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 Most marijuana growers raise plants solely to harvest the buds.  They end up throwing away the leaves, stems, seeds, and other plant matter which is a waste because they could be using this discarded plant material to produce hashish.  Most growers don’t bother with making hashish because they either do not know how or they think that the process is way too difficult.  However, the process of making hashish is very easy.

What is Hashish?

Hashish (commonly called Hash) is a potent solid form of cannabis made by collecting and processing the buds, leaves, stems, and seeds of the marijuana plant to extract the trichomes and then pressing this material into a solid mass.

Plant tricohomes are fine outgrowths and appendages (hair like structures) that can be used to produce resin.  Hashish is basically a compressed collection of plant trichomes that are found on the female marijuana plant which are a really rich form of THC.  This strong source of THC often goes wasted because the majority of growers only raise plants for the buds and throw out the leaves, stems, seeds, and other plant matter rather than process this into hash.

These growers need to stop wasting these parts of the plant and use them to make hash which can be sold for an additional profit.

Most of the hashish being sold commercially (except for the California dispensaries) is really low quality and is often cut and mixed with other substances.  It’s hard to cut marijuana buds with anything else because of the structure of the bud, however its really easy to cut hashish with almost anything without the person smoking it knowing. Thus the only way to get high quality hash in most parts of the world is to make your own. 

I would never buy hashish from anywhere except from a medicinal grower or from a medicinal marijuana dispensary both of which can ensure the quality of their products.  With anyone else you never know what you are actually getting.

How to Make Hash

There are several different methods for making hash.  The “flat screen” method and the “blender” method are the easiest and least expensive, however using these methods will mean that the final product will be less pure and contain more contaminates than the “tumbler” or the “bubble bag” methods, which both require that you have special equipment.

Get your Plant Materials

Collect the leaves, trimmings, stems, less desirable buds, and other plant material from your most recent harvest.  Don’t alter or contaminate the plant materials, keep it in tact.  Do not try to crush or grind the plant material before the process it will only damage the trichomes and introduce additional contaminates.  This plant material should be dry, but not crumbling apart.

The Flat Screen Method

The flat screen method removes the plant trichomes by rubbing the plant material over a fine steel or silk screen.  This is a rather simple process, but the quality of the hash produced will highly depend on your patience and the time that you dedicate to this process.  The principal behind the flat scren method is that the trichome heads will rub off the plant and pass the screen, but the rest of the plant matter will be left behind.

Silk screens can be purchased from your local craft store for $10-20 and steel screens can be purchased from your local hardware store or Home Depot for the same price.  Look for screens which have between 125-150 lines per inch.

You will also need a mirror or a piece of glass to collect the trichomes on after they pass through this screen and a paint scraper or something similar to push the plant material across the screen. 

The plant matter used for flat screening should be dry, but bone dry.  If the material is crumbling than some of the regular plant matter will pass through the screen and contaminate the trichomes. 

First put the screen on top of the mirror or piece of glass and then place the plant material on the screen.  Using the paint scraper, gently push the plant material back and forth across the screen.  Using minimum pressure on the material will produce the best hash.  The first layer of powder that passes through the screen will be the most pure and potent.

The plant matter must be in contact with the screen to remove the trichomes, thus its almost impossible to get pure hash through the flat screen method.  The hash produced using this method usually also contains small bits of plant matter.  The Flat Screen method generally contains more contaminates than any other method, however its the easiest and cheapest way to make hash.

Tumbler Method

There are tumbler machines designed to remove trichomes from plant matter by spinning them inside of a steel drum with a round screen that the plant material is tumbled against.  It’s a machine that uses the same principal as flat screening, except the machine tumbles the matter instead of rubbing it.  This ensures a higher quality of trichomes which have less contaminates than the regular flat screening method.

The most common plant tumbler machines are the Pollinator or the Scuffbox. 

With this method, lightly fill the drum with dry plant materials (remember not too dry) and turn the machine on low.  Only let the matter run in the machine for a few minutes to prevent the material from breaking apart and the plant matter from mixing with the trichomes.  The longer that the material runs through the machine the more likely you are to get contaminates.

