Mockmill problem
My recent batch of flour milled with a Mockmill has had chips in it that I believe come from the millstones. I noticed 2 black chips that were definitely stone (I checked that they were not bran or seed debris by hitting them with a metal mallet and found that they remained intact and made a small hole in the wooden board they were resting on). The grain was very clean and from a source that I have used for over a year. Much of my bread goes out of the house to friends and now I'm nervous to continue using the mill. I also like my own teeth.
I have been using a Mockmill to mill wheat and rye for about 9 months. I mill about 1500 grams (or so) of grain per week, and have not had this problem so far. But, though I normally grind hard spring wheat and rye, this batch was kamut, which is bigger and harder than the other grain. But it should still be much softer than the millstones.
Has anyone had such a problem and what did you do?
I went back to using my metal wheel kitchenaid mill for this weekend's bakes, but it produces a coarser grind and heats the grain up, so it's not a long term solution.
You should probably be asking Mockmill via email info@wolfgangmock.com
I know how to contact the company and am familiar with their problem solving strategy. I think it’s a good product overall, and the company is earnest and reputable, but manufacturers often are in denial about their product‘s limitations.
Thus, it is actually useful to gather user anecdotes. Do you have experience with the product to share?
None other than mine works perfectly. Best of luck to you.
have you milled kamut?
I've had no problem of that nature with my original Mockmill or it's replacement and I have milled Einkorn, very similar to Kamut, Durham, hard red and white wheats, rye and dent corn. The problem that led to the replacement of my original Mockmill was not related to a failure of its stones but had to do with a design flaw of early models that made disassembly for cleaning almost impossible. Simply communicating my problem to the company and asking if I were overlooking some trick to the disassembly resulted in a full replacement at no cost that was carried out in a week with no requirement to return the defective mill. I can say that I've never dealt with a company more accommodating and committed to customer satisfaction.
I agree that einkorn is pretty similar to kamut. One thought I had was that I hadn’t put the grindstones far enough apart to accommodate the big grains at the start of the milling and the millstones touched a bit then. I used my normal wheat starting setting.
I’m going to mill a bunch of white rice to look over. Then I’ll talk it over with mockmill (and I’ve also had a full replacement from them due to an early problem, though they asked to have the mill to examine). They are a good company.