WonderMill Junior Review

The WonderMill jr. is the namesake of the electric mill, which has been around for a number of years, and is manufactured in India.

The body of the mill is cast aluminum with a powder-coated finish. The grinding plates are artificial stone (for more on the debate about artificial stone see our Grinder 101 posting).

One nice innovation of the Wonder Mill jr. is the double clamp, which allows the mill to be easily mounted to any counter top of up to two inches in thickness.

As far as functionality, this mill turns with reasonable effort and produces a decent bread flour one pass through, which is no mean feat and is more than can be said for many hand mills. The grinding plates are adjustable by the front knob, however, I found that the stationary grinding plate is only loosely affixed to the body of the mill. Instead of being screwed down it rests on three posts, so that when the outer (rotating) plate is loosened the stationary grinding plate also loosens. The net effect is that this makes it difficult to dial in a specific setting for coarser grinds.

For in the range of $50.00 WonderMill jr. offers stainless steel grinding plates, which they advertise as being designed "for grinding oily or wet seeds, grains, nuts and coffee". Once again, these claims seem to be founded on wishful thinking. My test with peanuts resulted in the grinding plates clogging almost immediately, and I produced only a few flecks of peanut butter during the five minutes of grinding. Many companies claim their handmills will grind nutbutters and oily seeds, but I've yet to see one that wasn't a miserable failure in actuality. (I'll happily report otherwise when I see the hand mill that does a good job with nuts and seeds)

In summation, as long as the stone grinding plates aren't an issue for a person the WonderMill jr. is a quality grain mill effective for grinding a nice bread flour. Someone looking for a wide range of adjustability may want to look at other mills, and someone hoping to grind damp or oily seeds or nuts by hand should put aside the notion until a grain mill company releases an innovative design that actually works.

The Corona and Victoria Grinders

Really, the Corona and Victoria grinders are virtually identical, both of them being made by Corona, in Columbia, South America. The biggest difference between these two grinders is the Victoria costs an extra $20.00. All the important parts come from the same mold.

I really have nothing good to say about these grinders. On the first grind with the burrs set as tightly as I could set them and still be able to crank the handle, the grinder barely cracked the wheat. In fact, a few kernels were still whole. On the second run, the grinder broke the wheat down a little further to the point of cracked wheat. Running the cracked wheat through more times didn't improve the grind. I've read posts on the different forums from people who say they have made bread from the wheat they ground in a Corona. Me, I'd really like to see what that pitiful bread must have looked like. It had to be as heavy as a rock.

This grinder can not be mounted on your kitchen counter like all the other grinders in the study. This is because there are protruding ridges on the bottom of the mount that are designed to sink down into the soft wood of a board. I mounted it to a 2X8 for the grinding test and the mount did hold it very securely to the board. While I was tightening the clamp, I got a hammer and tapped rather heavily on the mount, trying to set the ridges down into the board. On the first strike of the hammer I broke a corner off the mount. I didn't hit it that hard! The frame of the Corona is made of cast iron, and not particularly good of cast iron.

The Corona has a thin plating on the outside which is probably chrome. This plating is also on the burr faces and worm feed. This is a real problem because the cracked wheat that comes out of the grinder has an occasional metal flake in it. The chrome may very well be a recent improvement to keep the grinder from rusting. In doing my research, I talked with a lady whose father sold hundreds of these things several years ago. She said she remembers seeing dozens of Coronas in the back room rusting away.

The Corona wasn't made for grinding wheat, even though hundreds of them have been sold for this purpose. They were made to grind field corn. It's amazing how many of these grinders can be found. They have been sold all over North and South America for at least the last 30 years.

The Corona Grinder pushed those 10 cups of wheat through the grinder in about 5 minutes. The problem, as I've already pointed out, was that it didn't grind it. Because of this, I've put N/A (Not Applicable) in the Corona's columns for efficiency in the Grinder Performance Table. It's impossible to compare the efficiency of a grinder that won't do what the other grinders accomplish.

