Here's why you should use a weed grinder

For many, grinding is just a regular step in the process of using cannabis. While grinders are probably the most common tool used to break apart buds, some users still prefer other methods. But why exactly should you invest in a $10 grinder at your local headshop when you could simply break up your buds with your hands, a knife, or countless other methods?

Cannabinoids (such as THC and CBD) and terpenes (like myrcene and limonene) are found in the highest concentrations in the trichomes of cannabis buds. These are the tiny crystals that give high-quality weed their frosty appearance.

You’ll want to grind your weed for two main reasons; firstly to get an even, solid burn in a joint, blunt, or bowl, and secondly to evenly heat as many of these trichomes as possible and thereby extract as much goodness from the cannabis plant material as possible.

The consistency to which you grind your weed is up to you and the way you tend to use pot. If you like to smoke using a bong, for example, you don’t want to grind your weed too fine as it may enter the pipe and cause harsher hits.

Grinders come in many different shapes and sizes, and are made from varying types of materials. Different grinders offer their own advantages, and every smoker has their own preferences when it comes to this key piece of smoking apparatus. "The more expensive, the better" is a common rule when shopping for just about anything, but that doesn’t always apply when looking for a grinder that suits your needs!

Some smokers much prefer the simple nature of a single-chamber grinder. Simply stuff in the flower, turn it a few times, and out comes some processed weed ready to be loaded into a joint. However, other cannabis users much prefer the intricacies of model with 3 or 4 chambers. These beasts grind down weed to a fine powder, and even sieve out the trichomes and collect them in a tray at the bottom.

Material and aesthetics also need to be considered. Metal grinders look impressive, and their sharp teeth do a good job at tearing up flowers. Plus, they are very difficult to break. Wooden grinders look nice and rustic, and are a great addition to a collection already made up of wooden rolling boxes and trays. Finally, plastic grinders may not look the prettiest, but they are sturdy and get the job done.

WHY TO USE A WEED GRINDER

So, now you understand why you should be grinding your weed. But why exactly should you bother with a weed grinder? After all, there are plenty of ways to grind weed that don’t involve forking out your hard-earned cash for an accessory that it doesn’t seem like you really need.

If you’re doubting whether or not you need a weed grinder, here are some simple reasons you should reconsider.

BETTER CONSISTENCY

Using a grinder is the best way to ensure your weed is ground to an even consistency. This is important to ensure an even extraction of the compounds within the plant, regardless of whether you use a vaporizer or even a traditional method like a pipe or bong.

If you smoke joints or blunts, using consistently ground weed is also really important as it ensures for an even burn throughout and makes for easy rolling.

While methods like the good old “shot glass and scissors” work fine in an emergency situation, a grinder is a much simpler way to ensure your weed is cut to an even consistency every time.

BIGGER, DENSER BOWLS

Some cannabis users swear that loading loosely broken or even whole buds into their pipes and bongs produces denser and more potent hits. However, we suggest that grinding your weed produces the best hits on a bong or hit.

This is because, by grinding your weed, you're able to pack bigger, denser bowls. Sure, you might end up using more weed in order to fill a bowl completely, but you can easily fill your bowls half way if you prefer.

By using ground weed, you’re able to increase the surface area of the cannabis in your bowl, which makes for a cleaner, more potent burn. Bowls containing ground bud will also be easier to draw, making for a more enjoyable smoking experience and more potent hits.

THICK, POTENT VAPOR

If you use a vaporizer, it is vital you use properly ground weed. Vaporizers work by either heating the air around a product (convective heating) or the surface beneath it (conductive heating). By grinding your weed, you’re able to expose more surface area to this heat, which essentially allows for better extraction of the compounds within your buds.

If you were to load a whole bud into a vaporizer, you simply wouldn’t be able to produce thick, consistent vapor as the heat of the vape wouldn’t be enough to toast the core of the bud. Plus, you’d probably have to crank up the temperature of your vaporizer and risk combusting your weed and inhaling smoke instead of vapor.

CATCH THAT KIEF!

Who doesn’t love kief? Whether sprinkled on bowls or joints or used to make killer homemade hash, kief is a favorite concentrate among both recreational and medical cannabis users.

Kief is made by carefully separating trichomes, the tiny frosty hairs found on cannabis buds, from the rest of the plant matter to produce a cannabinoid-rich concentrate. This process occurs naturally whenever you handle or grind weed and, thanks to new grinding technology, you’re now able to catch all that kief that you’d otherwise just lose.

To ensure you stop wasting all that precious kief whenever you spark up, we recommend investing in a 4-piece grinder with a kief/pollen catcher.

Aside from simply sprinkling kief into blunts and bong bowls, there are many creative ways to use this potent substance. One of the best uses for kief is to dust moon rocks, one of the most potent sources of cannabinoids known to mankind. Moon rocks involve coating a bud with a gooey cannabis concentrate such as cannabis oil. Once this coating has been applied, roll the bud around in a container of kief to add some serious potency.