Forge Mill Needle Museum - scouring mill preparation area
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Forge Mill Needle Museum - scouring mill preparation area by Chris Allen as part of the Geograph project.
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Forge Mill Needle Museum - scouring mill preparation area
Image: © Chris Allen Taken: 5 Nov 2011
This mill was used to scour needles that were formed and hardened but still coated with scale from the hardening process (modern needles are hardened in nitrogen and have less scale but still require scouring for a day). In order to be scoured, up to 60,000 needles are bound up in canvas and hessian mixed with soap, grease and an abrasive (latterly emery). This shows the bench and trays for making up setts, the binding posts with twine and the sink/copper for boiling up the soap mixture. This is magnificently atmospheric.
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.315039
Longitude
-1.934384