24th May 2012, 11:12 AM
CARTOON REALITY Wrote:Two quernstones, top and bottom, survive the initial quarrying process - each one a bag of many, tiny invisible flaws. Then they are set to work grinding against each other, hundreds of thousands of rotations, their rough surfaces bumping and pummeling each other. It makes all those tiny flaws grumpy and aggravates them (all in a very gentle slow fashion, infinitely small fractures growing and growing very slightly.) Add to this the need for the quern surfaces to be occasionally redressed/repecked in order for them to work efficiently, that doesn’t help . . . Eventually the banks of one of those flaws bursts and a good crack appears. The stone is now useless and gets thrown outside, (perhaps set to some secondary task, a weight, a surface) the rain saturates the stone then the frost sets in, expanding the liquid, making the crack (and the other little flaws) far, far worse – and by then it’s all over for our old friend the Querny McStone, he's shattered
Querns are not necessarily smashed to pieces in one sudden action, it can happen in a slow motion explosion. Due to the agressive nature of their creation it’s an inheritance every quern stone is born with. And we should remember complete examples do survive this carnage . . .
Secondary usage is a possibility here.
i agree entirely - its often what is done with themm afterwards that is telling
If they can get you asking the wrong questions, they don't have to worry about answers