At some point, many cannabis smokers have found themselves ready to light up their stash without a weed grinder in hand. While a grinder makes everything more manageable and less messy, you don’t necessarily need one just to process the buds into a fine powder.
Interested in knowing how to grind weed without a grinder? Whether you’re chilling out at home, traveling, or hanging out at a party, you’ll be surprised at the number of options you have at hand. Check out this article to learn about a few quick and easy ways to shed your flower into smaller pieces, even without a grinder.
Source: Unsplash
Ways to Grind Your Weed Without a Grinder
1. Manually Using Hands/Fingers
It is the easiest and most basic way to grind weed without a grinder, with no other items needed. But the best way to do this is with a rolling tray or a flat surface that can catch your weed and let you use both hands to pull apart the nug and separate the stems and seeds.
Simply rub the weeds between your palms or grind them with your fingers. To make rolling a joint easier, get the smallest pieces of flower you can because the finer the flower, the easier it will be to roll.
Quick Tip: Some resin will naturally stick to your palms, especially if the weed is sticky. So instead of washing away the resin, scrape it off and add it when rolling your joint.
Source: Weedmaps
2. Cup/Jar and Pair of Scissors
Scissors are a particularly good tool to break up buds and a classic way of cutting weed without a grinder. Simply grab a pair of scissors and an empty cup, jar, shot glass, or any container available. Put the weeds inside the container and cut them into smaller pieces inside with the minute sizes you desire.
First, cut into halves, smaller pieces, and to smallest until it looks ground. You may also stir it using the scissor’s tip to make sure there aren’t chunks left unseen and uncut. Make sure your scissors have sharp edges to have a better result.
Quick Tip: Do it steadily and not too quickly in case something spills out, and if possible, do it on a flat, clean, and smooth surface.
Source: Skift
3. Pill Bottle and a Coin
The pill bottle and coin method is an old-school technique and one best way to grind weed without a grinder. Before putting your weed in an empty pill bottle, make sure your coin is clean. Screw the bottle cap and shake it until the flowers are the size you want. Continue shaking if you want it tinier or ground smaller. You’ll shred your weed to pieces as the coin bounces off the walls of the pill bottle!
Quick Tip: Before you do any of this, make sure to clean the coin and pill bottle with rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, or vinegar and let them dry completely. You don’t want your bud to have germs and pill pieces.
Source: Friendly Aussie Buds
4. Mortar and Pestle
How can I grind my buds without a grinder? Simple – use a mortar and pestle! Weed is sometimes referred to as “herb,” so it makes sense that you can grind it down with a pestle and mortar. Mortar and pestle are an ancient (and extremely practical) tool essential to culinary traditions worldwide. This tool is highly effective at breaking up the trichomes in cannabis flower, or those parts of the plant responsible for weed’s flavor, aroma, and psychoactive effects.
Quick Tip: Let your nugs dry out for a few hours outside a container, making them much easier to break down.
Source: Epicurious
5. Cheese Grater
The process of grinding weed with a cheese grater is similar to that of grating cheese. Moreso, using a cheese grater is, by far, the best way to grind weed without a grinder because the finished product is superb. Grab your plain handheld cheese grater and grind it along the holes – the way you do it with cheese. However, be careful using it, as you may cut your finger while rubbing the bud.
Quick Tip: This method requires some cleanup afterward, as weed resin may stick to your blades. Wipe the area gently with rubbing alcohol, and a paper towel should suffice. If not, soak it overnight in an isopropyl alcohol bath.
Source: Reddit
6. Cutting Board and Knife
Wondering how to cut weed without a grinder? You can never go wrong with using a knife and a cutting board. Depending on your knife skills, this could be the fastest way to cut up your herb when you urgently need to. Just take a sharp knife and start chopping the weed like a weed grinder. The best thing with a knife is you are in charge of the texture you want. So chop it like you’re a pro-chef!
Quick Tip: Make sure your blade is really sharp, or your herbs will just stick to it. It won’t take long for you to start smoking as long as your knife is sharp!
Source: Slyng
7. Credit Card and Paper
It may sound weird to use a credit card to grind weed, but it works. This is a lifesaver when you’re out of the house, no grinders are available or any materials can be used for grinding weed. Your credit card (or any cards available will do) can help, and its not because you can use it to buy a new grinder. Just put your bud on paper or any clean flat surface and cut the weed using your card like a knife in your desired sizes. Voila! You have an instant weed grinder.
Quick Tip: One problem with using credit cards to grind weed is that they are easy to break. For this reason, it’s best to use a sturdy card rather than a flimsy one.
Source: Unsplash
8. Coffee Grinder
So how do you grind nugs again if you don’t have a weed grinder available in your kitchen? Problem solved with a coffee grinder! A coffee grinder is ideal when you need to grind up a lot of weed at once. Use dry weed instead of sticky weed to make it easier to clean up. Moreover, weed can get mixed into your coffee beans if you don’t clean the grinder thoroughly. Add the weed to the fill line (where you put the coffee beans). Pack it loosely so that the grinders can easily chop it.
Quick Tip: If you don’t thoroughly clean your coffee grinder or blender, it will be difficult to use it for anything other than cannabis (and it builds up quickly, even after a single use).
Source: Know Your Grinder
How Grinders Have Changed Cannabis Consumption For The Better
A herb grinder’s purpose is to grind marijuana buds into a finer consistency that is easier to roll up or pack into a bowl. Smokers use grinders to break down cannabis flowers evenly for a better smoking experience. While a grinder is not necessary to break down nugs into smaller pieces, it reduces the likelihood of clogging your pipes.
How Grinders Work
Cannabis grinders come in different shapes and sizes, but all for the same purpose of breaking down cannabis into small pieces of similar size and consistency. While there are tons of types and designs of grinders, what matters most is that they can effectively ground your marijuana.
So here’s how to use a grinder:
- Load your grinder. Remove the lid and break the buds into smaller pieces using your fingers. Do not place anything in the center of the grinder, as anything placed there will not be ground.
- Replace the lid and grind. After setting your bud in place, put the lid back on. Hold the grinder’s bottom with one hand and rotate the lid with the other.
- Unscrew the lid and collect your weed. After you’ve finished grinding, carefully unscrew the lid of your grinder. Be gentle, as ground cannabis can fall out of your grinder if it becomes stuck to the top or if you hold the grinder unevenly. Enjoy your weed grounds!
Wrapping Up
Modern grinding tools are remarkable and effective, but they’re not flawless. A grinder’s rough teeth are like a torture chamber for your buds. So if weed grinders are out of reach, having these DIY cannabis grinders makes it very simple to be ingested properly and effectively. Ultimately, it doesn’t really matter how you grind your bud because all that matters is that it’s ground well to give you a richer, smoother smoke.
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