Incase you didn't know: Put a quarter in your Grinder

I forget who told me to do this in another thread... but putting a quarter in my grinder w/kief screen has increased my kief collection a lot. I went from collecting barely any kief to now its all shiny in my kief collector =)

I've ground up more than an ounce of crystal-covered KB in my big Mendo Mulcher and there's only a light dusting of kief in the chamber under the screen. This bud is so sticky that you can't handle it without getting your fingers stuck together. Is that why I'm getting hardly any kief?

I don't really care, because I'm going to smoke those trichomes either way, but I'm curious.

Yeah, I was having the same exact problem. I ground up maybe a half an ounce and only got a small amount of powder in the bottom part of my grinder. I think I saw a picture of Spiral Architect's kief collection and asked him how much he had grinded... and it was like... an 8th, yet he had 100x more kief than me.

He recommended I use a quarter... and it's been working great.

I've ground up maybe an 8th so far and I have enough kief to use in a pollen press =).

The quarter does 2 things... it does indeed knock some more trichromes off the ground bud, bit it also helps to get those sticky ones through the grill... before i started using a quarter, my screen was pretty clogged.

Not to sound stupid but put a quarter where in your grinder?

I used to have a kief box to store my buds, and I also noticed that the sticky nugs refused to part ways with their trichomes. The dryer the bud, the more kief I collected.

I noticed the same thing when I used to use a coffee grinder... sticky = less kief.

Theses are just observations from my own experience, but it seems as though my observations confirm your suspicions.

I agree with THC. Dryness is a must for kief, even with the stickiest bud.

I don't have a screen grinder, just a regular one, but I have a metal tray where I let my grinder shavings go. You can tell a huge difference in the amount of crystals that get stuck to the tray if I break up a real nice, new bag sticky bud, or if I have a bud that I left out overnight and break up. A LOT more kief with the dry bud, from the same bag.

Wait, grinding a quarter in one go? I just got a grinder and I'm so excited to get some kief in the compartment (I was so disappointed when I opened it last night and I could count the particles) but I don't want to grind my current stash in one day.

No, you put an actual quarter ( as in 25 cents, $0.25) in there.

Kief collection, in my experience, is much easier with a quarter in the bud catch on top of the screen. Sometimes the quarter does such a good job that it ends up putting plant material into the kief collector, ultimately compromising the potency of the collected kief. This is the only downside to the quarter thing; more kief, potentially less potency. If your screen is fine enough then this drawback will be reduced, but do not be fooled into thinking that everything in the kief collector is kief as the quarter is likely to force plant material into the screen.

As for the sticky buds, it could be a matter of moisture. If there's just a tad too much moisture left in the buds after curing then they may need a period of 12 to 24 hours in open air to allow drying. As others have said, this should allow the resin glands to become a bit more brittle, encouraging them to fall off the buds and into the kief catch.

Ok, lemme get this before the next time I light up. I take a quarter dollar coin and open the kief compartment and drop it in there, right? I tend to handle things lightly so I dont want to destroy my brand new grinder.

Almost. Put the quarter (coin) into the compartment where the bud falls immediately after it has been ground. Usually this is the middle compartment of a grinder (unless you have multiple screens). The coin will force kief from the freshly ground bud through the screen into the kief compartment.

I'm getting a ton of kief off the buds I have right now, so I don't personally feel a need to do this. It occured to me that it might knock off too much kief for my liking.

Well that sucks, I have a three piece, it only has the top teeth, bottom teeth and kief collector. I think I'll forget about the quarter issue anyway, I just checked the grinder for the compartment you were talking about and while they're still very few particles in there it isn't that bad since I've only smoked about half a gram since I got the grinder, I'll wait it out till my sack is empty. I hope after two months I'll have enough to fill one of those amber pill jars with. Thanks.

For the record, troublemaker_42 I believe gave the quarter idea. I do it every once and a while but not that often. TBH, I think it hinders more than hit helps. A quarter has a rather large surface area and it blocks much of the screen, which could be allowing crystals to fall through. Maybe a penny might work if a quarter is too big?

I prefer agitation. Simply sliding my Mendo mulcher, like a sort of hockey puck on the desk, between my hands, allows it to 'sift' the marijuana and make more kief. Depending on how much kief I want to harvest from how much I ground up I'll do it anywhere from 10-15 times. You can also just hold it in your hand and shake it. Imagine imitating the motions you would sifting for gold (which your practically doing anyways ).

Also, it's all about the dryness. The trichomes tend to stay on sticky bud, even if dry. Why? I'm not sure, maybe it has something to do with the stickiness? Honestly though, I've gotten sticky sticky weed, that is dry, and it also produced very little kief. If you let sticky bud sit out overnight, as Dark mentioned, you can expect to increase your kief production because the buds are much more dry, brittle and more prone to allow THC crystals to dislodge through the screen, as opposed to sticking to the grinders surface walls.

The weed I've been able to find in town locally is very dense, dry and exploding with crystals. It makes optimal weed for kief production.

Also, if you do freeze/refrigerate your bud it helps as the THC crystals become brittle with the coldness and are more likely to fall off when grinding. This is the reason you freeze your weed before making bubblehash/using cold-water extraction.

Last but not least is the 'table drop'. Take your grinder a few inches from a flat surface and drop it a few times, flatly. This dislodges any kief crystals stuck in your screen.

And of course, if your screen is clogged it's going ot reduce your kief production down to nothing. A clean screen gets plenty of kief, a clogged one, even slightly, barely any.

They have 3 piece grinders with a screen and pollen collector. They just don't work well.

Also To Get More Keefe Faster All You Need To Do Is Store The Substance You Want To Keefe In The Freezer For About 1/2 Hour Especially On That Real sticky Stuff Lol Just Try It U'll Seee

using a dime works even better since they are smaller and can move around more when you shake the grinder

I've tried using a dime....I';ve found the additional weight of a quarter to be more beneficial than the smaller size of the dime.