The Lost Code

Pick Hammer

19th century
Wood, iron
L. 36.5 cm
W. 19 cm
This tool was once used to pick or chip away at millstones and grindstones, restoring the worn-down grooves to ensure the grain was properly ground. The stones for grinding wheat were made from sandstone, flint, or limestone millstone imported from France or England. The stones used in the Saint-Roch des Aulnaies flour mill were possibly made out of sandstone from Fontainebleau, a suburb of Paris renowned for its enormous quarries and its millstone cutters. Cutters would assemble stone blocks of different sizes to make a round shape upon which they set a broad red-hot iron band. Once the iron cooled, the cutters tightened the stones and held them in place. Millstones can weigh between 1,000 and 1,500 kg. They were lifted up on a hoist while they were sharpened.
Seigneurie des Aulnaies Collection