The Silver Nugget and the Little Ark

I'm putting these two grinders together because they both grind so similarly. They look nothing alike on the outside, but it's what's inside that counts. 

Both the Nugget and Little Ark, because of their stones, produce a fine flour. But there's a price to pay for that finely ground flour. These grinders are harder turning, requiring 11 lbs of pressure on the handle. It's a lot of work to turn these grinders for a long period of time. By the time I had finished grinding 10 cups of wheat with these grinders I felt like I had a new set of muscles. 

The ten cup grind test took me 47 minutes with the Little Ark and 43 minutes with the Silver Nugget with the stone spacing set at 0.005 inch. I ask the wife and Tammy, a fellow employee, to see how long they could crank it at one time. Five minutes was about it and then they were done.  My feelings are that this is not a good grinder for the average woman or child, or especially for someone who is aged, as the Nugget or Little Ark do require a big effort to produce enough flour to make a four loaf batch of bread.
  

A negative point: I didn't like the grooved knob on the Nugget. I can only guess they put grooves in it so the knob could be the more easily grasped. However, because of a lack of bearing surface between the knob and handle, it's easier to let the knob turn in your hand than to force the bolt to rotate between the knob and the handle. When this happens the grooves in the knob rotating in the hand get the skin sore much more quickly than if it was a smooth knob. The Little Ark's knob doesn't rotate easily where it attaches to the handle, either. But as its knob is round and smooth it's much less of a bother. A soft, cloth work glove would solve this problem with both grinders.
     

Like the Country Living Mill, both these grinders can be motorized. It would take quite a bit of trouble to do this, however, as there needs to be an idler pulley between the motor and grinder. Going straight from the motor to the grinder would turn the grinder far too fast. They recommend the grinder not turn faster than 120 RPM, or even slower. The makers of the Little Ark sell a kit for this purpose, but you must furnish your own motor. Both the Little Ark and the Nugget have long bushings for their bearings. These bushings can't be as durable as the ball bearings in the Country Living Mill. I've talked with a couple of different people who have motorized them. They say after years of use the drive shaft still sits tightly in the bushing. So, it must be good enough.
     
The Nugget grinds about 33% faster than the Little Ark because of an improved feed mechanism which is also reflected in the Nugget's price. Me, every time, I'd go with the grinder that ground more quickly. There is so much work involved in producing flour from these grinders that it would be worth the extra $40 dollars to have a grinder that made flour a little quicker. In my opinion, the Nugget looks a little better built--especially the Sunshine Nugget with its Country Living Mill like powder coat. The Little Ark and the Nugget are made by two different companies just blocks from each other here in the USA.

The Back to Basics

This is the smallest grinder we tested and also the least expensive. It's also the slowest grinder, and requires the wheat to be ground twice to get a sufficiently fine flour to make decent bread. This little grinder is all metal except for the top of the funnel which is plastic. The drive mechanism is steel from one end of it to the other--unlike the Family Grain Mill which uses plastic pieces.

I personally don't own one of these grinders, so I borrowed one for the test. This first grinder took 25 minutes to grind one cup of wheat during the 1 cup test. I called another friend who also has one of these grinders and she told me her grinder was a lot faster than that. Using her grinder, I ground a cup of wheat in only 6 minutes. 

I took the first grinder apart and found that the burr cone was damaged. It looked like someone had ground wheat with a little piece of metal in it and had dulled the little teeth on the burrs. The small grinding teeth, instead of being broken off, like you would expect if they were made from good quality steel, were bent over, reflecting soft steel. When I took this grinder back to its owner, he said he'd only had it for a year and didn't know when it became damaged. I can only expect the burrs are made out of too soft a metal. So if you get one of these grinders, you need to be extra mindful to only grind very clean wheat. Your grinder will drastically lose it's efficiency in just a second or two if it encounters a kernel sized piece of metal.
 

