Questions we get asked

The ceramic-burr mills. Salt is corrosive and will pit hardened steel over time, so every salt mill in the range uses a ceramic burr instead. Pepper mills use a hardened steel burr, which cuts a peppercorn cleanly rather than crushing it.

The two are not interchangeable. A mill is built as one or the other and labelled accordingly.

Turn the cap clockwise until it stops for the finest grind, then anticlockwise, counting clicks. One click is coarser than the last. Six is a cracked, uneven grind for finishing; one is close to a powder.

Dry whole spices of roughly peppercorn size work in a steel-burr mill — coriander seed, allspice, dried juniper. Anything oily, fibrous or damp will clog the burr: no cloves, no cinnamon bark, no dried chilli with the flesh still soft.

Almost always a part-full hopper. The mechanism needs weight above it to feed. Top it up past the halfway mark and the grind evens out.

No. Every mill is supplied empty. Filling it at the factory means you get whatever we bought in bulk months earlier, and it adds weight to the shipping. Buy the peppercorns you like.

15cm sits on a table without blocking anyone. 21cm is the everyday size and holds enough for a week of cooking. 28cm is for a worktop, and for reaching over a pan without lifting your arm.

So you can see the level without opening the cap. Salt runs out faster than pepper and always at the wrong moment.

Pale ash is sealed with a clear matte water-based lacquer. Black ash is dyed through and then sealed the same way. The pine green is a pigmented lacquer over the same ash body, so the grain still reads under it.

$5.95 anywhere in the United States, on any order. Outside the US it is $14.95. There is no free-shipping threshold and no surcharge for the tall mills.

Orders leave within two business days. US delivery is typically 5 to 8 business days after that; international is 10 to 20, depending on customs. You get a tracking number when the parcel is scanned, not when the label is printed.

No. Import duty and local tax outside the US are collected by your carrier or customs office and are not included in what you pay us.

Yes, if it has not shipped. Email us with the order number and we will stop it.

30 days from delivery, for any reason, provided the mill has not been filled. Return shipping is yours unless the mill is faulty or we sent the wrong thing. We refund to the original payment method once it arrives back.

We cover manufacturing defects in the grinding mechanism for two years from delivery. Send us a photograph and the order number; we replace the mill. Normal wear, a dropped mill, and damage from grinding something it was not built for are not covered.

Not yet. If a cap or a collar goes missing, write to us — we hold spares from production and will usually just send one.