Homemade Tahini 

I use a slow grinder, similar to the one posted in the Kitchenware section of the catalog at Cybermacro.com, the Miracle SS Wheatgrass Juice Extractor.

I have a Norwalk Juicer but prefer to make them on the wheatgrass extractor because the Norwalk makes the seeds too hot. 

It is recommended that if one uses the Champion to make any "butter" other than peanut butter, it is necessary to add oil. 

I have never made them with a hand grinder.  I have one that grinds beans to make flour; also, it grinds nuts and seeds.  At times I have ground a few of the sesame seeds for some recipe on my poppyseed mill, but that would be a very slow process to make even a pint.

And for those of us who have had energetic folks at the suribachi grinding gomasio so much that it went to sesame butter, you can surely know that using the suribachi (mortar and pestle) with the surikogi, you can make sesame butter with those tools also.   

I make a quart at a time and it is good refrigerated for at least 6 weeks.

If you don't use a lot, it would be better to make it more often than have it go to waste, not in only in money, but your energy and time lost. 

You will need hulled sesame seeds.  The unhulled ones make a bitter butter. 

Perhaps you could start with a pound plus for your trial run. 

These seeds are prepared and toasted the same as one does when making the sesame 

seed condiment, gomasio.  Be careful when doing the toasting so as not to burn the seeds.  Near the end of the toasting, I sprinkle or spray some salt water over them and stir in the salt taste and finish cooking until they are totally dry.  If when you stir them with a stainless steel spoon and the spoon comes out clean, your seeds are dry. 

See the salt water recipe under a separate recipe. 

Grinding Procedure: 
I run the seeds through the hopper on the grinder, running the first couple of 

grinds through again because you will have some whole seeds coming through until 

the machine is primed. The end result is a dry butter with no oil floating on top nor a semblance of greasiness. 

Near the end of the grinding, I put some of the ground "butter" in again to push through some of the unground seeds. 

I use this butter the same as what you would use the purchased one for, sauces, spreads, desserts, milk and cheese.  

There are 2 brands that you might like to buy in a pinch.  The Maranatha brand, of those on the shelf has the least amount of oil on top of the butter.  The Rejuvenative Foods brand in the deli section has even less oil on top.