You can collect the hash-powder and then run the machine again to produce a lower grade of hash. Depending on the quality and quantity of original material, you can do this a few times, with each grade containing more contaminates.

If your skuff contains a lot of larger leaves, you may want to put a rubber ball into the drum after the first collection to help rub the surface against the screen.
The Blender Method

Unlike the Flat Screen and the Tumbler methods which uses screens to filter out the trichomes, the blender method uses the principal that the resin trichomes are heavier than water, while the other plant material is lighter than water.

The blender method uses ice cold water and shaking to dislodge the trichomes from the plant matter.  Ice cold water makes the trichomes brittle, causing the resin to solidify and making it easy to snap off from the rest of the plant mater.  The trichomes are heavier than water so they will sink to the bottom of the blender, while the rest of the plant material floats to the top.

To make hash using the blender method you will need a blender, ice cubes, a reusable metal coffee filter or silk coffee filter, a large glass jar and paper coffee filters.

Fill the blender about half-way with plant matter, then cover with cold water and add a tray of ice cubes. Blend for 45 seconds to a minute – the mixture will become green and frothy, like a smoothie. Pour this mix through the metal coffee filter into your glass jar. Run more water through the filter to make sure you haven’t missed any trichomes.

Once your jar is full, put it in the fridge to settle for a minimum of 30 minutes. You should be able to see a white colored substance settling on the bottom of your container – those are the trichomes. Carefully, so you do not disturb the trichomes, pour off or siphon off about two-thirds of the green water.

If you have more plant matter to process, do it now and filter into the container you just drained. Return to the fridge, allow to settle and siphon again. When you have processed all your plant matter, add a few ice cubes to the container and let settle one last time.

If you want to increase the purity of your product you can carefully put this settled mixture back into the blender for a final mix and separation. This may or may not be necessary depending on your preference.

Pour the final mix of water and trichomes through a paper coffee filter. The water will pass through the paper but the glands will not. Drain well and allow to dry. You now have dried resin glands ready to be pressed into hash.

The Bubble Hash Method

The ice-water filtration technique has quickly become a very popular way to make hash. This method combines the best of the screen and blender methods, this method uses ice-water to make the trichomes brittle and agitation to knock the heads off and straining the mix through filters for increased purity.

Hash made in this fashion is sometimes called “bubble hash” - because it is so pure that it actuall bubbles when heated!  This is a sign that the hash you are smoking is very pure. Well-made bubble hash is a very potent product – a tiny piece will produce enough billows of smoke to get a small crowd high.

The two main commercial ice-water filtration systems available are “Bubble Bags” from Fresh Headies and the Ice-o-lator, another product developed by Mila. Both operate on the same principle of using cold water and filtering bags to isolate trichomes. You can also make your own kit by acquiring mesh of the appropriate sizes and carefully sowing it into bags of strong material.

In order to make bubble hash you will need a kit with filtering bags, two impeccably clean five gallon pails and a hand mixer. The exact method can vary depending on which system you’re using, but the essentials are the same. The Ice-o-lator uses two filters to screen out contaminates, leaving the trichomes caught in the second filter. The bubble bag kits from Fresh Headies contain either three or six colour–coded bags, and allow you to simultaneously make different grades of hash.

To start with a bubblebag kit, place your plant matter into one of your five gallon buckets. Use up to 100 grams of dry plant matter, or double that weight if it’s fresh or wet.

Because ice makes the trichomes brittle, add plenty - at least six ice cube trays. Then fill up the bucket with cold water. Leave a few inches at the top so you don’t splash too much when mixing.

Use the hand mixer to blend continuously for 15 minutes to one hour or more. Mixing longer will produce a higher yield that will be slightly less potent. The mixture will become green and frothy. You should take breaks every so often to let the mixture settle.

When done mixing, allow the mixture to settle for at least 30 minutes. If the ice has melted, add more. If possible, put the pail in the freezer, or outside if you live in a cold climate – you want that water to stay cold!

