sifters

I bought one and used it a few times, and found it did not sift out much of the bran, so haven't used it since.  In my research, I saw that users preferred the ones with 4 tines over the ones with 2 tines, and the ones with a turn handle as opposed to a squeeze handle.  Sorry,  I can't give you much more input. 

That look like a large round cake pan with a screen in the bottom.  The flour is then shaken side to side over a large bowl or counter top and most efficient for one or two cups at a time with plenty of room in the sieve.  Mesh varies, I prefer brass before plastic.  Keep it dry and in a large zipper bag between uses and try not to wash it if you don't have to.

The typical kitchen sieve is usually too large to use.  You might find this old thread (they never get old around here) interesting and informative....

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/5947/home-milled-flour

Mass market kitchen sieves tend to have a mesh size that doesn't retain much beyond what we used to call 'hamster bedding" -- the small quantity of really large bits in whole milled flour.  They don't retain enough to make useful high-extraction flour.  So I bought a 50# mesh sieve from fantes.com several years ago.  It's been a very useful tool.  Fantes still sells them: stainless steel, 9-10" diameter, $15-20.  They are very effective at sifting out larger fractions from whole milled (or store bought reconstituted, for that matter) flours.  When I was relying on a Kitchen-Aid KGM mill, I used to mill right onto the sieve positioned over a bowl (larger diameter than the sieve).  I would mill a hopper full onto the sieve, cover it with a dispo shower cap (freebies from hotel bathrooms), grab sieve + bowl and vigorously shake the millings through, then re-mill the retained fraction, repeating the milling-sieving cycle 3-4 times in succession before preparing doughs.  That way I'd end up with 10-20% of the original grain in the retained fraction and could use the 80-90% pass-through as high extraction flour, or just re-combine the retained with the pass-through for whole-milled flour.  Worked very well, if a bit labor intensive.  I no longer do any of that because I have a 'real' (Komo) mill that yields fine enough flour with one pass that re-milling isn't necessary.  Still use the sieve for drying grains and sieving sauces.

Happy Sieving,

Tom

I'm partial to the brass/stainless mesh sieves from affordablesieves.com. I have the 12" full height in multiple mesh sizes. I use the 50 mesh more than the rest. Make sure you get a bottom pan too. Hope that helps.

-Chris

All I want is 2 or 3 sieves that do not cost into the hundreds. I like my bread....but not that much! I do not need gold-framed, top of the line, etc. Just something for my home milling. I'm thinking mesh like 40, 50, and something to produce a 00 pastry flour.

This sieve business is getting awful meshy. (sorry, I couldn't help myself)

Thanks in advance for responses.