INTRO: There will come a moment in your cannabis career when the grinder you use becomes sticky and difficult to operate. We all require a little bit of loving sometimes, grinders included.
Whether you are wondering how to dust off your device, or how to clean it deeply, you have come to the right place.
Read to the end for some insights on how to clean your grinder, and tips for how to keep it clean along the way.
There is a reason nobody pops an unground nugget of weed straight into a bowl to smoke. It doesn’t work!
In the old days, before grinders, some sucker at a party would pinch and pull at a weed plant until it was broken down from its original shape into smaller, leafy pieces.
These pieces would go into a joint, or a pipe, and everyone would sit in a hippy circle and listen to the Grateful Dead. Just kidding about the hippy circle, but not about someone grinding up weed meticulously, that had to be done regardless.
You get the most bang for your smoke by making sure that the cannabis plant has been ground down into similarly sized pieces. This way, your joint or bowl will burn uniformly and not char.
The easiest way to break down nugs of weed is by using a grinder.
A grinder is basically the invention of the wheel, but for weed.
Whether a grinder is cheap and made of plastic, or high-end and made of metal with several chambers, they perform the same function.
Grinders work with two sets of interlocking teeth, one set of teeth under the lid, and one corresponding set beneath the lid. The cannabis is placed between these teeth.
Pressure is applied by the hands onto the top and bottom of the grinder, and by going back and forth the cannabis is broken down, and made ready to be smoked.
Not all grinders are created equally. When shopping for one, consider the amount of weed you tend to consume.
If you are the type of person who smokes often and is interested in collecting THC-rich kief crystals that can be sprinkled atop any bowl or joint for added potency, you will likely want to invest in a metal grinder with at least one kief-catching chamber.
A plastic grinder will also work just fine, however.
There are tiny grinders, and wide grinders, but no matter the grinder, they all get gross at some point.
For both metal and plastic grinders, place the device into the freezer for 30 minutes.
The cold freezer air will harden the bits of keif and sticky resin, allowing for the first part of the cleaning to begin.
You’re going to want to have a couple of things on hand:
Carefully, like a paleontologist cleaning a dinosaur bone out in the field, you are going to use the paintbrush to dust the edges of the grinder, loosening bits of cannabis debris.
Collect and save what you would like to, keeping in mind that kief can be harvested and made into hash.
You’re going to need a couple more things to finish the cleaning job:
At this point you should have disassembled your grinder. Now you are going to put the separate pieces into a baggie and fully submerge them in isopropyl alcohol. Let the bag soak for 20-30 minutes, shaking it every now and again.
Now, remove the pieces of your grinder from the baggie and scrub each of them with the toothbrush, cleaning the teeth of the grinder like you would clean the teeth in your own mouth.
Since you’re doing it, you might as well really do it. Go over the mesh screens and all of the interlocking grooves with the toothbrush.
Now, rinse! Warm water will help to lift the gunk that comes up and leave you with a sparkling device.
Dry with a towel, and voila!
You will notice immediately how easy it is to grind weed with a clean grinder.
Let this be a nice reminder that a little bit of maintenance every once in a while makes your life easier on a daily basis. Now, back to smoking.