Now put your “work bag” into your second bucket. This bag should have a screen size between 200 and 250 microns, the one from Fresh Headies is 220. Pour your frothy green mix into the work bag in the second bucket. Slowly lift out the bag and squeeze out the water. Set aside the work bag with the green matter for a second rinse.

Now you have a bucket full of green water which contains many trichomes, as well as other contaminants. Everything that was smaller than 220 microns is in that water.

Arrange the other bags inside of the now empty bucket. Put the bag with the finest mesh in the bucket first, then place the bags with larger screen sizes inside the first one. With the Fresh Headies three bag kit you put the 25 micron bag in first and the 73 micron bag inside of it. You’ll get fine hash if you just use one bag with a screen size around 73 microns.

Now you carefully pour the green water into the bucket with the bags. Then you slowly lift out each bag in succession, being sure to give them time to drain. If you’re using a 25 micron bag it will drain very slowly – be patient. Squeeze out the excess water from each bag after it is drained.

You will now have a brownish sludge at the bottom of the bags. Remove it with a credit card or spoon to a plastic bag. Blot the sludge with a towel to remove excess moisture, and let it dry out for at least 12 hours. You might want to wait up to a week for it to fully dry and cure, if you are that patient! Be sure that your product is entirely dried so as to avoid mold problems later on.

You will get less product from the 25 micron bag, but it will have a unique and potent affect when consumed. Bubble bag creator “Bubble Man” speculates that these are the smaller trichome heads – not immature, but simply the smaller heads associated with Sativa strains. He argues that Indica strains have larger trichome heads, and that Sativa strains have smaller heads on longer stalks. Crosses between these two types doesn’t produce medium sized trichomes, but rather a mix of the large and small. This theory seems to be borne out by results, but much more research needs to be done.

Now go back and give the green matter in the work bag a second rinse, to be sure that you get out every last trichome!

The yield from 200 grams of skuff is around 6 to 20 grams, with an average yield around 10 grams. The quantity of hash produced depends in large part upon the quality of your original material.
The Pressing Process

The previous four techniques leave you with a product that, once dried, looks similar to sand. This “sand” is actually a collection of trichome heads and stalks. This powder is a potent cannabis extract, this raw product is sometimes jokingly referred to as “hippy crack.”

The final step to making hash is to press this powder into a solid mass. The powder should be completely dry before pressing. If it stored damp it can become moldy, ruining the product. So be sure it is totally dry! If you put it into the freezer for a while the water inside will coagulate on the surface as ice and can then be blotted off.

To press the powder you will need heavy plastic wrap, cardboard, newspaper, a frying pan, a heavy rolling pin and a tile or marble surface for rolling.

Cut the cardboard to the size of the hash bar that you want to make. Make a bag around the cardboard, then remove cardboard. Fill the bag with dry trichomes, seal and wrap in several layers of wet newspaper. Place bundle in frying pan on very low setting. Turn your bar often and unwrap to check if all the trichomes are melted. Don’t let the newspapers dry out or catch on fire!

Once melted, remove from frying pan, leave wrapped in newspaper, and transfer to the rolling surface. Using the rolling pin, press and roll from the center out. Continue doing this all the way around your bar for 30 to 45 minutes.

Unwrap newspaper and allow to cool in freezer for at least one hour. Then unwrap from your plastic. You now have some awesome hash!

Advantages with Hash

Hash can be either smoked or eaten.  It can be more potent than most strains of marijuana and can give you a better, cleaner high than smoking bud.

Hash is easier to conceal and hide than regular marijuana and can be discuised as something else.

Hash is harder to come by and less common than marijuana which makes it in higher demand and more valuable that regular marijuana.

Hash allows you to use parts of the harvested plants which are normally thrown away so this can make you more money that selling just the buds alone and provide you with more products to smoke.

Hash lasts longer and has a much longer shelf life than regular buds.  An oily block of hash has a very long shelf life and can be wrapped in polythene so that it will last for years!