# Butane extraction method - wet or dry?



## kieahtoka (Aug 25, 2007)

Hey all, I've just been wondering if I can make honey oil using the butane method with wet bud and leaves.


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## fdd2blk (Aug 25, 2007)

dry. crispy dry. dry, dry and then dry some more. crispy dry. grind it up. crispy dry. hope this helps.


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## MajoR_TokE (Aug 25, 2007)

kieahtoka said:


> Hey all, I've just been wondering if I can make honey oil using the butane method with wet bud and leaves.


I'm pretty sure it has to be dry. Any other opinions?


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## kieahtoka (Aug 25, 2007)

Thanks for the input. I'm glad I didn't just waste a lot of potential honey oil.


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## Justin Hale (Aug 27, 2007)

kieahtoka said:


> Hey all, I've just been wondering if I can make honey oil using the butane method with wet bud and leaves.


the material needs to be dry, wet weed is not psychoactive.


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## KBking (Aug 28, 2007)

bone dry, and yes wet weed is psychoactive, it just doesn't burn as well..


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## MRbudsmoker (Aug 28, 2007)

was the smallest amount u can use just to try it a couple of times? i have one plant,nearly ready, wanna just sum sucka buds etc.....

thanks


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## kieahtoka (Sep 12, 2007)

KBking said:


> bone dry, and yes wet weed is psychoactive, it just doesn't burn as well..


to an extent, for THC to become psychoactive it needs to lose a carbon molecule, which happens while it is drying. A small percentage of the THC is already psychoactive when picked off the plant, but the high is short and not worth the harsh smoke.


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## CannabisCaveman (Sep 13, 2007)

honey oil through butane is not a good idea man, people say that all of the butane evaporates when thats not true, there is some chemical left behind, the best way to make hash is through sifting it through screens or cold water extraction with bubble bags, just looking out for a fellow toker man, peace


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## ACSCorp (May 23, 2008)

This is off topic but how about the bubble bucket method? 

Can the buds and leaves can be wet then?


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## anhedonia (May 24, 2008)

Honey oil is some of the most potent shit ive ever smoked.


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## ta2drvn (May 26, 2008)

Just a question...


Why would it matter, doesn't the butane wet the plant anyways, just like in a water hash extraction when using water the plant WILL be wet, so what is the difference?

Not arguing in any way shape or form on this one as I have never done this, I am just curious why it would make a difference and want to understand better. The one quote said a molecule needs to drop off and this is accomplished during the drying stage. Now this is plausible and sounds like it could make sense, but if this is NOT the case and the molecule explanation is not true, then, I would figure since TCH is not water soluble the plant being wet or dry should not affect the actual THC during this type of extraction. 

Now, if the H2O in the plant when it is wet, interacts with the butane in a negative manner, then I understand why it should not be wet. What I am trying to say is, if the water allows the plant matter to secrete other material like chlorophyl into the final product making it taste bad or not come out the way it should, this would also make sense as to why to do it dry.


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## ThunderLips (May 26, 2008)

CannabisCaveman said:


> people say that all of the butane evaporates when thats not true, there is some chemical left behind


This is true, there are further steps to purify your oil. 

After your butane evaporates, its often a dark amber, or orangish color, and some say its still smokeable, which it is if you really want to... To get rid of the rest of the butane simply get some 99.9% iso. alcohol and gather up all the thick oil by adding the iso alc. this will make it easier to get into drem viles if you wanted too. once you have the oil in your glass vile or any other glass bowl you will want to boil off the iso alcohol under low heat. I've used crock pots.
Simply fill the crock pot half way with water, put a plate or a bowl under the water to keep your glass container with your oil from touching the bottom, and turn it on med/high, just be careful when boiling off iso.
Do this outside if you can, somewhere with very good ventilation. 

Once your done your oil will actually clear up to an alomost yellow, or honey color and ready to smoke. I've heard that medical grade alcohol can result in an almost clear oil...




ACSCorp said:


> This is off topic but how about the bubble bucket method?
> 
> Can the buds and leaves can be wet then?