It took me 80 minutes to grind 10 cups of wheat with the undamaged Back to Basics grinder. This included the time it took to put the wheat through twice as it grinds so coarsely on the first pass. I really don't like this grinder because it takes so long to grind a bunch of wheat. Even turning it at 120 rpm, which is about as fast as you can turn it, it takes 6 minutes to run a cup of wheat through this thing twice. The second time through, the coarse flour doesn't feed well through the hopper and must be continually worked down with a table knife or a similar instrument. The other grinders in this study got me too spoiled to put up with how slow this mill grinds.

This grinder does turn easily, however, being the easiest grinder in the study to crank. Because of this, it would be a good grinder for those people who aren't very strong.

So, what's this grinder good for? If you never plan on actually using it, but are keeping it in reserve for hard times, then maybe this grinder will fit your needs. It will grind wheat, however it will grind the wheat slowly. I expect that it could grind a lot of clean wheat before it wore out. But for those of you who only keep a grinder in reserve for hard times, the argument can be made that if your family ever does find hard times, you are going to want a grinder that can grind a large amount of flour fairly quickly. 

If you feel this way, don't get a Back to Basics. The Back to Basics would be well suited for grinding up small quantities of seeds for specialized purposes. I've talked with several people who have bought these things for grinding herbs. If your herbs consist of bark, leaves or wood, this grinder will disappoint you. Throw those things into a fast turning blender instead.

GrainMaker Review

The first thing I noticed about the Grain Maker No. 99, besides its fire-engine-red powder coating, was its impressive all steel construction. With a shipping weight of 23 pounds and the price of $675.00, it is definitely a sturdy piece of machinery. Its frame is built on a tube of steel with welded joints. Equally impressive are the steel plates, which show some intricate machining.

The Grain Maker comes with a limited lifetime warranty and I with this kind of construction I can see why the manufacturers (BitterRoot Tool and Machine) were willing to back up their product.

The flywheel is a few inches smaller than that of the Country Living Grain Mill, but the extension bar is long enough so that it equals that of the Country Living Mill with the power bar extension accessory--and provides the same amount of leverage.

The proof of the grinder is in the flour, so I mounted the Grain Maker to an immovable work bench with washers and wood screws and set about to give the Grainmaker a test run.

The adjustment knob requires a provided hex key wrench to adjust the consistency of the flour. The hood sits directly over the plates and knob, and I found it difficult to adjust because of the minimal clearance between the knob and the hood. Those with smaller fingers might have an easier time of it. However, the hood is removable and the plates can be adjusted more easily without it in the way.

I adjusted the grinding plates so that the mill was producing a decent, but slightly gritty, bread flour (about a 7 on the scale of 1 to 10: 10 being a cake flour). The first thing that I noticed was that the mill was next to impossible to turn with one hand (some background: I'm 190 pounds and lift weights to stay fit). I could only get short bursts of motion, and not enough sustained momentum to make an entire revolution of the flywheel.

Seeing that it was necessary to use both hands, I found that the handle was a couple of inches too short to comfortably use both hands, but by overlapping I was able to get the mill moving--barely. This mill, plainly, wasn't designed for manual use by anyone but Hercules or the Incredible Hulk. After five minutes of grinding I felt as though I had done three sets of bench presses, and I discovered the weak point in the mill's construction. The handle is a drilled plastic rod with some foam padding for comfort. By the end of five minutes the foam padding had slipped off and torn.  Note: The handle design has been improved on current models.

The literature that comes with the Grainmaker suggests that you should "expect to output one cup of flour a minute." This may be true for a very coarse flour, but I found that for a slightly gritty bread flour that 2 1/2 minutes per cup is closer to the truth. This is still quite speedy, but you'll need someone burly to do the grinding.

Close inspection of the instructions suggests that it "may be necessary to take out the stainless steel Grainbreaker auger for easier grinding". I think that not only may it be necessary, but you should immediately take the Grainbreaker auger out of the mill and toss it into the garbage can.

