I am very new to this forum and community. Thanking you in advance for your time and insights.

Is there a consensus on the best material to use to create fb?

Is there a shelf life for each material?

Happy Travels!

Both are fine.

In theory powdered could be easier to oxidize but also easier to extract due to larger total surface area, while shredded/in pieces will oxidize slower but also take a bit more work to get every bit of alkaloid out when extracting.

In practice, its pretty much the same, even powdered MHRB has been shown to be kept fine for many years with no noticeable degradation (specially if you keep it cold and dry but even if not it's still fine). On the other hand, if you have the root in pieces/shredded, you can always just shredd it as fine as possible first and then extract it, and leave it standing for longer in acid or base, and your yields will be equivalent as powdered bark.

Also, do check the FAQ since it talks about storage and shelf life, and a bunch of other questions you will likely have when researching or doing extractions.

Be well

It depends on scale, extraction method of choice, intended storage time etc.

I like shredded bark which as it is easier to filter (I do A/B extractions). The shredded bark might last longer in storage and I grind it in a coffee grinder right before extraction.

If someone does STB extraction, I guess sufficiently shredded back will break down anyway, but I am not sure.

Thank you endlessness and blue.magic, your answers were very helpful.

Is oxidation a problem in salt form as it is in the bark? I have some powdered that is at least 3 yrs old and seems ok still. I keep it in an ammo box with 02 eaters on the bottom.