No you always want dry product when making hash of any sort.


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## ACSCorp (May 26, 2008)

Thanks ThunderLips. Kinda thought so but wasn't 100% sure.

I appreciate the answer.


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## plantsinpants (Nov 12, 2008)

yes they can


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## Master Kush (Nov 12, 2008)

Dry. Preferably drier than the Sahara Desert.


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## malignant (Nov 28, 2008)

i don't think the weed gets wet, butane is such a low temp don't you think it gets freezedried? dont know im no mad scientist, but i do like honey.. question tho, if the butane doesn't completley evaporate, does it really matter beng that we liht it with butane? isnt it the same risk of chemicals? also, if you buy 100% butane it should all boil off at room temperature.. just collect it in a casserole dish and set it in a pan of warm water after, the butane boils out in like 10 min. i wait a couple days to be sure before i smoke it.ofcourse water extraction is best method, but butane method costs half as much.


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## mackiv (Nov 28, 2008)

no one was talking about hash my friend....hash doesn't hold a candle to actual OIL!!! altho i do use hash to make my oil sumtimes...very good...and as far as the chemicals left behind? no more residual chemicals than there would be in your bowl or blunt from lighting it w/ a BUTANE lighter.... its tha same diff... if yur gunna try to be hella super natural then go get yurself a vaporizer...they're so raw...


CannabisCaveman said:


> honey oil through butane is not a good idea man, people say that all of the butane evaporates when thats not true, there is some chemical left behind, the best way to make hash is through sifting it through screens or cold water extraction with bubble bags, just looking out for a fellow toker man, peace


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## mackiv (Nov 28, 2008)

valid question..butane isn't H20.. its an entirely diff chemical that doesn't hold the same properties as water. when weed touches H20 it loses and dilutes sum of its psychoactive properties, when the chemicals in butane interact w/ the THC, the THC is actually extracted. u can do this as well with isopropyl(rubbing alcohol, pref. 99%) but the plus w/ butane is that the pressurized can causes for the process to be quick so that your oil will have mostly THC, and not other plant matter and chlorophil that would dissolve and dilute your oil as well after prolonged exposure to the extraction agent.



ta2drvn said:


> Just a question...
> 
> 
> Why would it matter, doesn't the butane wet the plant anyways, just like in a water hash extraction when using water the plant WILL be wet, so what is the difference?
> ...


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## fortwo42 (Aug 31, 2009)

Well anyone know if its not a smart idea to use weed that was frozen right after cut, i.e. wet, to make bubble hash. I get mixed answers and i just tried and had a very small yield for an entire plant. :0( good quality hashish but still, so much work for so little. Any input would be apprieciated.


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## Demosthenese (Sep 1, 2009)

what butane is actually doing is acting as a super solvent, dissolving the oils and resins in the plant matter. They then run out with the rest of the butane. Once it has solidified into an opaque golden gunk it is ABSOLUTELY NOT YET SMOKEABLE. You have to get the rest of the butane out of it. I scrape this gunk off a plate and put it on microscope slides. Then i heat the glass with a lighter or a burner from underneath, boiling the butane out of the gunk. It will undergo a very NOTICEABLE colour change once it's ready; it will be clear, not cloudy, see through and amber to yellow in colour, and no bubbles will form in it when heated from underneath. At this stage the oil is hot and liquid, i spread it arround the slide and then throw it in the freezer. Then it's just a matter of scraping off a bit with a razor blade and heating the blade. The oil will fall off in a little drop into your pipe, or wipe it on warm to a zig zag and roll a joint. It will knock your socks off.

Also, i have succesfully tried using wet material from that days harvest. You can absolutely use either this method or the gumby ice-hash method with wet stuff. I always save the stuff i use wet and add it dry to the next batch, because you are almost certainly not getting everything out of it wet; with butane, the temperature freezes the water left in the leaves and that crystalizes arround resin trying to escape. With gumby hash, you should save that stuff and make honey oil out of it anyway, because even dried you aren't extracting the internal resins and oils from the plant using ice water.

