Hand Coffee Mills-Coffee Grinders-Manual for Brewed and Espresso

To brew great coffee or espresso the quality of the grind is extremely important. The grind must be even with few fines. The fines will produce a bitterness to the cup along with sediment. Coffee is best ground rather than chopped/diced. The whirly blade grinders are not really coffee grinders in the traditional sense because they chop/dice the beans and produce a poor result. Coffee grinders use hardened steel burrs either flat or conical for grinding. The quality of the grind will depend on the the quality of the grinder. Electric grinders can be bought for $50.- $2000+. More money will get you a better grind and better durability. The quality of the grinder is most important when producing espresso. A decent home espresso grinder is $200+. Many will buy a used commercial grinder such as the Mazzer mini or super jolly for $200-$400 as they are built for years of trouble free grinding. The problem with these commercial grinders is they are quite large and heavy and expensive.
So what if you want a quality grind from a durable and smaller grinder for less than $100. Consider A Hand Coffee Mill! A good quality hand mill can produce a grind on par with top commercial grinders. They can be adjusted for fineness of grind. The best co. still producing these mills is Zassenhaus and can be found on the Sweet Marias coffee site. I find the old grinders by Zassenhaus, Dienes, KYM, Trosser are the most beautiful in design and the highest quality build. You just have to find one in good condition that spent more time on display than it did grinding coffee!
There is a family owned site that refurbishes old mills and offers them for sale. They do great work. www.orphanespresso.com
Below are a few pictures from my collection of old coffee mill. They were produced between the 1920s and 1950s. These were all made by the Peter Dienes PeDe co. in Germany.
Hand Mill disassembled Wall mounted model