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Grinder Shaving Metal Into Weed

Jibult

Jibult

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Mar 2, 2008
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Anyone had this happen before? I'm not 100% it just happened to me, but I caught a tiny sliver of super shiny, silver metal (just one sliver/shaving, I checked the rest of the tree that I had just grounded up and couldn't see anything... more might turn up as I smoke, though) in the ashes.


I've read about low quality grinders putting metal shavings into your weed. It's never happened to me before, though, so I think this is just a sign of gradual wear and tear on my grinder and a sign that I need to buy a new one. Anyways, the real question is, when smoking with a water-filter device (i.e. bubbler, water bong, anything where the smoke passes through the water before being inhaled) would a single metal shaving here or there be harmful enough to worry about? Keep in mind, the shaving didn't seem to burn-- it reflected light like a beacon through the ash, which is how I found it. If any of it started had started to burn, I would've had a much tougher time discovering it.



I dunno, it doesn't worry me much.... but I am curious, though. I'm definitely picking up a new grinder come payday, though.
 
It started happening to me with an older cheap grinder. I was always scared I was going to miss a shard...

I think you're right that a bong would trap it but still a good reason for a new grinder.
 
This is definitely a thing that happens. I have been chopping with scissors over a grinder for a couple of years now. I do plan to invest in a high quality grinder but they cost a lot for what they are.

I find once a metal grinder gets a good bit of use it consistently puts shavings in your grind. I smoke a lot more spliffs than pipes or bongs so it is a real concern for me, which is why I stopped using them the minute I concluded they were definitely contaminating my weed with metal shavings.

Where I come from, most bongs have a metal bowl/cone and down stem, in this situation you could probably make an argument that smoking these metal shavings through a water filtered piece is not doing any additional damage. If you smoke glass on glass, I have to think that there is some kind of vapour which is released from heating metal which you wouldn't otherwise get. Even if the shit is totally benign health wise, you have to figure it is making your bowl hotter and wasting some cannabanoids.

My advice is to buy a solid quality grinder, and in the meantime break your bud up with scissors or even your fingers. I have no experience with high end grinders, but I have read a lot of reviews and the consensus seems to be they both perform and last.

I think this is a really good thread, this is a real harm reduction issue when it comes to cannabis which is very easy to overlook.
 
Yeah, it does seem like you're paying a lot for a little with a nice grinder but truthfully you don't want to be lighting up aluminum shavings. You should just keep at it with the scissors while putting money aside little-by-little until you've got the cash for a good grinder.
 
Felonious Monk said:
It started happening to me with an older cheap grinder. I was always scared I was going to miss a shard...

I think you're right that a bong would trap it but still a good reason for a new grinder.
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Yeah, I'm definitely on the grinder mission. This one lasted me a pretty long time, but it was a $20 4-piece so.... it was definitely cheap. I might spring for a legit space case or somethin', unless you guys have any recommendations for a decent 2" (at a minimum) 4-piece grinder? 5-pieces are cool but I manage to get more than enough kief out of my trusty old 4-piecers.


drug_mentor said:
This is definitely a thing that happens. I have been chopping with scissors over a grinder for a couple of years now. I do plan to invest in a high quality grinder but they cost a lot for what they are.

I find once a metal grinder gets a good bit of use it consistently puts shavings in your grind. I smoke a lot more spliffs than pipes or bongs so it is a real concern for me, which is why I stopped using them the minute I concluded they were definitely contaminating my weed with metal shavings.

Where I come from, most bongs have a metal bowl/cone and down stem, in this situation you could probably make an argument that smoking these metal shavings through a water filtered piece is not doing any additional damage. If you smoke glass on glass, I have to think that there is some kind of vapour which is released from heating metal which you wouldn't otherwise get. Even if the shit is totally benign health wise, you have to figure it is making your bowl hotter and wasting some cannabanoids.

My advice is to buy a solid quality grinder, and in the meantime break your bud up with scissors or even your fingers. I have no experience with high end grinders, but I have read a lot of reviews and the consensus seems to be they both perform and last.

I think this is a really good thread, this is a real harm reduction issue when it comes to cannabis which is very easy to overlook.
Click to expand...


Yeah! I was worried about possible vapors being released, like maybe if the metal had some kind of finish added to it or something that I just can't tell is on it. There's no obvious coating or anything, I'm pretty sure it's just plain old metal. That shit can still wreak havoc glass-on-glass, though, you're right.

And thanks, man, I was half expecting people to find this thread stupid. :\



GreenMiley said:
Yeah, it does seem like you're paying a lot for a little with a nice grinder but truthfully you don't want to be lighting up aluminum shavings. You should just keep at it with the scissors while putting money aside little-by-little until you've got the cash for a good grinder.
Click to expand...


I'm not a big fan of using scissors to chop. It takes me, personally, so fucking long. I'll be going high school-style with my fingers for the rest of the week.

