Burr Calibration

I stepped off the warm floor register and tracked across the linoleum to the kitchen sideboard. Resting on the low oak ledge stood a heavy beechwood pepper mill capped with a cast-iron crank. I grounded both boots to secure an immovable stance. Reaching upward, my right mechanical gauntlet locked around the curved iron handle. I applied deliberate clockwise torque. The internal hardened steel burrs seized a dry peppercorn. With a sharp, muffled crunch, the teeth sheared the shell into coarse black fragments that tumbled onto the timber ledge. The central spindle rotated true without bind or wobble. Mechanical reduction verified.