We had a hand cranked one since forever in my family home. As a kid I always volunteered to grind the coffee for my parents. I don't remember it being particularly hard to crank but who knows - I indeed use an electric one nowadays.
It wasn't so much hard to crank, it just took forever to crank through all the beans for a serving. Maybe I set it too fine. 10 minutes of cranking vs 30 seconds on the electric grinder.