No need to save. I could get the grinder now if I wanted, but I just spent most of the rest of this week's play money on some bars and I don't want to dig much deeper in the wallet right this moment. I'll just wait for the next paycheck and use that week's fully restored play money on a super legit grinder. Might even go to a real-live headshop instead of fuckin' around online. :D
 
I would look into getting a polycarbonate grinder. It's cheap, doesn't flake, doesn't bind like steel, and can safely be cleaned with rubbing alcohol
 
I like my 2" SharpStone, but I've also used the Mendo Mulcher and it's really nice, very solid. Santa Cruz Shredders are nice but kind of expensive imo.
 
Personally the only thing I use my grinder for is the keif catcher. I have a Zeus vortex, which may be considered a "Good " grinder. What I do is I take my very dried bud and crush it (mortar and pestle style) using a shot glass and the blunt end of a pen. If the weed is too moist to crumble to dust, then i consider using the actual grinder
 
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How about a coffee grinder? I use mine sometimes.

It's funny as I got a metal grinder thrown in with some vape purchase I got a while back and I've just had it sitting in the shed in a box for months, I just pulled it out the other day, I still havent used it though. I prefer to just chop the buds personally.
 
poledriver said:
How about a coffee grinder? I use mine sometimes.

It's funny as I got a metal grinder thrown in with some vape purchase I got a while back and I've just had it sitting in the shed in a box for months, I just pulled it out the other day, I still havent used it though. I prefer to just chop the buds personally.
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Personally I think I would only resort to a cofee/electric grinder if I started dealing with massive batches, like industrial scale baked edibles/other processed mj product. Even if I was doing a mass batch of my own edibles I would likely still grind through the oz (s) by hand with my grinder. It's a crank operated mechanism so it's rather easy to chop through a few grams at a time (I never ussually do that anyways since I only have enough money to vape 0.5 per day)

The grinding setup I have now works really well for me with minimal residue/plant material that is difficult to clean. Since I use a little shot glass to do the grinding, any of the plant matter left behind can be easily(well, it takes a little elbow grease) scraped out with a knife. The stuff gathered is pretty potent too, enough that it would be a shame to waste or go through the hassle of a chemical extraction as you would if your grinder gathers the stuff in hard to reach places. I just find the whole process(mortar+pestle) to be much cleaner and economical.

And to be on topic, I've never had an issue with metal fragments, nor could I. I could understand cheaper grinders wearing down over time but I kinda figured that would mostly just make it dull (squish/warp the blades) but not actually break the metal. If anything I figured the risk of metal fragments would be highest when it is brand new unless the company took great care in their metal work.
 
crappy aluminium is pretty brittle so unless the grinder is sturdy and well-designed the edges that see the most wear can start flaking apart. I just remembered a friend of mine had a grinder that was wood with simple steel pegs, used to gum up a lot less than grinders with diamond-shaped pegs
 
ChipTrippyFox said:
Personally the only thing I use my grinder for is the keif catcher. I have a Zeus vortex, which may be considered a "Good " grinder. What I do is I take my very dried bud and crush it (mortar and pestle style) using a shot glass and the blunt end of a pen. If the weed is too moist to crumble to dust, then i consider using the actual grinder
Click to expand...

That's the main draw nowadays for me, a quality kief-catch with a fine screen. I... I harvest that shit, lol. If I don't get ~0.15g kief out of a gram of bud I'm heated and my buddy/connect hears about it next time we spark up together. Idk, I'm just snobby with super kiefy bud these days.... I've learned that you can mostly de-kief your bud and that shit will still get you (me) stoned as fuck. The kief just builds and builds until I'm down to a gram or two and my plug is dry at the moment.

That's what I mainly want. Something to be able to comfortably grind about a gram of bud, and still have plenty of space in the "catch compartment" (where the weed sits above the pollen screen) to tumble it around with a coin or two to really get most of that kief shaken off the plant matter.



You know what, fuck it, here's what I use now (NSFW for size):


NSFW:
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715hmqlT3vL._SL1236_.jpg






you know.... just for reference I guess, idk... but that mother fucker right there collects some major kief on a one gram a day habit, I can tell you that much for sure.
 
lol wtf is that, looks like shredded green beans or the leaves off a cheap plastic plant! why, i'll bet that's not even a real dime
 
thujone said:
lol wtf is that, looks like shredded green beans or the leaves off a cheap plastic plant! why, i'll bet that's not even a real dime
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I'm loling right now hahaha

zeus-vortex-grinder-parts.jpg


This is what I'm using.
I wish I had a .001 scale so I could measure how much keif I get. I feel like the weed going around here is either just plain crap or keif jacked.
 
The cheapest grinder I got was a souvenir from a headshop in Amsterdam. It was a two piece with plastic that eventually broke after a few uses.

I'll still use my sharpstone when needed (which is rare for me these days), but even that thing get's caked up and kind of pain to use sometimes.

Sorry to hear about the metal shavings.
 
thujone said:
lol wtf is that, looks like shredded green beans or the leaves off a cheap plastic plant! why, i'll bet that's not even a real dime
Click to expand...


advertisement picture, not one of my own.


I had hoped that'd be apparent. :p


no clue what they put in there for the shot, though.
 
This is nothing to worry about the lungs easily filter out metals plus ive found they bulk up the weed a bit so you can get a fatter cone instead of a smaller one if you have no metal
 
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