Fox Run Large Marble Mortar and Pestle

Excellent got it for my father last fathers day so he could mix oaka colours and mix media for painting hos been using it a lot since and very pleased with the size and results when grinding painting ingredients..

Out of the box this mortar and pestle is beautiful! But, the inside of the mortar is not useful because it is not finished on the inside! The inside is completely polished and has the rings from where they bored out the bowl. There is absolutely no toothe at all for grinding. This smooth finish with rings caused whatever you put into this device to slip and slide around in the bowl. I attached photos of the two mortar and pestles I purchase on amazon. The Fox Run 8" and the Chef'n marble 5". The second one I purchased, came beautifully finished with great toothe and it has a silicone base to hold it firmly while grinding. It is smaller, so I can't make a large batch of Pesto. However, I did take some sandpaper to the Fox Run 8" Mortar and it did smooth out the ridges inside and took away the polished surface inside and it also added a little toothe. I used 60 grain sandpaper, which is really rough and it still didn't have enough toothe inside the bowl. I am probably going to take it to my local stone countertop store and see if they can rough it up a little more. I love the size and the beauty of the Mortar and Pestle and that is why I am willing to take the extra measures to make it the way I need it to become more useful. By the way, until it is sanded to create toothe, you will probably never be able to grind rice in this unit. It will just swish around in the bowl and pop out and it will also get caught in the ridges. If you have some really rough sandpaper, it doesn't take long to remove the ridges and add some tooth to it and you will be really happy you took the time!

As an herbalist with a husband who is a chef, having several mortars & pestles at hand in our kitchen is a no-brainer. This particular one, however, is the one we reach for the most! Its classical lines, heavy durability, perfect bowl size, and ease of use surpasses all others. Whether we are grinding spices or crushing herbs, this beauty does the job!

I had a small version of this mortar & pestle, so I decided to order the large as well. I quite like the unfinished inside, making spices not slide around as much. The shape is also quite nice. I was VERY disappointed that the bottom of the piece seemed to have had a huge chunk of it filled with a filler (pics 1 and 2). I can understand that sometimes marble pieces can have imperfections, but as a manufacturer, if you're going to hide that imperfection using a filler, at least do a better job of it. The hole wasn't filled very well. It still had some sharp corners and it was not sanded smooth at all, so the base ended up sitting uneven on the counter and scratching my counter. This was not Amazon's fault at all. It is the manufacturer attempting to hide a defect in the marble piece and not very well. It is being sent back and I've requested a replacement piece. I will adjust my review once the replacement arrives. The replacement product arrived last week and I'm sending that one back as well. Very poor quality control on this product. This time the inside of the bowl has huge scratches on it, appearing to be from when the bowl was carved out (see the last 2 pics). When you rub your hands on it, shards of marble come off on your hands. I would hate to think that's going into my food. Very disappointed. I'll have to source this product elsewhere. I had sent the 1st shipment back (pics 1 & 2) and it appears that this product has gone back into inventory when I don't think it should've because as of a day or two ago, this product was on back order for the next month or two and today, there is 1 in stock and I bet that's the 1st shipment I sent back (pics 1 and 2). For $65, I expected better quality.

Mine has much more gray in it than the pictured bowl (marble comes from the earth so you have to expect variation!), nevertheless it is beautiful. What I like is that as promised, the bowl is large enough for guacamole with interior "ridges" making it ideal for spices too. Cons: The product comes in incredibly flimsy packaging (why wrap such a heavy & delicate item in a flimsy box with airless bubble wrap?). My pestle came in broken so I've asked the manufacturer to replace only it (I'm worried that if I send it all back the bowl will break and that would be a shame since marble doesn't grow on trees). I'll report back on their customer service. Update: It's been over one week and I haven't heard a peep from customer service. I bought gorilla glue and glued the pestle back together. So far it's working but who knows if the glue will stand the test of time, especially with the pounding that a pestle is designed for. I'd still like a replacement pestle, but as I said, non-existent customer service from this vendor.