What is a grinder and how do you use it for cannabis?

If you are new to cannabis and grinders, you may have a few questions about grinders and how to use them. Grinders can be bought at almost any smoke shop or headshop, or you can order one online from Novus Fumus. There are simple yonder but also very complex variants that consist of different parts. In this tutorial, we are going to teach you how to use the most common type of cannabis grinder: a 4-piece grinder with a kief catcher.

But let's go through the basics first.

What is a grinder and why do I need one for cannabis?

As you might have guessed, a grinder is the tool you use to break up your cannabis into small pieces for smoother firing in bowls, or to wrap in tissue papers and blunt wraps. There are a number of ways to grind cannabis if you don't have a grinder, but grinders speed up the process and offer benefits like kief catchers.

A kief catcher refers to the bottom chamber, which collects all the powerful crystals of kief knocked off the tops during the grinding process. You can scoop out the kief and add it to the top of your bowl, or use it later to strain your own hash or cook edibles.

Above the screen you will find the grinding chamber with "teeth", i.e. the blades that do all the work. The lid of the grinder attaches to this part and metal grinders usually have a magnet to keep things safe while grinding.

How do you use a marijuana grinder?

1. Remove the top cover. Use your fingers to break open larger buds and place them between the teeth of the grinder.
2. Replace the top of the grinder and give it about 10 rotations until all the buds have fallen through the holes. You can remove the top and tap the side of the grinder to loosen any sticky bits stuck in the teeth.
3. Unscrew the chamber with the teeth to find the basket layer that contains all your freshly ground cannabis. Load it into your pipe, joint or blunt and enjoy!
4. Once you've collected some kief in the bottom chamber, scrape some out with a piece of paper or the included scraping tool (not all grinders come with scrapers, but they're certainly handy). Again, you can sprinkle kief on a bowl to make it more potent, or save it for something else. Be careful with metal scrapers as they can scrape aluminum particles with your kief!

How do you clean a sticky grinder?

One day you have used your grinder so much that it becomes sticky from the kify resin. The threads on the sides where pieces are screwed together become sticky, making it difficult (or impossible) to twist open. Prevent your grinder from getting stuck by keeping it clean; here are a few tips to keep things running smoothly.

• Rub the sticky parts of the grinder with alcohol and salt. This is a go-to cleaning method for pipes and bongs, but it works just as well for removing the stickiness from grinder pieces.
• Use a small brush (for example, a stiff-bristled brush or a clean beard brush or toothbrush) to loosen kief from the screen.

For really sticky grinders, sometimes it's best to just replace the thing altogether, especially if it's a cheap grinder.