What is Cannabis Shatter and Wax
One of the biggest things in the cannabis world right now are extracts and dabs. If you go to any Cannabis Cup-type event you’ll be inundated with the many various types and consistencies of marijuana concentrates. Innovations in extraction techniques have led to new forms of concentrates, propelling their popularity in cannabis culture. Concentrates have become so popular in fact, that it’s not uncommon to hear people asking whether 7/10 (the annual celebration of smoking dabs) is the new 4/20.What is Cannabis Shatter and Wax
If you are new to cannabis concentrates, all the lingo can seem confusing at first: wax, shatter, budder, dabs…¦the list goes on. It can all seem dizzying and unapproachable.
However, that doesn’t have to be the case. Many of these products have been around for a long time, used by medical patients who need an extra amount of THC or by recreational users who enjoy the purity and clean high that you get from concentrated cannabis. If you’re a cannabis user who’s ready to try something new, or a medical user who might benefit from medicine that packs a higher punch of THC, then concentrates might be for you.
What are concentrates?
At their most basic level, cannabis concentrates are just the finished product by which the psychoactive components in cannabis – THC, CBD and other substances – are separated from the plant matter and concentrated to increase their potency. There are extraction methods that utilize physical techniques, while other methods utilize chemical solvents to extract cannabinoids – but either way, the result is a concentrated form of cannabis in which the THC percentage can be upwards of 75%. In this article we will take a look at some of the most common concentrates as they increase in potency.
Proto-concentrates: Kief and Hash
Kief
If you have a grinder with a little screw-on basin at the bottom which catches all the golden-yellow, pollen-like dust that separates from the buds as they are ground, then you technically have a concentrate. This is called Kief and it is the most rudimentary form of cannabis concentrate, and it’s a good place to start if you are experimenting with concentrates. Many people like to add a pinch of kief on top of a pipe or bong bowl, or sprinkle it on a joint. Some people even smoke pure-kief bowls. It may not be the easiest way to smoke a concentrate, nor is it exactly going to be the cleanest, but it will offer a boost to the potency of your marijuana.
Potency range: 20-40% THC.
Hash
Hash is commonly thought of as the original cannabis concentrate. It was referenced in the writings of Marco Polo, who told fanciful tales of assassins who smoked hash before doing their…work.
Hash is kief that has been condensed or pressed into a flaky, sticky brick. It has long been popular among old-school stoners for its cleaner smoke and powerful punch.
There are a few different ways to make hash. Some people utilize a home-brew method in which the kief is pressed together and baked while wrapped in a wet newspaper. Others use more mechanical methods, like industrial presses, to force the kief to bind together. Even more sophisticated methods use dry ice to essentially flash-freeze the cannabis, allowing the kief to shake off more easily.What is Cannabis Shatter and Wax
Hash can be smoked in (very strong) joints or added to joints to make them a bit stronger. It can also be smoked out of a pipe. Or, if you’re really in a pinch, you could smoke it like teenagers have done since the 1970s: off a hot knife you warmed up over the stove.What is Cannabis Shatter and Wax
Potency range: 40-60% THC
Time to whip out the dab rig: rosin, wax and shatter
Rosin
While kief and hash are more like proto-concentrates, rosin, wax and shatter are rising in popularity across the cannabis marketplace. It’s in this category where you’ll start to require a dab rig to smoke the finished product. A dab rig (more on this in a moment) is essentially a modified bong that is set up to carry the heated vapors of the concentrate rather than the combusted smoke of cannabis flower.
Rosin is the safest of the three major concentrates to make at home. It’s made mechanically, by pressing the whole cannabis bud in between two sources of heat and collecting the rosin which has melted off the flower and re-hardened as a tacky, amber substance. You then heat that in the dab rig with a dabbing nail and inhale.What is Cannabis Shatter and Wax
The biggest difference between rosin and both wax and shatter is that rosin doesn’t require a solvent to make. The solvent used in the other two is usually butane, which is highly flammable and – I simply cannot stress this enough – extremely dangerous to use at home. Rosin, on the other hand, can be made pretty safely at home using a hair straightener and some parchment paper.
Potency range: 60-80% THC
Wax
Cannabis wax – sometimes called budder, crumble or a range of other names – is a form of butane hash oil, or BHO.
BHO is made by soaking cannabis in a solvent, usually butane, to separate the plant and the cannabinoids. Originally, this was done in open systems, which meant that the butane would get into the air and increase the risk of explosion. It is highly unsafe. More sophisticated, closed-loop systems now exists (and are preferred by commercial manufacturers) but are expensive to buy and hard to maintain – plus, they’re not foolproof.
When you’re comparing wax, shatter and other concentrates like budder, crumble and so on, the main difference is agitation. While the concentrates are cooling, agitation will change the consistency of the final product. For instance, by introducing more agitation into the process, you can produce a waxy substance that feels and acts a bit more like cool coconut oil: flaky, not-entirely-solid and with a lower melting point.
Potency range: 70-90% THC.
Shatter
If you’ve heard at all about cannabis concentrates you’ve probably heard about shatter. Partly because it’s known as an extremely concentrated form of cannabis and partly because its production sometimes leads to deadly explosions.
But compared to wax and rosin, shatter isn’t all that different. (It’s certainly not the dangerous menace that local media outlets have occasionally made it out to be). The main difference is in consistency: whereas wax is brittle and soft, shatter is hard and tacky like toffee.
Shatter is considered among the purest forms of cannabis extracts on the market. Generally, it’s thought that more translucent amber shatter is of higher quality and purity – however, other factors like terpenes and starting material can change that.
Potency Range: 75% +
The big question: how do I smoke this stuff?
More than anything else, the thing that keeps people away from shatter and wax and other concentrates is the difficulty in smoking it. Simply put, it’s a bit more difficult to smoke these extracts on their own because you need something called a ‘dab rig.’ (The name is said to have come from the amount you should smoke – in other words, you only need a dab of extract.)
However, a dab rig doesn’t need to be that complicated. It’s really just a modified piece of glass that resembles a bong. Instead of a bowl, a dab rig has a few parts:
- a nail
- a dome
- a dabber
The process basically runs like this: The ‘nail’ sits in the part where you might expect a bong’s bowl to go. The nail is heated up – usually with a small blow torch. The dome is then placed over the nail and the dabber (which at this point has a small bit of concentrate on it) is placed in the dome against the nail. You then inhale, just like it was a bong or water pipe.
The hit will be pretty smooth, since you’re not inhaling a whole bunch of extra plant material. That can be deceiving, though: since you’re inhaling far, far more THC. It is advised to exercise caution and go very slowly when first hitting a dab rig. The rush of THC often has a physical rush, so be prepared.
What is your favorite type of cannabis concentrate? Leave us a question or comment below telling us what you think!