With the Grainbreaker removed the difficulty of grinding grain with the Grainmaker finally falls into the realm of capability of the less than super-human. The mill will produce a finer flour (8 on the scale of 10) at a rate of one cup per 3 1/2 minutes. The mill still requires a fair amount of torque to turn--more torque than it takes to turn a Country Living Mill equipped with the power bar extension handle option.

Another claim that I put to the test is the assertion that the Grainmaker can do peanuts. The nuts wouldn't feed, so I had to mash them into tiny bits. At this point the bits began to feed into the grinding plates. Unfortunately, those bits never exited--even when I loosened the grinding plates. The only peanut butter that I managed to produce was the goo stuck between the plates. Any claim that the Grainmaker can grind oily product like nuts or seeds appears to be founded in wishful thinking.

Let's face it. Hand grinding flour is hard work, but grinding flour with the Grainmaker is harder work than comparable mills. Its saving grace is that, like the Diamant and Country Living Mill, it has a v-groove in the flywheel, which can be hooked to a motor. However, if you plan to motorize your Grainmaker you'd better make sure your motor has plenty of torque.

The Family Grain Mill

This little German made grinder really surprised me. I expected it to have about the same performance as the Back to Basics Grinder (review impending). This is because the Family Mill's cone burrs look so much like the Back to Basic's burrs. Was I ever wrong. As far as performance goes, this is one fine little grinder. It turns easy and is really fast.

One draw back is that it grinds only a coarse flour on the first grind. If you want a half decent flour you must put this coarse flour through a second time. Over the years I've picked up several prejudices concerning grinders. One of them is that if you must put wheat through a grinder twice to get it fine enough to make bread, that the grinder is not worth having. I found that putting the coarse flour from the first grind through the Family Grain Mill a second time just wasn't a big thing. During the second pass, the handle turns almost effortlessly so the second grind is really easy. Even including the second pass in the efficiency calculation, the Family Grain Mill is the only grinder I tested that had a better efficiency ratio than the Country Living Mill, the acknowledged champ of grinders. After the second grind, the flour was close, but not quite the same fineness as flour ground through the Country Living Mill in one pass.

It took me 41 minutes to put 10 cups of wheat through the Family Grain Mill twice. As already stated, we needed that second grind to improve the flour fineness--as it grinds so coarsely during the first pass. Because it's an easy turning grinder, this would be a fine grinder for women or children.

There are several things I also don't like about the Family Grain Mill. Speaking of the physical aspects of the grinder itself, there's not that much to it. The 1.1" thick plywood base is made out of 17 layers of wood. It's expensive plywood, but a solid block of wood this size wouldn't cost the manufacturer much more. Another negative is that most parts of the mill are made from plastic, including the body.

The grinder itself is small and two of the interconnecting drive pieces are made out of light weight plastic. I have my concerns if these plastic drive pieces would stand up to long term use, especially if larger seeds such as beans or corn were ground. Of all the grinders in the test, this grinder seems to be the least rugged of the bunch and would probably break the first. (Note: The manufacturer of the Family Grain Mill does not recommend grinding popcorn)

When I buy something I like to think I've got my money's worth. Because there really isn't much, physically, to this grinder, it doesn't seem like it's worth anywhere near the $126.00 it costs. Based on performance it's worth every penny, but the durability of the mill is in question.

On the plus side, the Family Grain Mill has several attachments, one of them being a flaker mill (about $70.00 additional). The flaker can take oats or any other grain about the size of wheat or smaller and roll them. I've been told it won't roll hard wheat without soaking, as it's too hard, but I didn't have any trouble when I tried it.

I'd really like to get a few reports from people who have put a couple of tons of wheat through these things to learn if this grinder holds up under long term use. A great performing grinder isn't worth very much if it won't pass the test of time.


