I researched and bought a m&p for my kitchen, and bought a spiffy and big one (8" height, $40), and was amazed, having always associated them as modern professional tools with bygone pharmacies.
Obviously those wanting to be The Chef With the Best can buy this to make pesto, but am I correct that the (real) tolerances in material hardness, smoothness, etc. are discernible for the tool’s application?
I know they use them in compounding pharmacies. A quick search shows lots of expensive ones for that use. I’m guessing a very smooth grit with nothing to affect the product being ground.
FWIW, following your lead, I found apothecary/compounding pharmacy supply stores didn’t come close to those design/price points, but Thomas Scientific and Fisher stock that one as well as other pricey higher-tech ones, eg liquid NO, diamond-like materials. One product is for “re-suspending bacterial cells, precipitates of nucleic acids or proteins and pellets of other materials” which presumably get smooshed up.
So somewhere biology people use M&Ps, which I really never would have suspected.
It wouldn’t be that particular model (way too big) but a P&M would be used in sample prep for solid state analyses - infra red (nujol mull prep) is the obvious example, but I imagine there are a lot of other solid state analyses that need a finely ground sample for testing.
Though you wouldn’t use a P&M in an industrial process, you might in very early development - for small scale lab batches. A $1600 model, though? Probably not.
“P&M”? “Pestle & Mortar” I presume. Man, you guys. Any idea why such a contrarian designation? Or are you messing with me? – Bertie Wooster has been known to enjoy his toothsome eggs, b., and coffee in the morning, and on second mention it’s e., bacon, and coffee…)
As to actua content of post, thanks, and I’ll reply when I get a chance…
I am nor sure why the mortar and pestle in the OP is so expensive. Perhaps it is for use in a laboratory and must be able to resist all manner of nasty substances and not allow any residue to remain after cleaning in nooks and crannies.
A mortar and pestle for pharmaceutical work seem to be available for anywhere from $13 to $130.
Price is likely a combination of the cost of the raw materials, the difficulty of making the huge (for the material) mortar from it, and the small market. Here is a site selling yttria stabilized zirconia powder at $1,448 for 5000 grams. The mortar and pestle are said to weigh a combined 8 pounds, which means $1,050 worth of that powder. The utility of it is in the description–60 times harder than steel, resistant to chemicals. It has “very high mechanical strength”, “very low thermal conductivity”, “high impact resistance”, “high chemical resistance”, “very high wear resistance”, “high corrosion resistance”, “very high erosion resistance.”
Basically, it costs more but it’s worth it and now I want a set of dishes made from the stuff. (Not likely to be toxic, since it goes in people’s mouths.) Buy one of those and it’ll probably still be in use by the post-apocalyptic cyborgs to grind their meals of old CPUs.
I have used a M&P with several sizes of alumina grit on frozen bacterial cell pellets (first step in crude protein extractions) within the past 6 months. It’s low tech, but it’s surprisingly effective for protein isolation.
We used zirconium mortars in geochemistry lab for anything over Mohs 6 (agate for anything under that). In a lot of geochem analysis, rocks are crushed down to fine powder - since you’re usually dealing with small samples in a university lab, there’s no call for anything more than a hand mortar (professional labs still use zirconium, but in automated mortars). And yes, my understanding is the cost is strictly because of the material.
Back when I did a short stint in a hospital lab (c. 1990), there were a couple of mortar and pestle sets to be used in the analysis of kidney stones or liver stones. They were just regular, small, white ceramic ones.