5 Piece Grinder

There are a few essential tools that every cannabis enthusiast owns and carries with them for when the urge hits. A lighter, rolling papers, and a high quality herb grinder are just a few of them. When it comes to slicing and dicing large nugs, the multiple chambers and two kief screens of a 5 piece grinder help it to stand above the rest. To get the most out of your herb and have the ultimate smoking experience, grinding up your flower into even pieces is a necessary step that doesn’t take much time and effort to do. Herb grinders come in many different styles, designs, and sizes, which can make it difficult for new smokers to know which to choose for their needs. Should you invest in a high-tech electric grinder that also packs cones or is a cheap 2 piece grinder all you need? Is durable and lightweight aluminum better than plastic or wood? Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about different types of herb grinders, why you need one, how to preserve trichomes to get the full potential from your weed, and step-by-step instructions on how to use a 5 piece grinder.

Why do you need an herb grinder?

One of the most overlooked tools used by cannabis enthusiasts is an herb grinder. Yes, it’s true that you can get ground herbs using other methods such as chopping it with a knife or scissors, or simply breaking it up with your fingers, but investing in a good 5 piece grinder made from high quality materials like durable aluminum will make a world of a difference in your overall smoking experience in several ways. These are just a few reasons why you should make a quality weed grinder your next purchase.

Smooth and even burn

Achieving a perfect grind that produces uniform sized pieces is the only way to get a smooth and even burn. Even if you roll the perfect pinner, it may still go out on its own or burn unevenly if the material within isn’t broken down properly and is an uneven size. Large pieces will also clog up the airpath of your pipe or bong bowl and can be difficult to remove if it makes its way too far into your glassware. Weed that hasn’t been ground properly will also burn up quicker in joints and in bong bowls and often leaves portions unburned, which causes a lot of waste and no one wants to waste their expensive top-shelf flower. The best grinder will have very sharp teeth that will shred nugs into fine, smokable pieces, but shouldn’t turn it into a powder. An even grind is also necessary for those who want to cook with cannabis since it’s the only way to extract everything from the plant material and reduce waste. If you don’t grind your weed, you’ll have a difficult time enjoying your smoke.

Quick break down

If you’ve been picking away at your pot for years and don’t understand why anyone would spend extra money on a 5 piece grinder when it could go to buying weed, just the fact that you’ll save a lot of time is enough to change most smoker’s minds. Crumbling and pulling apart nugs take a significant amount of time, especially when the marijuana is fresh, humid, and sticky. No one wants to wait when they’re thinking about lighting up. Loading and manually turning an herb grinder takes just a minute, if that, to produce perfectly ground herb that’s fluffed and ready to smoke. Other methods such as using a scissors or knife is a little quicker than using your hands, however now you’re stuck with a sticky knife to clean after the joint is finished and let’s be honest, it’ll probably stay sticky in your kitchen sink for a while.

Preserve trichomes

One of the main reasons people choose to use an herb grinder is to preserve the delicate cannabinoids and trichomes so they get the absolute most out of their weed. Cannabinoids and trichomes are naturally produced by the cannabis plant and are responsible for the potency, flavor profile, and aroma. If you’ve ever handled a nug or tried to use your fingers to break it apart when you didn’t have a herb grinder handy, you know that it’s very sticky and resinous. These are the trichomes! The resin and pollen of the trichomes are easily transferred to anything that touches it including your hands and scissors, damaging it and lowering the quality of your flower. Herb grinders are designed to preserve these potent trichomes in a number of ways such as limiting touching, having a pollen chamber, and the use of mesh screens called a pollen catcher coupled with a pollen scraper. A 5 piece herb grinder has a separate compartment that collects and preserves the pollen so it can be used later.

No Sticky fingers

As noted earlier, sticky fingers are a sign of damaged trichomes and wasted potency. All of the resin on your hands could have been smoked! Not only that, sticky fingers are simply annoying and you’ll need to find an alcohol wipe to remove it before attempting to roll a joint. Ultra sticky hands make it nearly impossible to handle thin rolling papers, adding more time to the process. Touching the flower is kept to a minimum when using a 5 piece herb grinder since you’ll only need to touch it during the loading process and the trichomes will be protected.

What is a good size for a grinder?

