So my friend recently did a slightly larger STB extraction than previous attempts, and it didn't go quite as well. He managed to get a little bark / lye mix into his pulls, resulting in some yellow spice.

He did an SC wash before freezing, and has recrystalised twice, which worked very well, but there is still a hint of yellow in the spice that he can't seem to get rid of. My question is how bothered should he be about this?

Everything he has extracted before has been very white, and smoked well. Is he being a fussy perfectionist, or is the smoking affected to the point that he should recrystalise again?

Could this slight colouration be due to something else?

No bro dont worry about it. My friend done an stb, cleaned it up using an sc wash and recrystallized twice. The result was some ever so slightly lemon tinged clay like Parmesan cheese. Your friend could try an activated charcoal wash to remove the yellow. But its not necessary.

Are folk heating their pulls?

I use an STB with 1 sodium carbonate wash and get glass shards on the freeeze precip using no heat and as much lye as is needed to be able to shake the shit out the vessel with no bubbles forming before adding the solvent. I set the solvent aside by a drafty window, then the fridge (by which time crystals appear) then the freezer.

It seems to work everytime.

Same method as you Soulfood. The mistake was shaking the mix jar when the naptha was in it, rather than gently rolling it / turning it. It made an emulsion which although he thought he had left time for it to separate, seems to have dirtied the naptha.

He had to spend so long cleaning / recrystalising that yield was down to 0.6%, whereas it's normally twice that with the same bark.

Mistakes were made, lessons learned. He is going to need some more bark sooner than expected.

The trick is to add the NaOH then wait for it to react completely, then shake the shit out of it. If you see any bubbles form on the surface, add more lye, then only when you're sure bubbles cannot form you can add your solvent and get crazy with the shaking and no emulsion will form.

I get 90% of my total yield in my first pull using this method. Just a lot of waiting and shaking are involved.

I plan on posting some pics of a recent extraction swim and swim did together in a pool while swimming, and the whole olympic swim team found out that even after 4 re-xtals you actually pick up a slight amount of color. first pull was OK but not smokable white, second re-x was mostly smokable, third re-x REALLY WHITE and fourth actually picked up CLEAR crystals with a slight coloration to them...

Thanks man. I take it you mean the NaOH / bark mix is shaken, not just the NaOH on its own before the bark is added, right?

Very nice dtabbler! Those yellow, yet nearly translucent x-tals look quite interesting even if likely not as pure as the white, shiny and fluffy shards...SWIM has yet to master the art of recrystallization and larger x-tal formation in particular...the solvent cannot be too concentrated and better results are definitely observed with Bestine(n-heptane)over naphtha...obviously temp. plays a significant role as well

Has anyone here ever had success or tried recrystallization with hexane or any other less commonly discussed solvents?

I tried Neon brand of naphta in stead of the usual Ronsonol this week.
I am amazed at how white the stuff it pulls is. I assume its a weaker solvent than the Ronsonol, and maybe leaving some of the oils etc...
Pesonaly I have no problems with yellow spice, as long as it is not because of transfered bark mix.

Mine always looks like those clear yellow shards above, and it's great. Never "cleaned" or re-crystallized. No need to IMO.

Above sample has been tried and shared with a pony. It is by far the best Deemster experience I ever had, it felt like it lasted days, and was filled with shared syncronicity.
I just don't have any idea how to top this experience, how could anything ever live up to this.
Phlux will be able to tell you how many times I complained about always being stuck on this side of the veil, never being gifted anything. Man!, that all changed today.
During the second trip at the point of epiphamy I burst out laughing, so did my co-pony. It was laughter that could not be matched by salvia even. Deep healthy healing laughter with river of tears streaming down my face in waves, especialy so when I realised the trip could not last forever. Even after comming down and haveing some coffee I was still emotional for like another 30 minutes, I just ended up grabing a piece of kitchen towel to wipe up all the tears, I was just so happy.
I just don't understand why it had to tease me for so many months, I mean I've been through 600g of bark before THIS.
Nothing has ever felt that good.
Lol I even had the whole baby in a nursery thing you read about occasionaly. My goalposts have been shifted and I feel an imbalance corrected.
Its been about 4 hours now and I feel realy good.

This is a question that i've thought about quite a few times, soulfood. I think heating up the solution merely allows it to come to equilibirum quicker, so with heat or without heat will not make any difference to the yeild in the long run. or will it? ~confused~



By the way, NICE crystals! Thanks for the pictures!