What is a Cannabis Grinder and How Do You Use One?

If you enjoy smoking dried flower, then you need a Flower Stampede 4-Layer Cannabis Grinder. Grinding your weed makes for a much better smoking experience, whether you’re rolling a joint, or using a pipe or vaporizer. Your grinder also provides an added bonus: collection of sweet, sweet kief, a powdery substance that contains potent trichomes.

The Flower Stampede 4-Layer Cannabis Grinder features a heavy-duty aluminum body and diamond shaped, CNC-milled teeth. It has three chambers: one for weed to grind, one for ground weed, and one for catching kief. We even include a kief scraper to help you harvest these precious crystals.

Why Use a Weed Grinder?

Grinding your cannabis before smoking makes it burn cleanly and evenly, since larger buds are broken down into a finer consistency. This also mellows the weed, making it less harsh to smoke.

Using a grinder prevents damage to your flower’s trichomes - the teeny-tiny crystals that give high-quality weed its frosty look. Trichomes carry the highest concentrations of cannabinoids (such as THC and CBD) and terpenes (like myrcene and limonene). When smoked, grinding also provides even heat to as many of these trichomes as available, giving you the best possible buzz.

How finely you grind your cannabis may be a personal preference. If you are using a pipe or bong, you may want a slightly larger grind so that no weed ends up being inhaled inside the pipe, although the use of pipe screens should prevent this. Or choose the Flower Stampede Magnetic Spoon Pipe, with a unique design that does not require screens.

If you prefer a vaporizer, then you must grind your weed. Vaporizers work in one of two ways: by heating the air around a product (convective heating) or heating the surface beneath it (conductive heating). Grinding exposes more surface area to the vaporizer’s heat, which allows for better extraction of the compounds contained in your buds. In contrast, a full bud loaded into a vaporizer would not smoke properly, as the heat would not be high enough to penetrate the entire bud. 

What is Kief?

Kief is the fine powder that is found in the bottom chamber of your grinder. Since it contains a high concentration of trichomes, kief can be more potent than regular cannabis buds. 

Kief crystals can be added to a pipe bowl, or sprinkled into joints or blunts. Kief can also be used to press your own hash or to cook edibles. Read our blog post to learn more about using kief.

How Do You Use a Grinder?

There are just a few simple steps:

1. Remove the lid of the grinder. Unscrew the lid to access the main grinding chamber and add your cannabis. Break up any larger buds with your fingers. Try to avoid placing weed in the centre of the grinder. That’s because this is the spot where the grinder rotates, and includes a magnet to keep the lid tight. Anything in this spot will not be ground, although you can access any weed placed here using your kief scraper or a straight pin.
   
   

2. Replace the lid and grind. Once your cannabis is added, screw the grinder lid back on. Give it about 10 to 15 rotations, applying a bit of pressure. Then tap the sides and the top of the grinder a few times to make sure all of your flower is ground, and rotate a few more times.

3. Unscrew the middle chamber and enjoy! After grinding, carefully unscrew the chamber with the teeth to reveal the layer where your ground cannabis is collected, ready to be smoked in a pipe, vaporizer or joint. Be sure to take a look at the top grinding chamber, as some bits may be stuck between the grinding teeth.

How Do I Clean My Grinder?

Eventually, your grinder may become sticky with resinous build-up and difficult to use. You’ll want to clean your grinder to ensure it works smoothly. Here are some tips for keeping your grinder in good working condition:

• Rub the sticky parts with a dish cloth moistened with a mixture of isopropyl alcohol and salt. If the resin is very difficult to remove, try soaking it in in isopropyl alcohol, salt, and warm water for a few minutes. (This method can also work to clean your pipes.)
  
  
• Use a clean toothbrush or beard brush to knock kief loose from the screen.
  
  
• For easier kief collection, try putting your grinder in the freezer. Freezing your grinder makes it harder for kief to stick to surfaces, making removal less difficult.