Grinders come in a number of sizes, which are measured by their diameter. The larger the herb grinder, the more you can fit into it and grind up in a single sitting without having to reload the device. Large grinders are perfect for smokers who often roll multiple joints or blunts at once or who smoke in groups and prefer not to continuously be grinding up nugs. Smaller sizes work best for personal use and are a more manageable size for travel. The most popular herb grinder sizes range between 40 mm and 90 mm, though it’s easy to find smaller and larger varieties to fit your specific needs. In addition to the diameter of the device, you’ll also want to take a look at how large the compartments are and how many pieces it has.

Types of herb grinders

There are numerous types of materials, designs, styles, and colors to choose from when it comes to weed grinders. One of the most important aspects aside from having sharp teeth is the type of herb grinder. There are travel-sized grinder cards, electric grinders, and manual grinders that come in anywhere from two to five piece styles. The material used also makes a difference in the quality of the herb grinder. Grinders do a lot of work and should be made from durable and safe materials. Some of the most common are metals, wood, and plastic. Here’s a quick overview of the different types of herb grinders you can find in our online shop:

• Two piece - This is the most affordable, but also often the quickest style to break since this herb grinder is usually made from plastic. The simple design has a lid and bottom piece, each with teeth, to create a single chamber where everything occurs. Load, grind, and remove the herb all from the same compartment. This means you’ll need to empty out the chamber every time before loading more material since there’s no holding compartment.

• Three piece - This herb grinder has an additional chamber on the bottom that’s separated by the third piece. Depending on the design, the bottom compartment can either be used for capturing the ground herb or if there’s a kief screen, it can sift out and collect trichomes.

• Four piece - 4 piece and 5 piece grinders are the most sought-after styles since the marijuana is separated into different compartments, making the entire process easier from start to finish. This style has three chambers and four pieces in total with teeth in the upper compartment for grinding and holes so weed that’s the right size falls through and is collected in the second chamber. This second chamber has a kief screen on the bottom so trichomes finer than the screen will fall through and collect in the final compartment.

• Five piece - If you enjoy using kief separately by either adding it back into joint and bowls or saving it up to make hash, you’ll love the two different mesh screens that a 5 piece grinder provides. The screens work by sifting out different sized material since each of the two mesh screens have different microns. Anything that was ground too fine and makes the material too powdery is sifted out, while the other screen is a kief screen like in the 4 piece herb grinder. A 5 piece grinder may also instead use the additional compartment as storage to hold your ground herbs for later so you don’t need to transfer it to a weed storage container. When you purchase a 5 piece grinder, it almost always includes a mini pollen scraper to easily dig out the trichomes without having to touch it for ultimate pollen control.

• Electric grinders - The latest innovation is here to save your wrists from repeated turning and twisting. Electric grinders take all the work out of grinding flower with the push of a button. Available in a few different styles, some of these grinders not only chop up your bud, but can also pack a cone for you too!

• Grinder cards - This style is designed for any smoker who’s on the go and wants the most travel-friendly option. A grinder card is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a metal card that fits right into your wallet with your other cards, except that it has holes to break up nugs. Think of it like a portable cheese grater, but for marijuana!

How to use a 5 piece grinder

Don’t let the higher number of chambers and pieces scare you. Using a 5 piece grinder is simple, especially if you have experience using another grinder style. A 5 piece grinder is no different except that it separates out your weed so you have better control over the finer powder, ground herbs, and pollen. Follow these step-by-step instructions to start using your 5 piece grinder:

1. Place your 5 piece grinder on a rolling tray or another flat surface that will catch any flower that happens to fall while you’re working. Open the magnetic lid to expose the top grinding section with the teeth.

2. Using your fingers, break up the large nugs into manageable pieces that fit inside the grinding section between the teeth and push them lightly so they don’t fall out. Be sure that nothing is blocking the lid magnet or the outer thread.

3. Replace the lid so the magnet keeps it in place and start turning just the very top piece. You’ll feel resistance in the beginning and it will become easier and easier to turn as the herb gets ground into the correct size and falls through to the second chamber. It typically takes about 10 to 15 turns for everything to fall through. If your 5 piece grinder produces a different grind depending if you twist forward or backwards, keep that in mind and choose the right sized grind for your smoking device.

4. That’s it! When you open up the 5 piece grinder, you’ll find a compartment full of uniform pieces and another with anything that’s small enough to fit through the mesh screen. You won’t be able to see anything in the pollen chamber the first few times you use the herb grinder. It will take quite a few uses to capture enough trichomes to actually use. Once you have enough, use the pollen scraper to remove the resin from the 5 piece grinder and add it into your bowl for an extra kick of potency.