Spinning Rasta ashtray

Cannabis buds tend to become sticky, and different parts of the buds can vary in density. Therefore, it's important to use a specialty cannabis grinder to make your smoking experience more even and enjoyable. All cannabis grinders try to solve the same problem: grinding your buds into a more consistent form. This leads to more evenly burning joints, blunts, or hits from bongs/pipes.

The second very important role that cannabis grinders play is minimizing contact between your hands (fingers) and buds. This is very important because using a cannabis grinder prevents trichomes and other important cannabinoids from being damaged or completely removed from your joint (meaning they stay as “dust” on your fingertips and nails). With better (4-piece, 3-chamber) grinders, you can even collect this “super-strong powder,” known as kief, allowing you to get the most out of the entire cannabis product.

It depends on your needs, but to summarize; 1 to 2 chambers if you rarely smoke and don't want to collect kief, 2 to 3 chambers if you smoke quite often and like to collect kief. The bottom chamber, known as the kief chamber (if it has a screen!), will collect fine trichomes and cannabinoids, collectively known as kief (or keef). Kief is much more potent than any regular bud, as it's almost pure cannabinoid/terpene dust.

The most common grinders are made of acrylic (plastic) or metal (usually aluminum). Another notable exception is a wooden grinder, but wooden grinders are very difficult to clean and have a short lifespan compared to their acrylic or metal counterparts. When it comes to ease of maintenance, quality, and durability, metal (aluminum) grinders are the most widely used cannabis grinders on the market!