Pepper Mill

The pepper grinder, or pepper mill, was an innovation that brought greater ease of use and time savings to the traditional method using mortar and pestle. We have Jean-Pierre and Jean-Frédéric Peugeot, French brothers who in 1810 founded what would become a well know automobile manufacturer, to thank. They turned their family’s grain mill into a steel foundry, and developed methods for sharper saw teeth that would last much longer. By 1840 they had developed uniquely long lasting grinding gears as well, creating the first mechanical coffee grinders. Around 1870 this led to the “model Z” pepper mill, which would not look out of place in your kitchen today.

I’m not sure what the Peugot brothers would think about the “Pepper Mill” from Mark van Elteren, an invention of an entirely different sort. Rather than solving a problem to make life easier, Mark’s mill sets out to create all sorts of new ones! Mark brings a refreshing and highly skilled approach to the world of mechanical puzzles.

“I am half Slovenian and half Dutch, I am 25 and live/work in Slovenia. I made knives for a living for a few years, and my interests gradually shifted towards machining, which I now do professionally, and also as a hobby/business in my home workshop. In need of a good project during Covid, I designed and made my first, very simple, captive nut puzzle. I made another slightly more complex version, and some people were quite interested, so I slowly designed Tool Box in the next few months, and about a year later the designs for Pepper Mill started coming together. Tool box was my first real, complex puzzle and I learned quite a bit about automation and optimizing processes, as well as some basic puzzle design guidelines.

I liked the rugged, heavy, chunky style of Tool Box, so the design idea was to go for something similar, but round and a little more elegant, with more pieces and higher difficulty. My favorite part of Pepper Mill is the final [hidden mechanism] and the way all of the mechanism connect to make it work. The name actually came from a customer that commented on the similarity to a pepper mill :)

I make the puzzles on manual machines, and I make every part myself, so there were quite a few fixturing and machining challenges along the way, but they are now mostly solved and I make the puzzles in batches to keep time/puzzle down. I made a few minor changes during the first batch, which solved some reliability issues and made the puzzle feel more accurate, while also making production faster. I needed/wanted some speciality tooling for my machine shop, so I designed a few of the features around that, to give me a good excuse to buy more tools. For puzzles I work mainly with aluminium, stainless steel and steel, but I do quite a lot of work with plastic outside of puzzles.

I adapt some of my ideas from everyday mechanisms - different machine clutches, locks, pivot systems ... the rest are more or less spontaneous ideas, adapted and changed until they fit and work in a puzzle. I had a few more interesting mechanisms in mind that didn´t quite fit into the envelope of this puzzle, so I will use them on the next one, which will likely be even bigger, and more of a safe than a puzzle.

The Pepper Mill is a massive chunk of metal. Fortunately the main body is milled from aluminum, so while still heavy, it is manageable to hold and manipulate. It has a striking, almost steampunk like appearance, with all sorts of interesting features to explore and ponder. The goal, which is quite challenging to achieve, is to take the pepper mill apart, and marvel at its many complex mechanical mechanisms. Contained in the mill are all manner of interesting tools and components that are used in multiple ways, independently and combined, to advance the journey. It’s not easy, and there are some very well hidden steps that had me stumped for a long time. Mark put a lot of spice and seasoning into this creation – he’s set the bar high for whatever he cooks up next.

Slivopolitan cocktail — Slivopolitan by Dushan Zaric

Slovenia, a mountainous country south of Austria in central Europe, has a rich tradition of fruit brandy. Perhaps most famous locally for their juniper berry brandy, they are perhaps better known internationally for their plum brandy, known generally as slivovitz. Brandy made from the damson plum is regional to many countries in central and southeastern Europe. It is typically served at room temperature to allow the flavors to come out, in a shot glass. It can be quite strong, to put it mildly.

Dushan Zaric, a Yugoslavian cocktail industry leader who created the well known bar Employees Only, groups slivovitz in that category of spirits that is very hard to work with in a cocktail. It tends to dominate everything else, and like a “bull in a china shop”. Zaric has vast experience with creating and refining classic, well balanced, and innovative cocktails, so ought to know. He actually created one really good cocktail with slivovitz for the bar once, a variation on the Cosmopolitan, and the only decent cocktail with slivovitz he could ever find. Na zdravje!

pepper mill puzzle mark van elteren with Slivopolitan cocktail — plum pair

Slivopolitan by Dushan Zaric

1 ½ oz slivovitz

1 oz Cointreau

¾ oz plum puree

½ oz lime

Shake ingredients with ice and strain into a coupe. Plum wedge.

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Pepper Mill

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