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The Deepeeka stone grinder. Update and results of first try.
#1
Avete everyone!

Ok since no one posted about the grinder, I thought I'd give you all my first impressions.
It came VERY well packaged. Each piece packed separately and separated by bubble wrap and then boxed with styrofoam popcorn.
Once open it was a simple matter to assemble (just line up the hole over the shaft and lower gently.
We got some soft wheat (a variety grown in Eastern Canada) and some hard wheat (a variety grown here in Manitoba) to try out.
It cracked both of them quickly. Producing flour is a bit slow going though...
I have some photos to share;
http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/ ... bottom.jpg
The two parts showing the bottom and decorated top.

http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/ ... rfaces.jpg
The two parts showing the bottom and the grinding surface of the top.

My daughter (she's three) using the grinder. If it's easy enough for her...
http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/ ... rinder.jpg

The grinder open showing the cracked wheat. This is about 12 full turns and the "hopper" filled with hard wheat.
http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/ ... dwheat.jpg

And finally, the grinder rotating showing the cracked wheat being pushed outwards onto the cloth.
http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/ ... atwork.jpg

It seems to work very well so far. I thought that the divots (the small round indents for grinding) were too small but they seem to work fine.

I'll let you all know how the first loaves turn out...

P.S. I'm sorry about the links but I could not get the Img function to do anything...
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
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#2
Well the first loaf was made and it was very nice. We made a nice mix of the hard, soft wheats and some oats.
It took a while (the loaf was made in our breadmaker) but it was worth the try.
Next, a breadoven!
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
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#3
I see boken wheat, but no flour! Did it only break the wheat and not actually reduce it to flour?

When we use our quern we turn it one way to break down the wheat and reverse the rotation to bring the flour to the outer edge and out. (Ours isn't one of these though it has proper opposing grooves not little dimples).

This one looks way too much like hard work!
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#4
Peroni,
It does indeed make flour! You have to keep feeding the cracked grains back into it and then use a small brush to get the flour out.
It is a lot of work though.
When you say "proper opposing grooves" what do you mean? I might just take a dremel tool and carve my own if it makes life easier for us...
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
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#5
There's this style:
http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/reticulum/NORT ... /Baker.htm
http://www.armatura.connectfree.co.uk/c ... /quern.htm

Pedro, this seems a good place to put links for more quern references here?

http://www.futuremuseum.co.uk/Default.a ... &item=1180
http://flickr.com/photos/paul_garland/589306554/
http://flickr.com/photos/lindah/50883062/
http://www.ghettodriveby.com/quern/
http://www.uwhg.org.uk/reports/chapel_h ... house.html
http://www.palmyra.uklinux.net/FolkestoneQuern.jpg from http://www.palmyra.uklinux.net/pur-related.html
http://davidandjanet.fast2host.com/hund ... hotos.html
http://museums.ncl.ac.uk/wallnet/ant/cooking.htm
Another quern
TARBICvS/Jim Bowers
A A A DESEDO DESEDO!
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#6
Quote:When you say "proper opposing grooves" what do you mean? I might just take a dremel tool and carve my own if it makes life easier for us...

You will need a hammer and a mason's chisel, A Dremel won't touch it!!

See this thread. Our mill is pictured... The grooves are very similar to some of the pics Jim posted above.

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... 004#170004
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#7
Thanks Peroni,
But is it just me, or does the pattern of the grooves not reach the edge of your quern? If so, how does the flour make it out of the sides?
Pedro

Quote:
Quote:When you say "proper opposing grooves" what do you mean? I might just take a dremel tool and carve my own if it makes life easier for us...

You will need a hammer and a mason's chisel, A Dremel won't touch it!!

See this thread. Our mill is pictured... The grroves are very similar to some of the pics Jim posted above.

http://www.romanarmy.com/rat/viewtopic. ... 004#170004
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
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#8
Quote:I might just take a dremel tool and carve my own if it makes life easier for us...
More like a largish electric drill with a 1cm (3/8") masonry bit. You'll kill your Dremel in no time, with little result.

Hammer and chisel is surely the way the ancients did it.
M. Demetrius Abicio
(David Wills)

Saepe veritas est dura.
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#9
Quote:But is it just me, or does the pattern of the grooves not reach the edge of your quern?

They don't need to be! the opposing grooves push the flour out when the stone in rotated in reverse. Don't forget that there will be a very small gap between the two stones anyway from the grist that is already in the centre.
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#10
Quote:
Quote:I might just take a dremel tool and carve my own if it makes life easier for us...
More like a largish electric drill with a 1cm (3/8") masonry bit. You'll kill your Dremel in no time, with little result.

Hammer and chisel is surely the way the ancients did it.

You're completely right. I don't know what I was thinking...
Pedro
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
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#11
Does it help to mention that flat-surfaced querns were used differently than slope-faced ones? The flat ones would be better termed "oscillating querns", and the sloped-face type called "rotary querns." The difference in motion is shown on the wear marks on artifacts. Beehive querns are actually oscillating querns. They have pecked surfaces and lack grooves. To confuse the matter, Romano-British "flat querns" had sloped faces, and are rotary querns.

It might be worth experimenting by oscillating this grinder rather than rotating it. Curious what the reslts might be.
Lugorix

aka:  Jeffrey Adam Scharp
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#12
Well Lugorix I tried just that and it works GREAT!
I finished the grooves today (I now have a newfound respect for stonemasons) and your right, it does operate differently in different directions. When the grooves are rotating against each other, it grinds very quickly and keeps pretty much everything inside. Then you change direction and it spits everything out the sides.
Once you get going, you turn it clockwise to get the wheat berries to be distributed evenly and then turn it anti-clockwise to grind them down. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Works like a charm!
Thanks for the suggestion. A laudes for you good sir!
Pedro

Quote:Does it help to mention that flat-surfaced querns were used differently than slope-faced ones? The flat ones would be better termed "oscillating querns", and the sloped-face type called "rotary querns." The difference in motion is shown on the wear marks on artifacts. Beehive querns are actually oscillating querns. They have pecked surfaces and lack grooves. To confuse the matter, Romano-British "flat querns" had sloped faces, and are rotary querns.

It might be worth experimenting by oscillating this grinder rather than rotating it. Curious what the reslts might be.
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
Reply
#13
Well I modified the quern and it works MUCH better and faster now.
The kids and I turned 2 cups of wheat berries into flour in about 15 minutes.
Very fun (it keeps them amused for hours).
I'll be making the grooves a bit wider but for now it works just fine.
http://s133.photobucket.com/albums/q58/ ... dquern.jpg
Titus Petronicus Graccus
Cohors I Vindelicorvm

Pedro Bedard
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#14
That's pretty cool Pedro. You figure you can bake bread the way the romans did? Can't wait to see your bread oven project!
____________________________________________________________
Magnus/Matt
Du Courage Viens La Verité

Legion: TBD
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