The Dude recently got this nice colored spice and it was re-crystallized once, but still retained a bit of color.

He was wondering if it's cool to smoke it?

the spice on the left is the one in question, the one on the right is what he considers "the bomb diggity"

Geez that is brown! I wouldn't smoke that

Redissolve it in warm naphtha then do a sodium carbonate wash, or 2, and turn it into some bomb diggity

Thank you for the quick reply! The Dude has been having this problem lately with his pulls, they always end up being brown tinted when they separate. when freeze precip occurs the brown settles into a layer all around the spice.

he's added anywhere from 10-20g extra lye to his powdered bark on both of these occasions. is this causing the brown colored naptha? perhaps the heat baths he gives the mix?

just wondering.

I don't think extra lye would cause it to turn brown, many people go overboard with the amount of lye and don't seem to run into this problem. My friend has brown naphtha as well and doesn't know what to make of it. It was brown before a long heat bath and after.. so i don't think that causes or fixes anything since and its not an emulsion. If anyone knows any remedies for this that would be great..as it takes tons of sodium carbonate washes to clean it up

yes...way to many washes..

Near boiling naptha and dissolve brown spice. Let cool to room temperature and the nasty brown stuff should have settled on the bottom, decant into new container and freeze.

Should sort it out.

What type of naptha did you use? Could it be a contaminant?

a re-x or ammonia wash would be easier than 5,6,7 sodium carb washes...

the brown stuff just floats around in the hot naptha and doesn't stick to the bottom like normal contaminates.



the dude uses standard VM&P naptha.
He's recrystallized once
ammonia washes are out
Just want to know if he's dealing with plant oils or trace amounts of base or SOMETHING. but base usually ends up being in very specific dark spots...so he doesn't think it's that either really.

You've got the "Brown Death" my friend.

No amount of washing or rextalizing will work and this is because:

A) whatever it is is actually dissolved in the naphtha, they are not particulates
B) whatever it is can be easily dissolved in small amounts of bestine
C) Whatever it is, it is not soluable in basic water (or at least a solution of sodium carbonate)

Therefore the ONLY way that I have found to fix the Brown Death is to do a small scale A/B extraction.

For future knowledge, this seems to only happen with STB using prepowdered bark. Either switch from prepowdered, or switch to A/B.

damn..

this is really the first time the dude has had trouble with this "brown death" on pre-powdered bark...just seems odd that this problem isn't consistent with his previous batches.

he's probably going to try another batch soon and see if he can experiment a bit to get better results...

My friend was looking for a quick solution besides sodium carb washes.. which weren't working good at all for some reason.

So he then siphoned off 200ml of the bark/lye/water out from under the thin layer of brown naphtha, and added it to a separate glass. He then poured in a small amount of new naphtha and turned it around for a little...sucked some naphtha up and it was crystal clear.

Throw the brown naptha in the freezer for a little while. Not long enough to freeze precipitate, just cool it down a bit, and the brown will probably settle to the bottom of your container. Then pour the clear/yellow naptha into a new container and continue.

Pokey

aha!

the dude didn't even think of that! the brown DOES sink to the bottom rather fast.

Oh thank god, you didn't get the brown death.....be happy my friend. I've let brown naphtha sit for a week and there is little change. I've stuck it in the fridge, the freezer, etc....just glad it worked out for you!

Result!

Pokey, UniverseCannon

both idea's are great solutions! the fresh naptha AND the slight freeze separation!

thank you nexus!

THANK YOU!!!!

awesome thread.