Hey, i have a friend who lives in england and hes been searching up every tek from lazy to loki, to teks that haven't been tested much yet and he has one big problem. vm&p naphtha seems pretty hard to come by here in england and i know he can use other things but everyone and it's dog suggests naphtha. So he was just wondering, what it is IN the naphtha that is used in the extraction, i know it's sort of been told in various different places but just a fast definitive answer would be great.

Much appreciated. My mates been meaning to subscribe here for ages .

EDIT: Nevermind. He re-read one of my old PDFs on the "Quantum Tantra" extraction and that says i can use zippo fluid. He can test how clean it is by evaporating it and it leaving no residue yes?

sorry for edit

Hi,

Yes the evap test seems to be the gold standard amongst testing lighter fluids. SWIM has not used any lighter fluid himself mind, since it hikes up the price of an extraction somewhat and means that SWIY would probabyl want to save the naptha afterwards since he wouldn't want to keep purchasing more.

What SWIM can attest to is the use of B&Q white spirits. SWIM has had successful extractions using this. Bear in mind it is useless for evaporation as it takes eons to go anywhere, therefore if your friend intends to evap to 75% of the original volume then white spirits prob isn't advisable. However, avoided an initial evap and going straight to freeze prep will see plenty of crystals falling out of solution.

Once this occurs, pour out the white spirits and dispose of (this stuff is cheap enough to not have to bother with re-using it) cap your container and invert and place back in the freezer to let the residual naptha collect in the lid. After a couple of hours, your friend can then scrape out the crystals onto a pyrex plate or something.

This is the good bit, because although SWIM stated that white spirits is uselss for evaporation, he believes that this is only when there is a collective mass of it in one container, because when the crystals are spaced out on a pyrex dish the crystals dry perfectly. This takes about 3-4 days until no further odour is noticeable, but SWIM has learned in his short time in culinary spice skills, that lots of patience doth a good extraction maketh.

The crystals should be nice and fluffy and good to load up into SWIYs favourite device at this point.

Bear in mind SWIM is by no means an expert on this subject, he is merely attempting to give back to the community relating his experiences thus far since he recieved much advice and wisdom when he was first starting.

Methtical

Thanks alot for your reply. Yeah i think thats hes going to have to settle with. Big shame though since everyone does rate vm&p so highly, not even including the reuse issue. If anyone in england can tell me where they get there naptha, or what they use it would be much appreciated! since my friend would love to know .

http://www.dmt-nexus.me/....aspx?g=posts&t=1716
^^^^^ uk naphtha searchers gogo!
I should learn to look harder... can't believe i didn't find that thread before! Very sorry, well at least this forum will give people a chance to find that thread!

Hi Astralking, SWIM had the same problem with this and there are a few threads on the nexus about this topic, but some are quite hard to find at first! SWIM ended up buying 3 different types because of conflicting reports! In the end SWIMs conclusions were that there seems to be 2 popluar choices that were readily available:

1. B&Q Bartoline Premium Low Odour White Spirit. This is a "heavy" naptha, so apparently good at pulling spice, but does not freeze precip or evaporate easily. It is cheap though at about £5 for 2 litres.
2. Ronsonol lighter fluid. This is a "light" naptha and therefore the closest thing readily available to the quoted VM&P Naptha. It is easily evap'd and freeze preps well, but it is more expensive and can only be bought in 133ml cans (post if anyone knows different!) Cheapest place SWIM found was Tesco at £1.10

Neither of these is identical to VM&P, SWIM heard you can get closer to it (or even the same) with some artists brush cleaning fluid, but they are too pricey to consider, unless you can afford it or really want to.

SWIM tried both on small batches to see for himself and these descriptions seemed correct. Both seemed to leave a very slight trace of residue on evap'd, (the Ronsonol was less) but nothing SWIM was concerned about.

I am sure you may find out more accurate info from others, there is plenty of discussion on it here. There are plenty more brands available, but I thought this may help.

I am from the UK and I intend to use Behlen Naphtha (after an evap test), a link for which you can find below.

http://www.behlen.co.uk/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=B650-0056&Category_Code=SOLVE

I can not say for certain if this naphtha is up to the job, but I shall be experimenting with it in the near future, and will post the results I find thereafter.

Peace and best of luck,

Macre.