The Family Grain Mill internal parts. Not shown are the plastic drive from the crank which turns the plastic auger (left), which turns the rotating burr (second from right). The non-rotating burr is shown second from left and the fineness control that connects to the rotating burr is on the right. Aside from the clamp to attach the grinder to the counter top, the crank handle and the two burrs, every part of this grinder is made from plastic including two parts of the drive mechanism.

Diamant Review

Diamant's Model D - 525 Grain Mill was used for this test. I ground 6 cups of flour in two passes. The Diamant will grind finely in the first pass. However, I have found that it's much easier to grind it coarsely then grind it a second time at the fine setting. In total, between the two grinds, it took me 1090 revolutions at 80 RPM which required a time of 13:31 to turn this into a very fine flour.

Observations

• The flywheel, axle and one burr (the rotating parts) equal 21 lbs so once this weight is turning, the momentum (inertia) makes grinding easier than mills without a heavy flywheel.
• The flywheel handle is longer than some other mills. Two people can turn it by facing each other, each person using one hand to turn the flywheel.
• The mill contains a 3 inch long brass bushing between the housing and the drive shaft for long life (Note: these have since been upgraded to ball bearings like the Country Living Mill).
• The flywheel has a groove for a "V" belt if motorization is desired.
• The mill weighs 53 lbs. Bolting the mill down is highly recommended. Users should be careful not to drop the mill body. Cast iron is far more brittle than steel or aluminum and susceptible to cracking.
  
• Mill comes with wrench, screwdriver and parts list.
• The mill is adjustable to some degree, but different textures of flour require different sets of grinding plates. Diamant sells the All Purpose, Extra Fine, and Extra Coarse grinding plates. Each set runs approximately $135.00.
• Manufactured in Poland
• Though the Diamant makes claims of being able to grind nut butters, the truth is that it doesn't do a very good job of it. The Diamant will produce a small bit of nut butter before clogging, and subsequent nut butter must be forced through with some sort of pestel or rod. The Diamant will suffer similar problems with any soft, moist or oily grain, bean, or nut. This is a common difficulty with hand-grinders and not a limitation unique to the Diamant.
  
• As flour is hot to the touch as it exits many electric mills, the heat generated may damage the vitamin E content of the flour. The 80 RPM average hand speed in this test using the Diamant didn't heat the flour in any way.
• Current Price is approximately $1,300.00

Here are the results for a second timed grinding test:

1. I performed two tests using 3 cups of Hard Red Wheat and then again with 3 cups Hard White Wheat to make a total of 9 cups of very fine flour. I milled the grain twice but this time I attempted to make the effort and revolutions the same for the first and the second grind. I measured the threads per inch on the adjustment screw that pushes the rotary burr against the stationary burr so that the burr to burr distance could be determined.

   

   • First Milling - 0.018", 712 revolutions
   • Second Milling - 0.006", 695 revolutions

   The 1407 Revolutions took 21.6 minutes or 65 RPM. Nine cups of very fine flour were produced from 6 cups of grain, or 156 Revolutions per cup of flour.

Large portions of this review were derived from information and testing data supplied by Don Craig of Kentucky.

Country Living Mill Review

I used to think the United-States-made Country Living Mill (CLM) was over-priced. Our tests have proven to me that the Country Living Mill is the best manual grinder you can get anywhere and well worth the money. Being a burr grinder (carbon steel grinding plates*), it gives quite a nice, fine grind the first time through. It is an easy grinder to turn and grinds fast. It will grind wheat to a nice flour twice as fast as the other grinders in the study. The Diamant is the one exception-- however, the CLM's performance is roughly equivalent to the Diamant but $900.00 cheaper! The CLM is a wonderfully durable grinder. It actually uses ball bearings, at one time the only grinder that didn't use bushings (Recognizing a good thing, recently the Diamant and at least one other grinder has adopted the use of ball bearings). This grinder will last a lifetime, maybe several.

