, a bit big. I remember seeing one like this along the Ping Shan Heritage Trail.
Best Regards,
T
quern stone
As T says, it looks like a quern stone for grinding wheat and rice into flour.
Re: Quern Stone
Hi there,
This blog entry (in Chinese) showed a hiking route with a photo of a pair of Quern Stones in an abandoned village in Sai Kung. It has a route map in the bottom.
Best Regards,
T
Quern Stones
The Quern Stones are very heavy, and would take a considerable turning force to rotate. If this is the top stone that rotates, then I suppose the notches (recesses) are for radial "arms" or spokes, used to turn the wheel.
The axial hole appears to be octagonal, as if it was to be fitted with a post
Millstones I have seen before (in wheat country) would have a top stone of maybe 10-20 cm thickness, whereas the one I saw was about 40cm thick, and those in the blog look to be 60-70cm. This indicates a much higher grinding pressure - why is this required. Does rice require a such a high pressure. Has anybody seen one in "operational condition" ?
Ping Shan Quern Stone
Here is one of the stones T was referring to, found along the trail at Ping Shan.
There is also a bunch of them here on this link, some still sitting on the part that catches and funnels the flour: http://orientalsweetlips.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/20111113-089.jpg
They were pretty hefty to be honest, I guess the heavier the stone the finer the powder?
石車、糖廍 traditional Crush sugar cane equipment
traditional Crush sugar cane equipment
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%B3%96%E5%BB%8D