HASH WRAPS
PAPERS ARE POINTLESS!
Hand rolling anything is an art. Not everyone can roll a perfect joint, but with practice, hand rolling can be a rewarding experience. Rolling hash can be more difficult than working with papers, but that was before there was a tool available to wrap your hash. The purpose of this guide is to give the reader the ability to press trichome heads, stalks, and possibly some additional cannabis plant matter into a hash sheet or hash wrap that can be used in place of rolling papers. The hash wrap can be filled with cannabis, more hash, or enjoyed without filling as a convenient way to consume hash. This guide is for the DIY person making wraps at home for personal consumption. If you are interested in producing wraps at scale, consulting and SOPs for mass production of hash wraps is available.
Understanding the hash you are working with is key to making a successful wrap that will burn easily without falling apart. Dry sift hash from dry, cured flower can be the easiest material to use to form wraps. Hash that is >1.5% terpene content might be difficult to keep stable, so hash that makes gooey, wet-looking rosin should be used for making rosin, consumed as full melt, or spun out in a centrifuge. High-quality hash can be mixed with lower-quality material; blending hash from different sources can make great wraps. Once you have mastered making wraps using dry sift, forming wraps with higher quality bubble hash will be easier.
Non-decarboxylated material is needed, to make hash wraps; do not expose the hash to excessive heat prior to pressing, or during the press process. Try to source fresh material that is less than one year old when possible. THCA is always a crystal and solid at room temperature; material that is high in THCA makes solid wraps. Delta 9 THC is always an oil at room temp and will not make a solid wrap. If you have access to lab testing, knowing the percentage of cannabinoids can be useful. The material used to make sucessful wraps has tested between 35-74% total cannabinoids. The 40% range seems to be the sweet spot to make solid wraps that burn successfully for novice wrap smokers. When producing higher testing wraps, it’s often difficult to burn them while passing around to a group of new hash wrap consumers. The higher quality wraps need special care, like rotating while burning to keep them from dropping and crashing. In addition making the wrap “paper thin” is essential when working with higher quality hash. If a hash wrap comes apart while smoking, it is no big deal; you still have hash, just put it in a bowl and enjoy.
It is helpful to make a journal to record information about what works and make notes about what does not work for making a wrap. This is where you record observations about material quality, temps, pressures, time weights, etc. If you do not have access to lab analysis for cannabinoid and terpene content, record observations about the percentage of heads, stalks, and other plant matter in your material. Record observations such as how it behaves when dabbed as full melt. Use photos, a microscope, or a magnification lens to observe the hash quality.
This guide will focus on using dry sift, loose hash made in a tumbler. Start by tumbling the material for only 2 minutes. Collect that material and try to make a wrap from the 2-minute collection. If the wrap is too melty or just pulls apart, you probably need some additional contaminants like trichome stalks (plant material is not recommended), and you will need to run the tumbler for more time. As you increase the time, more plant contaminants come through the screen. If you have too much non-trichome plant contaminants in the hash, the wrap will not be stable. I typically do not use material that has been tumbled for more than 20 minutes total time. I have observed that some strains do not make good wraps. My hypothesis is the amount of silica in the cell walls affects the ability of the hash to form a stable sheet that will not melt. Successful hash wraps have been produced from high-quality clean hash with very few stalks and contaminants, greater than 95% heads. Other makers have reported 98-99% heads for their wraps. Wraps made from 90%+ heads will probably not appear to be full melt; the head sheath tends to be more robust and does not rupture easily.
Once you have collected enough hash to make some wraps, the next step is to fold the parchment for the tool size. The nine millimeter tool works best with a trapezoid shaped sheet (see sheet mold) or a 50.0mm x 57.0mm rectangular sheet of hash. When I first started making wraps, I used more hash and made the wraps thicker; this made the wrap easier to roll. My first wraps were 2-4 grams per wrap. I now try to make the approximately 50.0mm×57.0 mm sheets with approximately 1.2g in total weight. When using 1.2 grams of hash, the sheet can be pressed very thin. If you are using high quality hash that is melty and bubbly you will want the hash sheet to be as thin as possible.
Use a piece of parchment paper and fold as shown below, with the center rectangle approximately 50.0mm x 57.0mm. If you do not fold the edge of the parchment all the way to the other edge, the thickness of the wrap will be inconsistent and uneven. The technique shown for folding the parchment paper makes raised rails on two sides of the pouch that reduce the chance the press will break the parchment and squeeze all the hash out the sides. Evenly distribute the hash in the parchment paper, trying to make it as uniform as possible prior to pressing or inserting into a laminator.
Once the pouch is folded, hold it up to a light source and verify that the hash is evenly distributed in the pouch. You can tap or flick the pouch with your finger to distribute it.