The CLM is light, being made of an aircraft grade aluminum. For those of you with aluminum concerns, the CLM has what is called a 'powder coating' which is baked into an extremely hard protective coating. With the powder coating, you never have to worry about your grain coming into contact with the aluminum. The burrs are made of carbon steel. In my tests, only the Family Grain Mill beat the CLM's efficiency. But because that grinder is such a light duty machine, grinding efficiency is the only comparison that can be made between the two grinders.

I ground 10 cups of wheat in 22 minutes with the CLM**. It was not hard work. That extra-long seven-inch wooden handle was especially nice. The handle alone made the job so much nicer as I could easily use both hands on it. As much as I liked the handle, I'd have liked it even more if it was just one inch longer. For the first 5 cups of wheat ground, I used the power bar extension. For the second 5 cups I took the extension off. Because of the shorter radius I was able to turn the grinder even faster as it still wasn't that hard for me to turn. Women and children may need the extension, but should not find it a difficult grinder to operate. I personally own several different grinders. If times ever get tough, I'm certain the CLM will be the very last grinder I'll give away when helping my neighbors. I just love this thing, and as a bonus, I think it's the prettiest grinder made.

Peanut Butter Update: As of early 2015, Country Living introduced a patented accessory called the Peanut Butter Plus, which swaps out the grain grinding plates in exchange for a steel sleeve which inserts into the throat of the mill. A specially designed auger with very close tolerances slides into this sleeve, and a rotating grinding plate locks onto the end of the shaft.

At first, changing out these parts is a bit slow but after a bit of practice it goes fairly quickly. It also helps that clear instructions (which include photographs) come with the Peanut Butter Plus accessory. Additionally, it turns out that there are video instructions on the manufacturer's website and this clears up any lingering questions one might have about the installation.

A number of other grain mills claim to grind peanut butter, and anyone who has tried grinding with these other mills might be forgiven for being skeptical about the Country Living Mill's claims, as well. Once the peanuts are poured into the hopper it takes about thirty seconds of grinding for the auger to load up and for peanut butter to start extruding from the grinding plates. The auger has a hook on it which breaks up the nuts as they are dragged toward the grinding plates.

Though a wooden pestel is included with the Peanut Butter Plus accessory, I found it wasn't necessary to use it with peanuts at all--and the mill grinds peanut butter at a faster rate than any of the other mills I've tried. The front hub is adjustable and locks in with an Allen wrench when you find the desired setting. Those who like crunchy peanut butter can adjust the mill accordingly, and those who like medium crunchy or smooth peanut butter can easily do those as well with just a little bit of experimenting in order to find the right setting.

At $185.00 for the Peanut Butter Plus accessory the price is fairly steep, but the performance is light years ahead of any other hand mill I've tried. There's no plastic and every part is a machined steel casting.

For those interested in grinding other nuts you might be interested to know that it handles cashews, macadamia, walnuts, and pecans, though some of these must be broken up with the pestel to accommodate feeding. Almonds don't handle as well, as they are harder nuts and don't have the oil content of these others, though I discovered that a mixed nut blend which includes almonds grinds without any difficulties. 

Coarse coffee grinds are managed facilely with the Country Living Peanut Butter accessory and I find that very fine (Turkish or espresso grinds) can be accomplished quickly and easily if one dribbles smaller quantities through while grinding. If one attempts a fine coffee grind with a full hopper the grinding becomes very difficult as the auger loads up. 

*Some cast iron or steel burrs can produce as fine as flour as stone burrs. The fineness of the grind is a function of the design of the burrs and not just the material from which they are constructed.

**The manufacturer's estimate for the speed of flour production is more conservative than the results of this test. They suggest setting aside 20 to 25 minutes to grind 7 cups of bread flour.

Comparing Flours

We start out with the coarsest grinds on the left and progress to ever finer flours as we move to the right. The finer the grind, the better the gluten will develop - the better the flour for bread making.

