Hello there!

When doing STB extraction, I left my glass with ~900ml of alkaline solution (H20 + NaOH + bark) for a 4-5 weeks. After that time I suddenly discovered some kind of small "stone-like" thing inside the solution! It is very hard, and scrapes hard, too.

Any ideas what it can be?

(if topic is in wrong place, feel free to move it)

Well, logically if there was nothing in the solution accept bark and lye I would say that that brick is most likely a mixture of the two.

Did all the water evaporate and leave you with this? Or did you pull the piece out of the solution and take a picture of it?

Are you sure your NaOH was clean?

Pure clean NaOH. I spotted that when I tried to separate this mixture to smaller flasks.
I suppose it is not dmt.. that is only thing which interest me.

Also, interesting thing is that it formed itself inside the mixture and the structure is pretty hard. It never happened to me, so I ask you.

It's probably just a cake of dry bark that was never properly mixed into the solution - I've seen this a lot before with STB extractions. Break it in half, you'll probably find some virgin bark in there. If so, keep it around and add it to your next extraction. It's odd that they are white though… probably could be lye on the surface.

I agree with the above. Probably a chunk of bark that didn't properly mix in.

In absence of a rational explanation, I'd like to suggest you found the philosopher's stone

Hahaha

Seeing as how I let my jars sit for 4 weeks every single time I can tell you that it is not normal. The only time I've ever had a clump like this is from not stirring in the naoh well enough. If you pour in the lye and don't mix it in quick enough it will clump up. You should be able to tell by measuring its pH. It'll be lower than it should be. The harsh environment of the surface of the clump of lye will cause bark to stick to it.

Yeah, I halfed this clump, and there is brown stuffing inside ^_^

Philosopher stone.... wanna buy? 999999999999999999$ ?