Paul Pratt's polished round aluminum knob with steel base Bumper. It's gorgeous, and the thick base practically guarantees a level tamp every time. The Dalla Corte actually comes with a pretty nice all-aluminum tamper, but I wanted something beautiful on the counter.

Second from the left:

1 Espro Click convex tamper

But I've only been at this for a bit over a month now

Who me?
1 Reg Barber, three plastic thingies, 1ea. LMWDP #090 Compressore from OlywaDave!, 4 Espressme specials, A few bases, A few *$ combos. Does 1 pill bottle count??
I do have a few machines to go with them and a machine shop in the basement!
Many happy pulls to all!
Cheers
Richard

For nearly 8 years I have been using the same, one-piece, flat-bottom, 58mm, all-aluminum tamper I bought when I got Silvia, and it works great with the VBM..

I started with an Iberital-branded convex tamper, chromed with a varnished wood handle. It's a bad fit, and very hard to use. The lump on top is very uncomfortable, and it rattles around inside a basket with masses of room to spare. It does duty in the neck of my major, stopping my single-dose beans from flying about when I grind, and I also flip it upside down if I need to tamp a single - it's almost exactly the same size as the middle of my single basket. http://www.happydonkey.co.uk/iberital-e ... amper.html

I then got a RB C-flat with a ball handle. I have quite long hands, so I found that uncomfortable as well - all the pressure was applied through my finger tips, and the ball didn't reach the palm of my hand no matter what I tried.

I -then- switched to a RB flat with an aluminium tall handle. Very comfy, sits in my hand very nicely, and the flat base seems to give me the best results.

Hopefully, that should be it for my. Although some of those Thors -do- look rather fetching...

How many tampers?

La Marzocco badged Bumper with flat base
Original Bumper with flat base
Original Bumper with curved base
Beyond the Bean with curved base
Torr Maesabirch with flat base
Pullman Deluxe with flat base
Reg Barber with curved base for single baskets

HA!
I only own two, both Espro clickers, one flat and one convex.
I also own Vivacissimo(*)... but that is for my Caravel, so fits in the other two.



(*)Vivacissimo is Schomer's Vivace Ergo Packer transformed by big green heavy russian monster machine... a lathe... into a tamper with correct piston fit for The Ultimate Home Lever Machine

I've got three: A Bumper, a Bubinga Thor & a Coffeelab Design. The Coffeelab is my favorite & the only one I've used in ages. The Thor sits on top of the S1 relegated to eye candy duty & the Bumper is in a drawer someplace.

Dan,

When I click on "view results", it doesn't show any.

1st-line 58mm African Rosewood Chrome Plated FLAT
Espresso Parts Anodized Compressore Espresso CONVEX

EDIT: But after posting this reply the results finally showed up.

Generic Aluminum (pretty good, but on loan)
La Marzocco Plastic 57mm
Bumper (w/3 handles)
Pullman "Deluxe" (broken handle)
Espro
Coffeelab (have two or three, but only one at home - must have loaned them out)

Pullman "barista" on the way

Most of my tampers have been gifts from the manufacturers or importers for putting them in touch with people, giving feedback as part of the design process or just because they happened to be nice guys. I don't really think that the tamper makes that much difference in the cup, but comfortable tampers are appreciated when working as a barista and it's just plain pleasant to own and use a tamper that is made nicely and looks good. I'm very appreciative of people's generosity in giving me these tampers, but I don't think that newbies should feel that there is much benefit in having a drawer full of tampers.

Cheers,

Luca