For those of you following my thread in the lever forum, you know that I'm in the process of getting a Ponte Vecchio Lusso. The rest of you now know that as well. I wanted to add an image to that thread to show how great my new 45mm tamper looked, but I thought it deserved better recognition than that. So here are a few pictures of the tamper that Les sent me. For $50, including shipping, I got the work of art below. I first contacted Les via email on Tuesday in the late morning or early afternoon. We spoke by phone to confirm the order in the evening (my evening, his afternoon), and just 15 minutes after I sent the paypal payment, he emailed me that the tamper had been priority mailed.

Damn does that tamper look good. I didn't expect the wood tamper to have such a good feel (weight, texture, and hand position), but it's great. Now I'll let the pictures do the talking.

It looks gorgeous. I'd be concerned, though, that the finish would wear down eventually and oils from the coffee would eventually accumulate in the grain, turn rancid, and effect the flavor of the puck.

Nice looking tamper! Les may have a source of business from new Lusso owners given it doesn't come with a properly fitted tamper (one end of the POS plastic tamper is way too small, the other way too big). Another source for custom tamper pistons is espressoparts.com. For only $5 extra, they'll size a piston to your specification within 0.1mm.

gilrain wrote:It looks gorgeous. I'd be concerned, though, that the finish would wear down eventually and oils from the coffee would eventually accumulate in the grain, turn rancid, and effect the flavor of the puck.

Les has considered all that, and it really does perform far better than you'd expect. As long as, you know, you don't go fiddling with finishes and such. DAMHIKIJK.

Here are shots of my well used Thor Tamper -



The first ironwood tamper Les made.



Around 3 years (maybe more?) of use.



Slight chipping due to use.

Bob

Ciao!

My Thor 45mm is the unweighted Classic ($35) in Myrtlewood w/ African Blackwood base. Using a light tamp with the Lusso, it works superbly. To protect the wood from my kitchen counter, I use an inverted shotglass for a pedestal. Les is, btw, a lever-head himself, and recently acquired an Elektra MCAL.