I needed a mortar and pestle to grind up some acetaminophen tablets because I can't swallow pills and have to grind them up and also because I have arthritis and acetaminophen pills are very hard to crush and grind up in my plastic pill crusher. I use the smallest set to grind the pills and will use the medium and larger sets to grind food stuffs for cooking and also for soap making, lotions, etc. This set was perfect for my needs and reasonably priced.