An apparatus used for cutting the size of a sample. It consists of a hopper above a series of open-bottom pockets, usually 1/2 in or 3/4 in (1.27 cm or 1.91 cm) wide, which are so constructed as to discharge alternately, first into a pan to the right, and then into another pan to the left. Each time the sample is passed through the riffle, it is divided into two equal parts; the next pass of one of those parts will give a quarter of the original sample, and so on, until the sample is reduced to the desired weight.