But a pretty large mortar and pestle would do about the same thing, I think? (Oooh, things I want to buy: a good stone mortar and pestle.) Also I think I misread "mash" as "mesh," whoops.

One thing that I definitely wouldn't want to be hand would be making whipped cream or whipping egg whites or, well, anything with the word "whipping" involved, just because it would be really time consuming without a hand-mixer. Although, hey, arm-strength!