1. This is wheat after the first pass through the Corona or Victoria grinder. The wheat is just cracked. Some whole kernels of wheat make it through.
2. Wheat after a second pass through the Corona or Victoria grinder. It's finer than the first grind, but still has the coarseness of cracked wheat. The Corona and Victoria mills are not good grinders for bread making.
3. This is Germade, which is included as a reference point to give you some idea where the surrounding flours are on the scale.
4. This flour is from the Back to Basics or Family Grain Grinder after the first grind. In my opinion this flour is still too coarse to make good bread.
5. This flour is from the Back to Basics or Family Grain Grinder after the second grind.
6. Flour from the Diamant, Little Ark with burrs, and Silver Nugget with burrs. This is not a super fine flour but good enough for bread making.
7. The Silver Nugget with Stones.
8. The Little Ark with Stones.
9. Flour ground with an impact grinder - almost the consistency of white, processed flour. This sample, coming from an electric grinder, was also a reference point to compare the other flours to. It's a little darker in color than white flour because of the wheat bran but if you conduct a 'Pinch Test' you will feel very little difference between the two flours. The Silver Nugget, The Little Ark, and the Country Living Grain Mill are capable of producing flour as fine as this on a tighter setting--though production of flour is measurably slower.
   
10. White, processed flour --bleached and nutritionless--included only as a reference point.

Grind Test Chart

From top to bottom: The Country Living, The Nugget, The Little Ark, The Back to Basics, The Family Grain Mill, The Corona and the Diamant.

Click on the chart to view a larger version

[1] With power bar extension handle

[2] Minutes and seconds required to grind one cup of flour at 60 RPM with stones or burrs set at .005 inch. The Family Grain Mill and Back to Basics Grinder burrs were set tight.

[3] Minutes required to grind 10 cups of flour. This time included putting wheat through twice with the Family Grain Mill and Back to Basics Grinders because of their coarse grind on the first pass.

[4] The Country Living Mill will produce a talcum-powder fineness of pastry flour on one pass, but the speed of production is greatly reduced.

[5]The Diamant will make a fine grind with only one pass, but the Diamant test administrator chose to grind the wheat in two passes as he feels it easier to grind this way.

[6] There will be some variation in cost from vendor to vendor

Manual Grain Mill Basics or Grinder 101

When you buy a hand grain mill there are a number of factors to take into consideration. When choosing a grain mill consider your needs and requirements as well as the quality of the mill.

The Three Most Important Things About A Grinder:

1. Flour Fineness: The most important thing about a grinder is how finely it grinds. If it doesn't grind at least a little bit fine, you are never going to get a good loaf of bread out of it.
2. Grinding Speed: There is a huge difference in how fast the different grinders process wheat into flour. Of course, the shorter the time, the better.
3. Pressure Required To Crank The Grinder: There is also a huge difference between the grinders in how hard or easily they are turned. Logic would seem to say that it takes a given amount of energy to grind a cup of wheat to a certain fineness. The easier a grinder turns, the slower one would think it grinds--and vice versa. However, because of the different stone and burr designs, this is not the case. There is a great difference, between various grinders, in how much work must be expended to create the same texture of flour.

Unimportant Considerations:

1. The Hopper Size: People with little or no experience with manual grain grinders incorrectly assume the hopper size is very important, thinking that if the grinder has a small hopper they are going to have to stop and fill the hopper more frequently. This is faulty thinking because it takes such a long time to grind a cup of wheat, even with the very best grinders. The time it takes to stop and throw another cup or two in the hopper amounts to nothing. Interestingly enough, one of the best grinders and the very worst grinder have the same hopper size. Don't be fooled by this. Hopper size doesn't matter.
2. The Way It Looks: There are pretty grinders and there are ugly grinders. I'd a thousand times rather have an ugly, efficient grinder than a pretty piece of junk.

Ten cups of wheat makes approximately 14 cups of flour

The Controversy - Stones VS Burrs: Stones used to be made from natural rock but now are synthetically manufactured from aluminum oxide and various binders. Good burrs are made from carbon steel. You won't find much controversy over burrs, but you will concerning stones.

