Review on Olde Thompson Caffe Pepper Shaker by Laurel Rohr

I wanted to buy a pepper mill with a comparable mechanism to Peugeot (if not better). I bought this and a Kyocera ceramic grinder to see which would compare to an old grinder that I had to throw away. To my knowledge, the Olde Thompson pepper mill is based on carbon steel. That means it's really tough, can take a beating, but has its Achilles' heel when it's wet. I have carbon steel items in my kitchen (Japanese knives and utensils) and I'm really tired of keeping them perfectly dry after use. My main concern was that if the grinder was exposed to excessive steam over time (when using the grinder over soup pots etc) it could speed up the rusting process. To date nothing has happened and I would say I don't take particular care to be gentle with the grinder - the grinder is MUCH better than the ceramic model I had - and, well, it's just perfect. Pros: The pepper mill mechanism is one of the best, better than ceramic and more advanced mill mechanisms. The grinder allows for both very fine grinding and slightly coarse grinding, finer grinding is excellent and not grainy at all. So it's very nice to use it on the plate itself. Cons: Since it comes with a salt shaker, there aren't really any conditions for cleaning large grains of salt, especially if you're using exotic salts. I'm not entirely sure about the overall lifespan of the salt shaker. grinder, but with my chronic use I can predict a lifespan of at least 4-5 years (I use about 50-80 grams of pepper per week through this grinder)