I just got this one from my aunt, who has 'upgraded' to a whirly blade. There is a rumour that this was the kitchen grinder in my grandmothers house in Germany, and that she got it when she went to empty the house after my grandmother passed.
Other than the pics and the grind lock detail, there are no other 'marks or scars' that could lead to an identity. It's a bit larger than most other hand grinders, at about nine inches tall and six inches square, and grinds like crazy fast. It has a four-pointed conical burr, and the plaque that read 'Kaffee', but I've not seen another like it.
It resembles the cheap Chinese knock-offs that are primarily for looks, but it grinds remarkably well.

Anyone have any idea what beast this is?



Here's a shot of the grind lock detail:



I'd be happy to provide other angles, details, etc., if you have an idea that needs panning out.

Waiting for Doug or Barb on this one.

http://www.fino-caffe.de/maschinen.html (look upper left)

Ps. I used to visit german sites for some info over coffee (no I don't speak german) I knew I had seen it somewhere! anyway.. at least now we know it's not a chinese knock off

psyd,

after I found that one I did a little search in google images with the help of yahoo's babelfish translator. search for the word "kaffeemühle" or "kaffeemühlen" you'll find some results. and try searching same words in german ebay http://www.ebay.de there also you'll find many results which some of 'em looks almost identical to yours, like this one --> http://cgi.ebay.de/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vie ... 0344492651

here is a very interesting one from google images search:

http://www.anna-tesch.de/bilder/kaffeemuehle.jpg (a painting of your grinder)

****************

EDIT: okay, some more research and found one at german ebay exactly like yours --> http://cgi.ebay.de/Kaffeemuehlen-20-30e ... 7C294%3A50

kahvedelisi wrote:after I found that one I did a little search in google images with the help of yahoo's babelfish translator. search for the word "kaffeemühle" or "kaffeemühlen" you'll find some results.

Oh kahve, I have found all of these images. I've searched German eBay, and found about a dozen of these for same grinders for sale. Unfortunatley, none of the sellers knows what kind of grinder these are, other than they found them in granny's attic, or have retrieved them from estate sales. On a side note, I'm taking orders for West German and pre-war Zasses, older PeDe and PeVes, Peugots, Leinhartzes, etc, as I'm going to go to Germany and win a few dozen one Euro grinders, travel from town to town picking them up, and bring them all back as luggage and sell them to other hand-grinder fanatics here and on CG to pay for the trip! ; >

So, in short, I can find a lot of places to see a grinder just like mine, but none (so far) that know anything about them other than they are just like mine.

Anyone have any contacts in the coffee world in Germany?

sorry those didn't help

I don't know anyone personally from germany, but there is this guy who has a blog and I used to follow his articles as much as I could (yeah babelfish again )

http://www.wolfredo.de/

we had some questions about german coffee scene and he had given his contact info at coffeegeek --> http://coffeegeek.com/members/Wolfredo

I know not much but guess better than nothing besides even with babelfish translator he has some great and very detailed articles there, lots of good info.

No help here either. "Kaffee" is often used on Zass labels. I have seen books about hand grinders on ebay US and DE. The stepped adjustment looks better than others I have seen, so the best part is that it grinds well.

I'm still in love with the lot of my hand grinders, and continue to appreciate the craftsmanship each time I one. A trip through Germany to find a few treasures would really be fun. Good luck!

PC

peacecup wrote: A trip through Germany to find a few treasures would really be fun. Good luck!

Well, I'm still carrying the fifteen pounds I brought back with me from the last trip, so, maybe I will, maybe I won't! ; >

KIND OF looks like a Puegot? I cant be sure, but that was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw it.

JmanEspresso wrote:KIND OF looks like a Puegot? I cant be sure, but that was the first thing that popped in my head when I saw it.

'Kind of' looks like a lot of grinders, depending on which part of the grinder you're looking at. I've been down that road too many times, and I've just given up trying to identify it by family traits.

One thing that sez too me that it ain't a Zass, and it ain't a PeDe is the four point inner burr. The Zasses have six, and the PeDes five. I don't know who makes a burr with four-points.