Our grinding mechanisms are made for us by Tres Spade, an Italian company that has been manufacturing gears for over 100 years. We have worked with them for 25 years in a collaboration that allows us to produce great performing pepper grinders.
The photo below illustrates the relative sizes of the mechanisms used in the grinders. Our salt grinders have a ceramic mechanism closely resembling the medium size mechanism in the illustration. The PepperStick uses the same medium size mechanism as the KeyTop and Peppergun.
The size of the mechanism, along with the design of the cutting burrs, determines the amount of spice that can be ground per revolution. In general, the larger the mechanism, the faster it will grind. 
