Sharpstone Grinder and Pollen Press

[BigJnHI]

I just received my new, aluminum 2.5", four piece SHARPSTONE herb grinder along with my new aluminum, five piece SHARPSTONE pollen press. Having had only owned a simple 1.75” wooden grinder with pins (nails) prior to this purchase, this was a much deserved upgrade. Although there are many comparisons with its double-priced competitor, here is an unbiased and thorough review of my new Sharpstone grinder and Sharpstone pollen press.

My package arrived and after opening the package, I was pleased to see the grinder came in a nice cloth pouch to protect it, and the pollen press was wrapped in protective paper and sealed in a small cardboard box. I opened the pouch and small box and carefully inspected the grinder and the pollen press.

Wow! A beautifully machined, sleek aluminum grinder with four pieces: top and bottom grinder with mean, grizzly looking cutting teeth (not pins); one lower micro-screen compartment that captures the ground up herbs; and one lower compartment to catch the pollen (trichomes), which sifts through the micro-screen. The grinder also came with a little scraper tool that is used to rub the trichs and kief through the micro-screen, and also to scoop the pollen into the pollen press.

Instead of using machined threads, the top and bottom of the grinder has a small built-in magnet, which holds the top grinder to the bottom grinder. The teeth in the grinder look like they belong in a horror movie. That is what got my attention right away. Powerful and solid. The round holes that allow the ground herbs to drop into the lower screen compartment were plentiful. However, I did not care for the oblong holes around the sides, which allowed larger grinds to make their way through to the lower screen compartment (but still was much better than my wooden grinder). The grinder screws onto the screen compartment and the screen compartment screws onto lower compartment that holds the pollen. No chance of things popping open and losing anything!

As I read in other posts, I first ground a couple small sheets of paper through the grinder teeth to clean any aluminum debris that may have gotten past the quality control before shipping. After discarding the paper and shaking out the grinder, I put a nice nugget between the upper and lower grinder. The two pieces of the grinder fit together perfectly, and I spun it back and forth a couple of times over the top of a paper plate, to see if anything fell through any cracks. The wicked grinder teeth quickly made a meal of the nugget, and not one trich or hair could be seen on the paper plate (even with a 10x scope). The close tolerances of the fit were much appreciated. The nicely ground herb that fell through the holes were waiting for me as I unscrewed the grinder compartment from the ground herb compartment.

After quickly grinding up another nugget, I put the nicely ground herb into a glass storage container, and then started scraping what was left on the micro-screen through and down into the pollen compartment. I then unscrewed the micro-screen compartment from the bottom pollen compartment, and was extremely pleased to see that I had enough beautiful, yellow-golden dust to scoop into my pollen press.

The pollen press that came with the herb grinder is a five piece, machined piece of aluminum that is about the size of the small Lincoln logs that I had when I was a kid (grin). The main hollow cylinder is sleek, as well as the two threaded end caps, and the two solid aluminum dowels. To use the pollen press, insert one dowel into the press and screw on one cap and stand it up with the open end facing up. Add, the pollen you collected into the hollow cylinder, and then insert the opposite side’s dowel, and screw down the caps to compress the pollen into hash.

Before trying to make a pollen cake, I recall reading where you should not use direct flame or direct heat while compressing the pollen, which can make the parts of the pollen press fuse together – thus giving you a nice costly paper weight. I also read where you can cut two small, round pieces from a rolling paper and put it on the bottom of the dowel and the top of the dowel to eliminate the pollen from sticking to the dowel after compression. I also read where it is difficult to screw the caps down tightly enough to get a nice cake of pollen without some form of indirect heat. I also read that after compressing the pollen press, seal the areas where the caps screw down and put the pollen press in hot water. I also read where someone said it is better to not use the caps, but after putting the dowels into the hollow cylinder press – use a C-Clamp and compress the dowels, which makes a nice “tight” cake. And lastly, I read that you should leave the pollen in the pollen press and keep compressed overnight.

So, what I did was: I cut two, round pieces of rolling paper and put one piece over the bottom dowel, and I capped the bottom of the pollen press. I then scooped the pollen from the bottom compartment and put it into the hollow cylinder. When I was out of pollen, I took the other round piece of rolling paper that I cut, and put it on the bottom of the other dowel, and then carefully inserted the dowel into the cylinder. As I was about to do this, I had a flashback of when you put flour into a mixer how it can all fly out… so I was careful not to just shove the dowel into the fine collection of pollen. After some resistance, I placed the other cap onto the end of the pollen press and used as much force as I could to screw the pollen press together. Instead of sealing the caps with tape and dunking the press into hot water, I put the press into a small Ziploc bag and put it into a bowl of hot water. About every hour, for four hours, I walked over to the sink removed the press and tried to compress the end caps more. I doubt whether that really mattered or not, but after that, I put the pollen press back into the plastic Ziplocs bag, and then added more hot water to the bowl.

The next morning, I removed the Ziploc from the bowl of water, and removed the press from the Ziploc. I unscrewed the end caps and pushed the dowels through the press. Presto, a nice solid cake of golden hash popped out. The rolling paper was easy to remove from the hash cake and the cake was not flaky at all. A solid chunk of yum yum! But I will try the C-Clamp method the next time…

I read about Sharpstone’s higher priced competitor, and after seeing the results from this herb grinder that cost me less than ½ the price of its competitor, it was well worth the money spent, and I was very pleased to say the least. The stuff smokes great in my Extreme Vaporizer, and I am having some problems focusing at the moment. Sorry about any misspellings or word omissions.

Cheers!

[rocky888]

I also have a Sharpstone and am pleased with it. However it's higher priced competitor is better built that the Sharpstone IMO. But the sharpstone is a great price and a great grinder.

[BigJnHI]

I agree Rocky that the competitor is probably built and machined better. After having used a wooden grinder for years, anything IMHO, was much better than getting wood slivers in my herb. I am still very pleased with the cost that I paid, and if I can get a few years' use from the Sharpstone, I will be a very happy camper.