old humper mill

OLD HUMPER MILL

I’ve often said that sometimes in life you DON’T get screwed and the cheapest item can at times usually be the best.  For instance, the Moro knife.  It is about the best starter/basic carbon steel knife, and the cheapest.  The only thing you can complain about is the sheath, being some God awful plastic contraption which looks like it could only be placed on a string belt.  Now, this CAN be utilized to your advantage.  In the cold weather ( 9 months of the year ) walking the mutt, I can place the sheath in my jacket pocket fliped around so the clip holds the knife upright and just out of sight at the zippered opening.  When it is summer I clip it to the waistband of my shorts, inside.  Placed next to my crotch the knife is invisible with my shirt out.  The sheath sucks as a belt unit but is good for stealth.

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It used to be true that the best military rifle was the cheapest, a factory refurbished Lee-Enfield rifle at $125 when AR-15’s were going for a grand.  No, Spanky, I do NOT even consider the Mosin-Nagant a contender in the military rifle category.  It was good for one thing and one thing only and that was as a Butter Knife Gun ( the idea of a butter knife is that for 25cents [ now fifty ] you can arm a potential tribal member.  They sharpen it up, and if they can pull off killing an enemy troop with it and capturing his weapon and ammo, he was in ).  The Mosin-Nagant was a terribly designed gun to begin with, not even beginning to be troop friendly, but then the morons made it worse.

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Look, I’m sorry.  I don’t care who you are, but if you want your gun to blow up in someone’s face, you can’t call yourself a designer.  The rifle had no gas escape vent.  The Enfield and Mauser did.  And they did it for one simple reason.  In the 1890’s, chemical powders and primers were crap ( compared to forty years down the road ).  Primer cups and cartridge cases could rupture regularly.  The vent protected the user.  No vent, no protection.  Should that matter to the survivalist/militiaman?  Only insofar if they ever handloaded or cottage industry manufactured reloading components which I think in theory includes all of them.  The modern steel cased ammo somewhat protected the user, since it did NOT swell upon firing and seal the breech and gases escaped through the bolt, reducing a case rupture down to the danger of a primer failure ( which while not fun was at least not face melting dangerous like an exploding breech ).

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Anyway.  I can’t imagine who in their right mind would spend the current $300 on a Mosin-Nagant, let alone fifty cents for a crappy steel case round, but you never know.  It needed to be said.  Moving on.  The cheapest water filter might not be THE very bestest, but as far as Safe Enough performance per gallon, it sure enough is.  You can spend $60 on a Katadyn filter element and make a homemade drip filter using one of the best name brands out there to get 13,000 gallons, or you can spend $60 and get THREE filters rated up to 100k gallons each ( you know, because One Is None ).  I have multitudes of each, but I’m trusting Sawyer with my life.

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The BEST grain grinder is also the cheapest.  Yes, the Victorian mill ( made in Mexico, used to be the famous Corona brand ) is a brute to use.  It is also a brute in that it is built like a tank, meant to be an investment lasting a lifetime ( just beware of rust ).  Since it was designed for corn, it sucks grinding wheat.  You just run it through three times rather than once.  Sure, that sucks.  But it will NEVER fail you.  I have three of them, as well as three cheap Chinese knock-off’s.  But only because I got them on sale at under $20 at the time.  It was too cheap NOT to.  I bought so many because, duh, you don’t store a ton of wheat and just have one grinder for it.  But I doubt I’ll ever need the back-ups, either.  These things are old school design, where you didn’t plan in failure as a business model.

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Now.  Here is the thing.  I know some of you are too frail to use the Corona.  I get winded doing a three quarters full hopper ( about two cups of flour ).  Remember, three times grinding.  Once through on course ( 3 o’clock ), once medium ( noon ) and once fine ( 9 o’clock ).  7 o’clock is fully closed and you don’t want that.  Metal on metal will put shavings in your flour.  It is like tightening up that bike wheel.  Fully close, then back off slightly.  I’ve gone from grinding twice a week to three times ( or four, depending on consumption ).  I just don’t grind as much at one time and I’m fine on this grinder.  If you can’t even do that, there might still be an alternative manual grinder for you.

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You might think a motor driven grinder is a good idea, but you just designed the Mosin-Nagant rifle.  Sure, the gun is unaffected in the Artic north, or by unburned powder build up.  It is also unaffected by cleaning and oiling.  It is ALWAYS difficult to load or cycle.  When you motorize something, it will ALWAYS fail.  Your only question is timing.  When you buy a motorized machine, what you are doing is saying “screw my descendants”.  You don’t want them to have a needed tool.  You selfish humper!  Just like with Social Security, isn’t it?  Okay, peace.  I won’t get into that.  I’m trying to be seriously humorous.  Manual tools are your best bet, whenever feasible.  They simply perform better, longer and with less worry. 

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There is a manual grain grinder that is SOOOO much easier to use than the Corona ( yes, I know it is called Victoria now.  I just told you that.  I’m using the old name because this new grinder I speak of has a very similar name and I’m trying to avoid confusion ).  It is called the Basic Grain Mill by some companies but is also known as the Victorio brand mill.  I had one for Y2k and I think back then it cost $65.  Now it is around $75.  Except through Amazon, where it is $51 with free shipping.  I’ve used this unit and it is much, much easier to use than the Corona. 

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BUT!!!! And there is always a butt hanging around.  It eats its plastic washers.  You can literally see tiny plastic shavings falling from the washer housing as you are grinding.  So, this is still the preferred manual type grinder.  It is WAY easier to manipulate, a really big plus for the aged and infirm.  It is much lighter and smaller if you are say, stashing a cache of food ( this whole subject crystalized for me as I was thinking on my needed BOL, which is a subject covered elsewhere ).  It ONLY costs $10 more than the Corona.  I’m not recommending them OVER the Corona, I’m saying that they are the next best thing if the Corona is too much tool for you ( just like some folks need to downgrade from a full size thirty cal bolt to a carbine round or semi, as they need a less hard hitting weapon.  Or like how the 357 is too much pistol for a lot of smaller folk.  A 9mm that will hit is better than a 357 that will miss ).

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Here is the new, lighter, easier to use Victorio on Amazon:

https://amzn.to/2NTu1PJ

Now, don’t even think about owning this grinder unless you have back-up plastic washers for it.  You need to go to the company that makes them.  No, I have no idea how many you need.  I would keep careful records and see how many pounds you can grind per washer ( I got rid of my unit after just that one hopper of wheat ), then I would double that number of needed washers.  I know this subject was discussed here before, long ago.  So I apologize if there was anything I’ve forgotten, or needs to be repeated by minions using this grinder.  Here is the web page for the washers for sale:

http://www.victorioproducts.com/parts/grain-mill-vkp1014/nylon-washer

( .Y. )

( today's related link https://amzn.to/2MSGAyp )

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