Stones: I like a stone grinder because they give a finer grind than many burr grinders (though the Country Living Mill is an exception-- a burr grinder that will mill an ultra-fine cake flour). Modern grinder stones are made from aluminum oxide. This includes the stones in the Little Ark, the Nugget, and the electric Golden Grain Grinder. Stones get a very bad rap for two reasons.

1. Grit In The Flour: The American Dental Association has made a statement that's often repeated by numerous dentists, "You shouldn't use stone ground flour because the grit the stones leave in the flour will wear your teeth down." This might be true of stone ground flour in the third world where native populations use two rocks to grind their meal, but it is not true of these modern grinders. Aluminum oxide stones are extremely hard. After the break in period, these stones wear down very slowly.
   
   I'm told stories all the time by people who have motorized their manual grinders and from people who own electric grinders with aluminum oxide stones. They have individually put tons of wheat through their grinders over many years and their stones are still serviceable. My mom is just one example. Forty years ago when I was a little kid, she got what is now called the Golden Grain Grinder and has used it every week for making bread since then. The stones are still like new. Through all my growing years of eating her bread, I have never felt one piece of grit between my teeth.
   
   I expect there have been people who pull their Little Ark or Nugget grinder out of the box, push the directions aside and grind up a cup of flour. Then they never use their grinder again because they found grit in the flour from this first grind. Both of these grinders need to be broken in by putting at least a quart of wheat through them, then discard the flour. After the stones are broken in, that's the end of the grit.
2. Health Concerns About The Stones' Composition; Aluminum Oxide: Some claim that the aluminum oxide can't be absorbed by our digestive systems, and many of us literally eat aluminum every day--as some baking powders are 1/3 alum, a form of aluminum. And many people use aluminum pots. There is valid reason for concern, however, as high amounts of aluminum have been found during autopsies of Alzheimer victims. There's a hot debate today concerning the effects of aluminum on our health.
   
   I've seen several people choose not to buy one of these grinders because of the aluminum oxide stones. There is a difference between aluminum and aluminum oxide. When these stones are made, the manufacturer starts out with the same material that aluminum is made from, bauxite. Bauxite is a red clay that's dug out of the earth, then heated up to over 2,000 degrees C for several days until all that's left is a cinder. This is what the stones are made from. See Treibacher Schleifmittel's web page for more information on how aluminum oxide is made. A standard aluminum goes through a completely different manufacturing process. The bottom line is you will have to make up your own minds about this issue and go with a burr or impact grinder if you still feel aluminum oxide poses a health risk to you.

Cost VS Use: You may wish to temper your decision by the quality of grinder you will be spending your hard earned cash on, and by how much you think you will be using it. There's got to be tons of people out there who have a manual grinder, have never used it, and depending on circumstances may never use it. Contrast this with the families who use a grinder every week to make bread, pancakes, rolls and other things with freshly ground flour.

Do you want a manual grinder that will only be used to get you through the tough scrapes or will you be using it all the time? Some people want the very best grinder made, whether they are going to use it a lot or not. Other people will purchase the least expensive grinder they can find--then learn that it won't meet their needs when they begin to use it. Perhaps some real thought should be put into getting a grinder that will nicely serve the expected needs of your family, whatever they may be.

The Testing Process

Why A Ten Cup Grind? Turning a grinder for 2 or 3 revolutions is one thing. Grinding a full cup of wheat is a very different thing, and grinding enough wheat to make a nice batch of bread is quite another thing. We did a 10 cup grind so you could get some idea what these different grinders were like if you needed to make lots of flour with them.

Grinding Wheat Is Work: The first thing people need to know is that grinding wheat is a LOT OF WORK! Wheat is very hard stuff and it takes a huge amount of energy to turn it into soft, powdery flour. As the tests show, some manual grinders require much less energy than others.