Months ago I sat down to pen a musing called "Grinder Gate" but I never finished it. It involved people selling resin grinders as this was a hot topic on several social media platforms. Those raising awareness about problems with resin grinders got me looking at all the grinders I had and had been using, none of which were resin grinders.

At the time they were this cool rainbow-colored metal grinders with kief collectors. As I inspected the metal grinders I noticed that the concerns people were raising regarding the resin ones should be of concern with metal ones too, and that is chipping. Metal or plastic shavings ending up in our herb!

So I started looking around at other grinders and stumbled upon Herb Saver (herbsaverusa.com) grinders/storage containers. Made with “medical grade plastic,” I’m not sure what that exactly means but it sounded like it would be extremely durable and not prone to plastic shavings ending up in your smoke.

 
Pros:
Cool colors- even glow in the dark
Holds a lot of herb
Deep well kief collector
Inexpensive
Writeable
 
Cons:
Grinding pegs not as durable as I had hoped
 
In A Nutshell:
I really have mixed feelings. As far as being grinders they are okay, if you like your herb coarsely ground. They do a great job at separating and collecting the kief, which is always a huge plus. I love that it can hold a lot of herb, more than most grinders. My best guess is about 6 grams of ground herb can be stored in the storage well. 

I have about 10 of these, and I use a Sharpie marker to write the name of the strain inside the grinder, right on the lid. Even though it's a permanent marker, some paper towel soaked with alcohol wipes it right off when you change strains. That way you don't forget what’s in your grinder. I tried remembering based on color but would always forget what was in which herb saver. I guess that happens when you smoke.

After several months of use you can clearly see wear on the pegs. Makes me wonder how much microscopic shavings get into the herb. Having messed up lungs--where I shouldn't even be smoking--at all makes me a little more cautious of such things.

In all actuality, probably the safest way to grind herb is with your fingers but sometimes that can be pretty tedious. Plus, not efficient at collecting that beloved kief. So what do you do?

The cost for these grinders are 14.99-15.99 so replacing them often--once you start seeing signs of wear--isn't terribly expensive. 

However, I have one suggestion for Herb Saver: Since the grinder pieces are separate from the storage well, perhaps selling replacement grinder pieces could be beneficial and environmentally conservative? That way there is less plastic waste from tossing the old grinders? Plus folks could mix and match tops to bottoms if they wanted. Personally I think the mixing and matching could be really fun and cool too. 

I do wish the grinders ground the herb better, but I like mine finer because my Davinci IQ pods work better with a finer ground. I had hoped the grinder pegs were more durable, but it's plastic--not Duranium, Cortosis, Mithril or my personal favorite, Octiron. So honestly, should I be surprised that plastic needs replacing after several months of intense use? Nope, not really.

If Herb Saver sold replacement grinder pieces I think this product might get a 5 out of 5, heck maybe even my seal of approval. But as they’re sold right now, it’s a solid 4.
 

Continue Reading