What is Grinder Hash and How to Collect it

After running through ounce after ounce of herb, your grinder will be coated in a brownish green hard substance known colloquially as “grinder hash”.

Grinder hash is the accumulation of trichomes which have been mushed together from the natural pressures involved in grinding cannabis.

How Does Grinder Hash Form?

You don’t want your grinder’s sharp teeth rubbing together. That metal on metal would be like raking your fingernails on a chalkboard.

Plus, aluminum bits would get into the grinder.

The downside is that necessary extra space provides a spot for small cannabis bits to rub against the metal before getting shredded/cut into the optimal size. This pressure of loose trichomes creates the grinder hash.

The same can be said for the sides of the grinder or really any spot where there’s space between two moving parts. A well-built grinder will have put thought into minimizing this build-up, but grinder hash is inevitable to some degree.

Check out this article on how to differentiate a good weed grinder from a bad one and five distinguishing factors.

Grinder Hash Will Impede The Function of Your Grinder

In this article, grinder hash is generally thought to be a nice thing to collect. It’s concentrated trichomes and weed bits that have been pressed together into a potent puck of THC.

Sounds delicious, right? But in terms of grinder function, that hash will eventually cause your grinder to not work as well. Even worse is when this happens to the threading on a grinder.

P.S. - That’s why some prefer a new design of threadless weed grinders.

The same for above the magnet. Any build-up between the two magnets will cause the distance between the magnets to increase and therefore the strength of the magnet to decrease.

Not only that, but this will raise the height of the grinder, increasing the distance from the bottom of the teeth from the grinder’s floor, adding more space for material to get trapped and reducing the efficiency of the grinder. This is how your weed gets rolled into little balls.

Collecting Hash From Your Grinder

So, like an over-encumbered sheep, we’ll need to collect the grinder hash for its own good.

Grinder hash is more potent than regular bud, so collecting it is the obvious first choice if you’re low on supply, but you can throw it away if you really want to. It’s also a nice addition to top-off any bowl, or even sandwich-style in a vaporizer.

One extra hint before you start: Freezing your grinder beforehand can help making the gathering of grinder hash easier.

Trichomes are naturally sticky, so freezing your grinder will make them brittle which will make gathering easier, especially the thin amount that has accumulated on the bottom floor besides the teeth/holes.

Collecting Grinder Hash From Teeth

Collecting the hash that has pushed onto the floor of the grinder can be a little tricky, but the hash that has collected on the grinder’s teeth is the easiest to collect, so let’s start there.

Avoid Scraping The Metal Off

Depending on the style of the teeth, this is pretty easy. Some teeth have curved bottoms designed to prevent build-up, while others have 90 degrees which collect more material.

The one thing you want to avoid is scraping metal off your grinder, so find a small tool without a sharp edge. Some good grinder hash collecting tools include: Keys, the backside of a pocket-knife, a small metal ruler, etc. Take a hit and bring forth that slumbering creativity.

Sharp Tools Only if Necessary

If you haven’t cleaned your grinder in months, and you have a thick layer of hash caked onto the side, you might need to use a tool with an edge or point. That is completely opposite from what was stated above, but the truth is, if the hash is really thick then using an edge will be the best way.

But it’s risky. You really don’t want little aluminum slivers getting into your weed, so being precise in the amount of pressure you apply is important.

No one wants to inhale small bits of aluminum, or steel, but even worse is plastic. Hopefully you’re not using a plastic grinder. This is another reason why you might consider a harder grinder like our 4-piece 2.5” stainless steel grinder.

So take your small tool and try to follow the contour of the teeth while delicately pressing your tool against the metal. It might take some practice to get right. Now you collect your prize. It’s as simple as that for the teeth. Don’t forget the top of teeth either, sometimes a nice little pile will congregate there too.

Salvage What You Can, Toss The Rest

If you did accidentally scrape some metal off your grinder, don’t’ worry! Simply pick it off, it’ll be shiny/silver and can be pretty obvious when you mess up. When in doubt, throw it out. Shining a light from different directions to catch the glint of a small speck can be a good way to put any suspicions to rest.

Collecting Hash From Floor of Grinder

Now the hash on the bottom floor besides the teeth is a little more difficult.

You can’t really scrape it off like you did with the teeth.

Instead, you need to press down and it will break off like sheets of ice. It’s like a thin filament of hash has collected, and you’re breaking it up instead of scraping it up.

If you froze your grinder beforehand this will be even easier as the hash filament will be more brittle.

You’ll also need to do this for any thin amounts along the outside or inside lip of the grinder, but there will be less here compared to the inside of the grinder. Some grinders revolve along outside, others the inside, like ZAM grinders.

And you’re done, congratulations!

Hash is Denser Than Flower

As stated above, grinder hash is concentrated trichomes pressed together, so it might take a little more heat to get started.

Therefore many like to combine flower and hash together. The flower starts to burn first and the heat helps to saturate the hash ball/disk in heat, providing you with a big ol’ potent hit.

Pressing the hash into a thin disk and placing it on top of a bowl is a common technique.

Conclusion:

Depending on the state of your grinder, collecting all the grinder ash can take a while. A person can easily spend an hour just harvesting the potent stuff, so the next time you think you’re out of weed, take a closer look, you might have more than you think!

Enjoy!