Heavy Metal: Machinery?

[Stripeythecrab]

I've been excavating a trash heap in some woods near my house for the past month and have gotten all kinds of stuff out of it. Lots of medicine bottle fragments, earthenware jug fragments, ceramics and scrap metal. I posted about some of my early finds in another thread.

But I found something the other day that I'm not sure what it is. It's a circular piece of metal - it seems to be cast iron - with some sort of tapered teething around the edge. The pattern seems like a sort of gear, but with the sun/flower pattern it almost seems decorative. On one side it has a bow tie-shaped knob and on the other a slightly tapered peg. It's pretty heavy and you can judge the size from my hand.

Any ideas as to what this is? Thanks!

Also, for ID help: everything I found in the site dates from around 1880-1900.

 

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[yaxthri]

I think it's the grinding cog out of an old coffee mill (or maybe a huge pepper mill or something similar anyway)

 

[Stripeythecrab]

I think it's the grinding cog out of an old coffee mill (or maybe a huge pepper mill or something similar anyway)

Hm... That makes sense. Thanks for the reply!

 

[blademaker]

Yup grain or coffe grinder.