Just a quick question, more out of curiosity than anything. Hardly anyone seems to use calcium hydroxide, which I completely understand as it's less efficient than lye at most everything. But from what I understand, the general rule of thumb with lye is typically a 1:1 ratio, lye to bark. However, most teks that I've seen using CaOH call for around 80% of your root bark. I.e., ~80g of CaOH to 100g of MHRB. Is there any specific reason for this? Could I not just use a 1:1 with calcium hydroxide as well? I feel like with CaOH's inefficacy, more definitely wouldn't hurt. Figured I'd ask before I attempt anything. Much love.

Which tek are you using?

I don't think the lye to bark needs to be 1:1. The calculations will be based on volume not weight. In using the Max Ion tek, 40g of lye is used per 100g of bark.

Calcium hydroxide should be fine to use. Just get some ph test strips to make sure you've increased the ph enough to disrupt molecular cohesion and break down cell walls.

One love

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Which tek are you using?

I don't think the lye to bark needs to be 1:1. The calculations will be based on volume not weight. In using the Max Ion tek, 40g of lye is used per 100g of bark.

Calcium hydroxide should be fine to use. Just get some ph test strips to make sure you've increased the ph enough to disrupt molecular cohesion and break down cell walls.

One love[/quote]

You might laugh lol, I'd found this three years ago for my first extraction: extraction tek
From my understanding, it's more or less Q21Q21's tek, but it also seems a lot like Gordo tek. And it worked well enough, but I'm trying to understand more of the process this time. I plan to let the CaOH/bark mixture sit for at least six hours this time instead of the hour that video recommends, and I want to let the naphtha mix sit for at least 30 minutes, maybe closer to 45 depending on how much is absorbed/evapped.

And I didn't know anything exact regarding lye, I'd just seen a lot of posts like, "More doesn't hurt, I use a 1:1 and my results are amazing!" type deals.
But that's nuts, less than 50% of the mix is lye? I'm assuming it's because it just works better? I really need to just knuckle down and hop on that train.

Roger that though. Was gonna order some with my CaOH. Didn't really check anything my first time around, felt a lot like just following a recipe. Tysm And I apologize if I butchered the quote lmao, still learning my way around here.

Edit: looks like I did lol

I'm with Voidmatrix, 1:1 lye:bark sounds rather excessive. Tests were carried out a while back and it was found that quite a surprisingly small amount of NaOH was required for successful extraction.

A few short blasts in the microwave may help if you're using lime.

It doesn't make much sense to let the naphtha mix sit; the point is to maximise contact between the basic phase and the solvent so you'd be better of mashing it round for a while. A potato masher is useful for this.

Well then hell yeah. Most of question came from having seen posts recommending that.

Is that just for heat? Because I'd just double boiled it/had it in a heat bath of sorts my first time.

And regarding the naphtha, again, just something I'd seen lmao. I knew you were supposed to mix it up during the pull at least ;P And I love the idea of the potato masher! I'd just used a metal spoon to slice through it and mix it up last time. Definitely gonna give that a shot. Do you recommend tamping down the basic mixture under the naphtha before pouring it off, or just letting it lie how it will? I figured it would keep more of the bark in the bowl being tamped.

Hi.
For ph rising only a tad of lye is sufficient.

More lye attacks the structure of the wood to reach the alkaloids better, this might become useful with not so finely shredded wood.

More lye also keep bay of emulsions that can make liquid-liquid extractions a real burden.

I think the advertisement for "more lye" comes from teks that aim for these reasons foremost.

when I've used naphtha and lime paste, I'd mix it up and smooth it back out again using a large serving fork (I have posh cutlery!), poking holes in the paste and making ridges and furrows to maximise its surface area. Some people have less free time than me though

Microwaves cause certain molecules to spin around in ways that help them to migrate from one area to another. This differs from simple thermal vibrations.

I think you might be right, Jees. I'm getting bogged down with all the posts I've sifted through, but I *feel* like I might have seen that recommended more for shredded than powdered. Or for people struggling to get anything from a freeze precipitation.

And we've got an aristocrat on our hands!
Jokes aside, that sounds like what I'll try and do then I figure the more contact I can make, the better. I'm really curious to see how the changes I plan on making affect my yield.
And the microwave? Strange! How long would you say to nuke it for? 30 seconds, a couple times? Am I mixing in between? Thank you for the advice!

Are we aware of any experiments comparing the yield using lye versus calcium hydroxide, using the same source material and tek (of course)?