What is the difference between “mincing” and “grinding”?

Your team uses "mincing" and "grinding" to describe similar tasks. This confusion in manufacturing terms can lead to ordering the wrong tools, which is a costly mistake and delays your projects.

In manufacturing, grinding uses an abrasive to wear away a surface for shape or finish. Mincing uses sharp blades to chop material into small, separate pieces. They are fundamentally different processes that require completely different tools and applications.

In the kitchen, you might grind coffee and mince garlic, and the terms feel similar. But in our world of industrial manufacturing, the difference is everything. As a company that has produced grinding¹ tools in Henan for almost thirty years, a misunderstanding here can be the difference between a perfectly finished part and a pile of scrap. The tools, the process, and the final result are not the same. Let’s break down exactly what sets them apart so you can make the right choice for your application.

Is mincing the same as grinding?

The end result might look similar—smaller pieces from a larger whole. This makes it easy to confuse the two, but using the wrong process can destroy your workpiece or sideline your machinery.

No, mincing is not the same as grinding. Mincing is a cutting action that separates material into smaller parts. Grinding is an abrading action that removes material as fine dust to change a surface’s shape or finish.

The core difference lies in the mechanism. Mincing is about division. It takes one large piece and cuts it into many smaller, distinct pieces. Think of a commercial food processor chopping vegetables. The vegetable pieces are still clearly identifiable as vegetable matter, just smaller. Grinding is about subtraction. It removes microscopic particles from a surface. When we grind a piece of steel, the main workpiece remains a single piece, but its surface is smoother or its shape is slightly changed. The material that is removed becomes fine dust, or what we call swarf². In our factory, we focus entirely on the science of abrasion. We do not make mincing³ blades; we manufacture tools that execute precise subtraction down to the micron level.

What’s the difference between grind and mince?

You understand they are different, but you need to explain to your team when to use each term. A clear definition is needed to ensure everyone is speaking the same technical language.

To grind is to refine a surface using abrasion. To mince is to chop something into fine, separate pieces. One modifies a single object, while the other creates many objects from one.

Let’s use a practical example from our industry. When a customer needs to sharpen a tool steel cutter, they use one of our diamond grinding wheels. The wheel abrades a tiny amount of material from the cutter’s edge, creating a new, sharp profile. The cutter remains one single piece. That is grinding. Now, imagine a recycling⁴ plant that processes scrap metal. They might use a large industrial shear or chopper to cut long metal bars into small, manageable chunks for melting. That is a form of mincing or chopping. The process’s goal is to turn one big thing into many small things. As a grinding tool manufacturer, our entire focus is on the first process. We engineer diamond and CBN wheels that provide the highest level of surface finish and geometric accuracy, something a mincing process can never achieve.

What is the difference between grinding and mincing?

You need to select the right equipment for a new production line. Choosing between a grinding machine and a mincing/chopping machine is a critical decision that will define your capability.

Grinding is a high-precision process for surface finishing and shaping hard materials. Mincing is a bulk process for size reduction. The choice depends on whether you need to refine a surface or break down a material.

The difference becomes most clear when you look at the typical applications in a factory setting. This is where a purchasing manager or technical director’s decision has a major impact.

Grinding Applications

Grinding is chosen when precision is the top priority.

• Surface Finishing: Creating smooth, mirror-like, or specific textured surfaces on metal parts.
• Cylindrical Grinding: Making shafts and bearings with extremely tight diameter tolerances.
• Tool Sharpening: Putting a razor-sharp edge on cutting tools, drills, and inserts.
• Shaping Hard Materials: Working with hardened steels, ceramics, or carbide, which are too hard for many other processes. Our superhard abrasives, like diamond and CBN wheels, are essential for these tasks.

Mincing (or Chopping/Shredding) Applications

Mincing is chosen when size reduction is the goal.

• Recycling: Chopping plastic, wood, or metal scrap into smaller pieces for easier handling and reprocessing.
• Food Processing: Mincing meat, vegetables, or other ingredients on an industrial scale.
• Raw Material Preparation: Breaking down large blocks of raw material before they enter another manufacturing process.

You would never use a grinder to recycle plastic bottles, and you could never use a mincer to create a ball bearing. They are designed for completely different worlds.

What’s the difference between grinding and milling?

Both grinding and milling are subtractive manufacturing processes used to shape parts. But choosing the wrong one leads to inefficiency, poor surface finish, or even damage to the workpiece.

The key difference is the tool. Grinding uses a multi-pointed abrasive wheel to remove material as fine chips. Milling uses a cutter with a limited number of defined cutting edges to remove larger, distinct chips of material.

This is a very common point of confusion for buyers and engineers. Both processes remove material to achieve a desired shape, but they do so very differently. Milling is typically a faster, rougher process. An end mill, which looks like a drill bit, spins and moves along the workpiece, cutting away relatively large chips to create features like slots, holes, and complex contours. Grinding is a finishing process. A grinding wheel has thousands of tiny, randomly oriented abrasive⁵ particles acting as cutting points. It removes very little material with each pass, but it does so with incredible precision. As a producer of grinding wheels, our expertise lies where milling⁶ cannot go. When you need to shape hardened tool steel or achieve a mirror finish with a tolerance of a few microns, you need to grind.

Conclusion

Mincing cuts material into pieces, while grinding uses abrasives to precisely shape a surface. Understanding this difference is key to selecting the right tool and process for any job.