Place the folded pouch inside another piece of parchment folded once; this will keep your press plates clean from any hash that may squeeze out of the pouch. If using a laminator there are a few techniques that work. You can place the folded parchment into the space of the sheet mold to prevent the laminator rollers from pressing the sheet too thin and prevent hash from squeezing out of the parchment paper.
The precise temperatures, pressure, or time for pressing will vary depending on the quality hash used. As the hash quality increases, the temperature and pressure required decrease. The opposite is true as the quality of the hash decreases; the pressure and temperatures increase. Since pressure readings between press manufacturers can differ from the pressure applied at the area being pressed, I will not give out any pressure gauge values. Instead, I will talk about the pressure applied to the material being pressed. I typically do not exceed 500 PSI on the actual material. If you know how to calculate that for your press, then you can use that pressure as a guide.
You can make a sheet of hash without a rosin press. Perhaps the easiest and most efficient way to produce wraps at scale is with a laminator. If you are using a laminator setting the laminator to 3 mil will give the lowest temperature. If that temperature is too high for your material you can use the cold lamination function to turn off the heat for a set time to cool the rollers. In addition to a laminator, a hot water filled jar/wine bottle, a clothing iron, heated plates and a vice, or vice grips and plates can be used to heat and press the hash. I am sure there are several other options you might think of, please share any ideas with the community. When using a press with dry sift, the suggested temperatures are between 32℃ and 77℃ (90-170ºF). If using a clothing iron, temperatures as high as the steam setting can be used, but only apply pressure for second to a few seconds. The relationship between quality of hash, temperature, and pressure is all interdependent. You can use lower temps with higher pressure and higher pressure with lower temps. The heat and pressure are used to break the sheath around the trichome heads and get the cannabinoids and terpenes to flow and ideally make a homogeneous, paper-thin piece of hash. If the material is heated too much, decarboxylation can occur and the wrap will not properly nucleate and solidify. Start pressing with a low temperature when working with new material and increase the temperature until you find the combination of temperature and pressure that works for your material.
The folds on the edges of the pouch should prevent the press from pressing all the hash out of the parchment paper if it blows out on the folds. Apply pressure and then release the pressure immediately once you hit the pressure that works for your material. As soon as you remove the parchment pouch from the press, place it on a cold plate. Remove it from the cold plate once cooled and remove the hash sheet from the parchment. Higher quality hash may not require the cold plate step.
Insert the glass tip filter screen first. Form the screen around the 4.5mm end of the tool. Insert the tool into the wrap and push the screen into the tip with the PTFE cone tool. Use the warmth of your hand or heated air (~49℃/120ºF) to heat the hash sheet to form the sheet around the tool. Attach and apply pressure at the glass tip first to adhere the hash to the glass tip. Do not tightly wrap the hash around the cone, but tightly wrap the glass tip, leave some play and twist the cone as you wrap the hash. If the hash is extremely sticky apply some loose hash between the tool and the hash sheet like four on a rolling pin. Use the tool to press down and form a seal at the seam or edge of the hash. If the seam does not stick together, you can use partially decarboxylated hash to use as a glue to stick the hash together.
Once the wrap is formed and the tool is removed from the wrap, insert the 4.5mm end into the bottom of the tip to push the screen to the top part of the tip where the hash meets the glass.
Once you have formed your wrap, you may need to cure it to form a stable wrap. If the wrap is melty and flexible, it can be cured until it forms a hard or stable shell. During the curing process, the cannabinoids in the hash that are solid at room temperature will nucleate. The optimal environmental conditions for curing are temperatures from 10-22℃ and humidity less than 50%. I have filled wraps prior to curing and post-curing. Depending on how I roll them, I sometimes find that filling them after curing makes a cleaner-looking wrap.
I have stored wraps for over 12 months in a nitrogen-filled sealed tube, and they have all burned down successfully. For long-term storage, I recommend storing them in an inert gas-sealed container, from 0 to 24℃. At colder temperatures the compounds could separate more, at warmer temps the hash my degrade at a faster rate.
Once the wrap is ready to smoke, there are a few things to keep in mind. As the hash heats up, it will become soft; do not touch the hash once it is lit, hold the wrap at the glass tip. Do not tap the wrap to ash; allow the ash to fall off on its own. Sometimes you can burn an entire wrap and the ash will not fall off. Try to keep the wrap vertical and straight up as it is burning. This will prevent the wrap from drooping or sagging as it heats up. It’s easiest to keep the wrap vertical by hitting the wrap like a chillum. If you are enjoying a hollow wrap inhale very gently, or reduce the airflow by putting an insert in the tip to reduce flow. Strong inhalation can create a vacuum and cause the wrap to collapse.
There are several video reels @hash.wrap and @hashcru that detail various production techniques. Tool kits and supplies are available for purchase through Hashtek.ca and SCFiltration.com.
Fast production SOP’s for making wraps at scale are available for a license fee in regulated markets. Please fill out the contact form for more information. Papers are Pointless! Enjoy!
