How to Grind Weed with a Grinder, Scissors, or by Hand 2023
How to grind weed with a grinder, scissors, or by hand
Knowing how to grind weed is essential for ensuring that your cannabis burns evenly during combustion (smoking).
If weed is ground too finely, plant particles will fly into your mouth wasting cannabis before it’s even burned.
If weed is ground too chunky it can clog airflow or burn unevenly, giving an unproductive burn.
In this visual guide, we show you how to grind weed with a grinder, scissors, or by hand.
(Click below to skip ahead in the article)
Grinder, scissors, or by hand?
- The grinder gives the best structure where the shredded buds entangle together in a “fluffy” structure. This consistency burns smoother and doesn’t fall through your pipe before burning.
- Grinding with scissors gives a semi-structured consistency but is not as structurally sound as a grinder.
- Breaking cannabis by hand gives a chunky result that can cause inconsistent burning, but is still smokable.
All three methods will work but for the best quality grind with the least tampering of trichomes, you want to go with a grinder. Check out our list of best weed grinders that have been vetted for grinding the fluffiest buds.
Pro-tip: If you want to skip all the steps and let technology work for you, I recommend using an electric weed grinder. These devices give you the perfect consistency with no human error every time.
How to grind weed with a grinder
A cannabis grinder is separated by either 2, 3, or 4 compartments.
In this case, my grinder is a 3-piece grinder and has a kief-catcher compartment at the bottom.
No matter if your grinder is made of metal or acrylic, or is a 2-piece, 3-piece, or 4-piece the weed goes into the very top compartment.
Start by unscrewing the top lid and you should see your grinder’s teeth on both sides of the grinder and the lid. (See image below).
The grinder’s teeth are usually diamond-shaped with holes directly beneath for the ground weed to fall into the second chamber.
Now that you know where to load your grinder with dry cannabis herb, let’s go over the 3 steps on grinding weed.
Step 1 - Loading your grinder
Start by taking your cannabis and loading it into the top compartment of your grinder, between the diamond-shaped teeth.
Avoid putting large nugs on the top, larger pieces of cannabis must be broken down first before going into your grinder.
Break down the larger nugs with your fingers, gently to preserve as many trichomes which are coated on the surface of the cannabis flower.
In the image below I broke down the larger nug into smaller bite-size pieces for the grinder.
Once you have your cannabis loaded it’s time to place the lid back on top.
You are going to want to push down on the lid with your finger until the threads of the grinder lid are in synch with the grinder body.
Once the lid is aligned with the grinder’s body you want to gently spin a quarter spin to interlock the lid back to the grinder body.
Now you are ready to begin grinding your cannabis.
2. Grinding your weed (spin and tap)
The quality of your ground cannabis determines the quality of smoke you will experience. If you grind too much you get weed particles that are too fine, and if you don’t grind enough you get pieces that are too big.
I’ve been grinding weed for well over 20 years, and I have a universal hack that works well no matter what type of grinder you use.
This simple trick gives you fluffy ground cannabis that burns smooth, packs well and rolls well no matter what method you prefer when smoking weed.
Start by spinning your weed grinder in one direction, with 3 generous twists.
Depending on how moist your cannabis is the grinder teeth may clog or get stuck on the sides of the diamond teeth.
To make sure you get as much weed down through the grinder’s hole as possible it’s time to spin in the reverse direction.
Spin your grinder’s lid in the reverse direction for about 3-4 generous turns.
There will be plenty of ground weed stuck in the top of your lid, so the next move you want to make is to agitate the shredded herb so they fall through the holes into the second chamber for you to collect.
To knock the remaining ground weed from the top chamber into the second chamber, hit the side of your grinder about 5 times, vigorously.
I like to shake and tap the grinder into the bottom of my palm to shake up as much of the ground herb, so more falls through the grinder’s holes.
Now that you finished grinding your weed you want to collect the ground cannabis from the second chamber.
3. Removing weed from grinder
Make sure the top lid is secure and locate the next compartment directly below the top.
The first compartment is where you load the cannabis and the compartment directly below it will be the second compartment where you unload the shredded cannabis.
Spin the second compartment in a counter-clockwise direction to open up the grinder’s storage compartment.
You should see some nice and fluffy ground cannabis ready for you to smoke.
Fluffy cannabis stacks well on top of each other, so when you load a bowl the ground weed holds its structure.
If the particles are too fine the weed will fall directly through the hole into your bong water or through your weed pipe directly into your mouth.
How to grind weed without a grinder
If you don’t have a weed grinder on you, the next best household item you can use is scissors.
Any scissors will work but the smaller and sharper the more precise you can be.
Larger dull blades tend to flatten the cannabis as you cut, which removes a lot of trichomes. The trichomes are what hold all the precious cannabinoids like THC, CBD, CBG, and CBN. You want to preserve as much of this as you can.
When you are grinding with scissors you do not want to cut too deeply into the bud.
You want to slowly trim small pieces off the surface.
See the image below as I cut starting from the outside, rather than just cutting large chunks off haphazardly.
The reason you want to cut slowly and deliberately is you want to keep as much of the trichomes as possible.
While I could go back into my pile and trim each slice further, I don’t want to unnecessarily lose trichomes.
Make sure to clean the scissors after with Isopropyl Alcohol as the trichomes will stick to the blade and begin attracting dust and dirt particles as it sits out.
How to Grind Weed by Hand
Grinding your weed by hand is the least recommended method for grinding weed, but one of the most popular when breaking cannabis for rolling blunts or joints.
The trick with grinding your weed by hand is to rip small pieces off the surface.
It helps to have nails here when pinching bud from your nug.
Pro-tip: Make sure you wash your hands and dry them to remove the oils.
You want to preserve as much trichomes as possible, and oily fingers disturb the cannabis trichome integrity.
Pinch fast and aim to get small consistent pieces.
If there are extra large chunks you can go back in and break it down further, but remember less is more when using your fingers.
Final Thoughts
Jake Dela Cruz
Organic cultivator
My name is Jake Dela Cruz and I’m an organic cannabis cultivator, so not only do I grow my own weed I also am grinding weed just about everyday.
Sometimes I grind with a grinder, and sometimes I’m out and about and have to use my hand or scissors. No matter where you are, you can always break your buds down to smoke. What I have learned though is using a grinder is easier and the results are much better. In this article, I show you visually how to grind weed to get a consistency that burns smooth, doesn’t clog, and doesn’t leave any Scooby snacks in your mouth. I’ve been using this grinding method for well over 20 years and no matter if I use a metal or acrylic grinder it always works. Just spin it three times, reverse spin it three times, and tap the side of the grinder aggressively to get the perfect grind, everytime!