I really have made oil out of wet leaves, male plants, fan leaves and stem, vaporized weed, most weed leftovers, and it does work. Yeild, potency etc. will vary accordingly, but unless you've allready smoked the stuff chances are theres some cannibanoid resins left in there that butane can dissolve out.


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## RickWhite (Sep 1, 2009)

Butane is a non-polar solvent which means non-polar substances are soluble in it while polar substances such as water are not. I would certainly use dry material simply for mechanical reasons - chemically it would be irrelevant.

Driving off residual butane should be as simple as heating the dish to a modest heat. If you float it in water on your stove top and keep raising the temp until you see your oil slightly boiling, it's working. f the water boils but the oil doesn't, there is no butane. If you want to, you could even put the oil directly into water and heat it and then let it cool and clump back up. The oil won't mix with the water but the hot water bath should do a great job of dispatching any residual solvent. BTW, no this will not work with isopropyl.


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## Demosthenese (Sep 2, 2009)

just make sure you heat it modestly until ALL the butane is gone. I don't know what smoking large concentrations of butane would do to you, but i imagine it would be bad. I've also seen people collect their oil in an ice bath instead of on a plate. They run the butane through the mats and let it drip into ice water. It solidifies immediately and you can then harvest it with a pencil, a knife or any sort of stick. It just means you don't have to scrape off a plate.


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## JohnnyDaManiac (Sep 2, 2009)

kieahtoka said:


> to an extent, for THC to become psychoactive it needs to lose a carbon molecule, which happens while it is drying. A small percentage of the THC is already psychoactive when picked off the plant, but the high is short and not worth the harsh smoke.


Not saying you are wrong just wondering where you found this out? I am very interested in the chemistry of getting high and like to inform people as to how it works and I do now want to tell people stuff I can't prove.


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## that1guy1980 (Dec 23, 2009)

Dry works best


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## Jingo1 (Feb 21, 2014)

Good post Demosthenes, thanks. I think I've wasted a lot :/

JohnnyDaManiac - he's half right, but he's misunderstood. Almost all canabinoids are found in their acidic form when first harvested, so a plant will contain a lot of THC-a and CBD-a and CBG-a etc etc, but only trace amounts of decarboxilated THC and CBD etc. The process of drying and curing allows for some decarboxilation, but the reason those processes make your weed stronger is because the canabinoids break down into other psychoactive forms, not because they decarboxilate to their non-acidic forms. In fact, any kind of heating beyond 80oC or time with exposure to air will decarboxilate, so as soon as you spark your joint, cook it or stick it in a vaporizer you will decarb the THC immediately into it's psychoactive form. 

I suspect this is why Simspon oil is so medicinal when eaten.... you can boil off the iso with 'warm' setting on a rice cooker because it boils off at a low temperature, so good RSO contains a mix of acidic and non-acidic canabinoids - some of which seem to cure cancer, prevent epileptic seizures, protect against neuro degenerative diseases etc.

This is quite a good video to help explain it, but you really ought to read some of the peer reviewed studies because you can save friends and family members or at least ease a lot of their suffering with it - blah blah /but seriously, save someone's life! 

[video=youtube;g79HokJTfPU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g79HokJTfPU[/video]

And RE butane. If you purge properly (vaccum or heat) then you end up with crystal clear 'shatter' and that contains no butane and is the purest and cleanest smoke you can get =) shatter FTW for stoners and RSO for medical use imho

Peace and love hippy friends ;P


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## TechnicalToker (Feb 23, 2014)

I made QWISO with thawed wet trim. Came out golden yellow like honey. Put you on your ass


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## CHUD (Feb 25, 2014)

Vacuum and heat is the only proper way to purge a BHO extract. And not just once but several times. As for wet extract. You will yield a much lower potency material but it will have a broader terpene profile and the flavor is unparralleled. Good luck!


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## Dish (Mar 24, 2021)

I know I'm bringing back a dead thread, but the herb DOES NOT need to be dry!


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