Larkin Meat Grinder info

[davidmcg]

I inspected a house a few weeks back and down the street someone was cleaning out their garage and setting stuff on the curb. Curiousity got the better part of me so I stopped to talk. Me and the guy doing most of the work started talking about different stuff while we were looking his discarded treasures over. I was about to leave empty handed when he mentioned a hand crank meat grinder. His wife never used it, which was a hand me down in her family, he had bought her a Kitchen Aid when they got married so she used it.

So out of this box he pulls out this Larkin meat grinder. Only had the one disc, but was in great shape. Well I forgot all about it. Cleaning out the inspection van today with this nasty weathe upon us I ran across it and brought it in. My wife is currently cleaning it up, but here are a couple of pic's I took real quick;





Doesn't have any numbers or other writing other than the name Larkin. Anybody know anything about these? All I could find on Google was prices from $8.99 to $49.99 at a few auctions and a reference to them in the 1930's.

[Adiochiro3]

Nice score!! Don't know much about the model, but I love using mine foe small projects...

[davidmcg]

Well the only thing I have learned is that it is for small jobs because the throat is so small. Supposed to be able to handle roughly 2 to 2.5lbs of meat per hour. The cutting blade is meant for hamburger, and, pepporoni and such as the holes are only 1/4" in diameter.

We have a Kitchen Aid for serious grinding, but ya know, sometimes you just have a little bit to do and besides, that fancy Kitchen Aid doesn't work very well if the electricity is out and thats a fact.

[eDJ]

Re

I've seen those on ebay, some times it's a complete unit with all the plates and other times units like that are sold off in pieces. That way you could buy the plates you don't have and want.

I've noticed that those plates are common to different brands so you have
to look through those auctions and become familiar with the sizes and shapes to begin to figure this stuff out. There was a time when the
Lehman's Bros Hardware in Kidron, Ohio stocked all kinds or replacement
parts for old hand crank grinders. (they supply the Amish) www.lehmans.com/
and I believe they have an 800 number.

So, if you can find one on ebay and it's complete, just enlarge all the photos of the plates and determine what you don't have and would want.
You may see a grinder plate that doesn't have lots holes in it, but rather
diagonal cuts that makes it look like a round file. These are for grinding whole grains, roasted coffee beans or whatever. Remember these were
back in the day when you didn't have electricity or running water.

Here is one like yours on ebay now:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Old-Vintage-...item2a124aac73


As for the grinders of that size, as a kid I would stay with my Grand mother when real little and she had some very old stuff like that.
They lived on their Dairy Farm and I don't think she ever bought hamburger at the store. She had a grinder similar or of that vintage and used it all the time for meal preparation.

She would often tell me stories about how when she was little there weren't all the big super markets and you may go to a Butcher Shop
to buy pieces of meat if you didn't live on a farm where you raised your own. So you used a grinder like that almost every day and make your own hamburger, breakfast sausage, when ever you needed it. She would
also grind vegetables, fruits, and nuts etc to go into gelatin deserts or
pies and the like. This was like a daily use item.

Here is an old Keystone grinder presently on ebay showing a variety of the old types of plates.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-vint...item4ab40e7597

[davidmcg]

Yea, that one on Ebay is one of the ones I saw. I emailed them a question to see which plates it comes with. Never thought of calling Lehmans, I'll have to put that in the to do list.

The wife has a good hand crank grain ginder now, but it would be a good advice to get some grain plates for this also. She is trying to wean herself from coffee now, ground coffee and beans are getting fairly expensive now. But I'll go nuts with out my Lipton tea.

[MossyMO]

This should help you determine your plate size.

Grinder Size............................Plate Diameter

#5..............................................2 1/8"

#8..............................................2 1/2"

#10 / #12...................................2 3/4"

#20 / #22...................................3 1/4"

#32............................................3 7/8"

[davidmcg]

yea its a #5. This grinder will be on the shelf for that doomsday period. These Larkins are hard to find parts on.

[eDJ]

Re:

I've often wondered if the companies who "produced" these grinders in the past didn't purchase the castings from one company who made aluminum castings on contract, the plates from another company who machined those in stock sizes, and the like. Then these components assembled on a final production line.

I think that the most of these grinding plates I've seen on these home
hand cranked grinders is about five types.

It may account for why some of these different companies seem to use
certain "uniform standards" of sizes. And by the 1920's standardized parts were more than common to iight industry.

My grand mother had her mom's old grinder when I was a kid. It looked something like the one in this ebay auction:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Rare-100-Yea...item43ad4c9b3c

But I'm sure that that design would have been expensive to produce. Later the plates were simply flat high carbon steel pieces. This one uses
a slotted hole in the center as do several other manufacturers in that time.
Possible because they were purchased from the same manufacturer in that part of the country:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-vint...item4ab40e7597

Some have a larger round hole in the center of the slotted hole.

The more modern ones just have a small round hole in the center and
a "mouse hole" on the outer edge to index to a metal pin on the
aluminum housing:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/5-Pc-Set-OLD...item3a6f51726a

But all of these different layouts were probably done for patent rights
and that ultimately for their share of the market.

[curious aardvark]

Supposed to be able to handle roughly 2 to 2.5lbs of meat per hour.

Holy crap. Hell even my cheapo plastic hand grinder will happily grind 5lb in half an hour (what I used for the ukranian kielbasa at the weekend).
Pretty as that thing is it just doesn't sound practical to me.

[davidmcg]

Dang CA, went and messed up. Supposed to have been 2 to 2.5 pounds per minute. Just when I think I am past it, my blondeness returns to take control.

[curious aardvark]

Dang CA, went and messed up. Supposed to have been 2 to 2.5 pounds per minute. Just when I think I am past it, my blondeness returns to take control.

in that case - keep it

[davidmcg]

in that case - keep it

Yea we are definitely keeping it. But like I said, parts are hard to find, so this one is going on the shelf for back-up. My wife is supposed to be ordering a new hand cranker today.