Simple Guide to Collecting Cannabis Kief
In this article, I’ll share some useful tips on collecting kief, which is actually a top-quality product. Many cannabis users utilize grinders to break up their material. The market for smoking devices and accessories offers a huge variety of grinder models. Grinders are convenient and practical, coming in wood, plastic, and metal, in different diameters and configurations, both manual and electric. Here, we’ll focus on a standard three-chamber metal grinder.
How a Three-Chamber Grinder Works
The top compartment is for loading and grinding your product. The second chamber is for storage, and the third is for collecting kief (the fine, powdery substance). When your harvest is running low and the next batch isn’t ready yet, kief can come in very handy. I save it up until I run out of flower. Typically, you can collect about 5 grams of kief from 100 grams of buds. Kief mainly consists of trichome crystals and is a concentrated product.
Ways to Use Collected Kief
- Mix with tobacco and smoke using any device. This is a simple and practical method.
- Dip a cigarette in kief and use a hash smoking device. Again, this method involves tobacco.
- Press into a brick using a garment steamer. Heat the steamer with a clamp, tightly pack the kief into a rectangular shape using parchment paper, and clamp it in the steamer for a few minutes. Let it dry, and you’ll have a pressed kief brick. Some people hold the kief over the spout of a boiling kettle and then press the steamed kief in a door frame between the door and the frame.
- Buy a kief press from a smoke shop and press it. The last two methods are great because you can portion out the product and use it without tobacco, either with a needle or in a vaporizer.
Tips for Collecting More Kief
To collect a good amount of kief, carry your grinder in your bag or pocket so it gets shaken up regularly. If that’s not possible, shake it vigorously from time to time.
Collecting Resin During Trimming
You can also collect a decent amount of resin while trimming your buds and try out your future product in its purest form. I trim without gloves because I’ve never been able to collect resin while wearing rubber gloves, even when following instructions. When your fingers start sticking together and it’s hard to separate them, rub them together gently (don’t overdo it, or you’ll get blisters) to remove the resin. It will gather into black lumps on your skin, which you should roll together into one piece. After this, you’ll have a clean, ready-to-smoke product called “mazanka.”
Cleaning Your Hands
It’s important to have some alcohol (boric alcohol, acetone, white spirit, etc.) on hand to thoroughly clean your hands afterward. After using the solvent, wash your hands with soap and they’ll be as good as new.