The most reliable would be a French-style rolling pin with no mechanism. I have my mom's old American-style wooden one, with metal mechanism, but I don't think they make them with anything but plastic these days. If I ever lost it in a hurricane or some such thing, I'd just get a simple French one instead.

ETA I've never really seen the point of the marble ones for general use.

I also prefer the French style rolling pins. To me, the handles on the American style ones felt clunky to use. They are not very expensive at places like Bed Bath and Beyond and are in fact cheap enough where you could purchase different thicknesses to see how they feel for different uses. Just oil them periodically as you would a wood cutting board and they hold up fine. I use a plastic cast iron scraper to scrape off any dried chunks of dough if need be. I also do not really see the need for a marble rolling pin. They are pretty to look out, though.

To me, the handles on the American style ones felt clunky to use

Yes, i just ignore them and roll the center part.

Here is what Cook's Illustrated Magazine had to say:

"Since rolling out pie crust is job No. 1, we started there. A good rolling pin should spread this finicky, delicate dough easily and smoothly, without sticking or tearing. In the test kitchen, we’ve long preferred handle-free French rolling pins for flattening pie dough, since they give us a direct sense of the dough’s thickness and of how hard we are pressing down. Most of our tapered French models weighed less than the handled pins but had just enough heft for this task. One of our handled pins also worked well—at just under 2 pounds, it was slightly less maneuverable but didn’t leave us with cracked, crushed dough.

Should a pin be straight or tapered? One tapered model left pie dough thick at the edges; others rolled evenly. We got out our measuring tape and discovered that the problematic pin started tapering from closer to its middle. So fat-bellied that it resembled a lozenge, it provided only 4 inches of straight, flat rolling surface. Considering that the bottom of a standard pie plate measures 7 inches across, pins that stay straight for at least 6 inches function best.

As for handled pins, some simply spun in place instead of rolling over the parchment-covered cookie dough. Our go-to pin for this job turned out to be a 19-inch, handle-free straight dowel in slightly textured maple. At 1½ pounds, it was just weighty enough to lend us a hand but light enough to let us maneuver it easily. Another straight, handle-free dowel rolling pin initially looked perfect for the task, since it comes with attachable rings for rolling out cookie dough to a desired thickness. But with rings for only 1/16-, 1/4-, and 3/8-inch thicknesses, that function was limited—and at 13½ inches in length, it made our arms feel cramped when using it."

Cook's Illustrated Winner - J.K. Adams 19" maple rolling dowel

I don't care for tapered ones and I've found that chilling the rolling pin (as in the marble one) isn't as good in practice as in theory. If all the tools are being chilled, as well as the counter, it's fine, but then just chilling a wood pin works just as well, without the weight of the marble.

I should say, I'm not an accomplished pastry roller. I get it done--have been doing it all my life--so the nuances of the rolling pin mean more to me. More highly skilled folks can make anything work.

I prefer a straight dowel, no handles for most things. I have a thick wood one (2-3") which is the best for pies and a 1" wood one which is great for softer and smaller things like empanada disks which are rolled out singly, or wetter dough. I have a 20"x2" metal one for fondant and any other large sheet. I don't like using it much, but the metal is very non-stick, and it's nicer to use at that length than wood. Big difference though: wood--especially with a lot of grain--holds flour well. Metal doesn't hold it at all, and if you want flour on it you have to use a rolling "sock". For some cookies, I prefer my 1950's style ball-barring textured plastic one.

I have two rolling pins - one is a straight dowel that is 1-3/4" diameter x 18" long, and the other is tapered and is 20-1/2" long. Both are hard-rock maple with tight grain.

I use the tapered pin for rolling pie dough. Yes, when I start out, the edges are a bit thicker than the center, but then when I finish, I make the edges the same thickness as the center. If I use my straight dowel, then the edges end up being thinner than the center, because there is a tendency to apply uneven pressure when rolling. If you can roll with perfectly even pressure, then the straight dowel is acceptable, but for me, it is easier to start out with pie dough that is thicker at the edges, as that is easily fixed. It is NOT easy to fix dough that is too thin at the edges.

I use the straight dowel for rolling out cookie dough, pasta dough, and strudel dough, or anything that will be extremely thin. I don't have the rings for rolling cookie dough, but that would be useful - I just don't make cookies like that very often.

Personally, I think it is best to have two rolling pins, as they perform very differently.

I have a drawer full, some of every kind. Like Plllog, I'm not a big fan of the tapered ones, I can never seem to get the pastry an even thickness. My favorite is Grandma's old handled one, probably because that's the one I've used for as long as I can remember, Grandma gave it to me when I got married in 1974, she always had more than one. Hers' were all the same, though. I also have one straight dowel type that I like better for rolling pastry than I do the tapered one, but it still won't take the place of my old one. It's heavy and when I sprinkle it with flour I can see Grandma doing the same thing before rolling out a batch of cinnamon rolls or pie crust. That old rolling pin has rolled out more pie crusts and sugar cookies than I could ever count.

Heck, when we still had the bar and grille, I used to roll pie crust with an empty Kessler's bottle, so nearly anything will work!

Annie

I've rolled a pie crust with an I. W. harper bottle....said I W Harper in reverse all over the crust!

Mine was just a red wine bottle. I prefer my rolling pins, but when needs must...

I bought a stainless steel French style rolling pin about six months ago and I like it so much that I gave away all my other rolling pins (2 wooden and 1 marble) except a very small wooden one that I am hoping to use when my granddaughter comes over for baking lessons.

Ok well I'm going to try a tapered and a straight. I've only ever used the type with the rolling handles, but I really hate cleaning them and the lines they create on the dough. I"ll report back, I've never really tried a longer dowel or taper type so I appreciate all the input. Thats style definitely seems to be more popular.

I've had many over the years and hated them all. Since my mother died in 1993, I've used hers, an old wood one with green painted handles, circa 1940. Rolls like a dream! I do usually use a sleeve - no sticking.