Every stoner clique has their de-facto joint roller: the guy everyone turns to when the team wants to burn one, or the girl who can twist perfect j while walking into the wind holding all her smoking supplies.
Are you, um, not that person? Are you looking to improve your rolling technique? With a bit of practice and the right info, you don’t have to be a magician to break out a nice smooth-burning joint.
Stock Your Stash Box
Make sure you have all the key elements for rolling great joints: this should include a weed grinder, crutches, papers, and a lighter at the bare minimum, but deck yourself out if you want to.
Although many steps in the joint rolling process are largely a matter of preference, there are several tips that require the above items if you want to improve your smoking experience. There are also some very clever weed accessories that have become essentials in our 420 smoking kit.
Use the Best Possible Rolling Papers
Are you still grabbing whatever kind of papers they happen to have at the gas station? The type you choose will affect the taste of your joints and the rolling experience. There are three main types of paper used in rolling papers on the market and they each have certain traits that affect the joints characteristics in key ways especially taste and how it burns. The more common are the wood pulp rolling papers, try to avoid those. You are better off with a paper made of hemp or rice. In a pinch though, make due with what you have access to. Those just starting out should try a hemp paper as they are easier to roll with and burn more evenly than the others. Expert rollers looking for a flavorless, slow burn and a precise roll will benefit from rice papers. They can be a bit more fragile but again, thats no problem for all but the most noobie of doobie rollers.
Select the Right Size Paper For You and Your Situation
The right size rolling paper is a situational decision based on a few key factors: How many people are you smoking with? How high are their tolerances? How many joints do you intend to roll? And now we are talking about our new virus world where everyone should just have their own personal splif.
The most popular and widely available sizes are 1 ¼” size. 1 ¼” is generally considered to be the ‘standard’ cannabis rolling paper and suits most situations. Sometimes you might want to experiment with the bombers but most potheads will tell you that the extra large doobies are a blast but tend to waste pot. Depending on your personal smoking style you’ll probably want the 1 1/4s for most situation. A great tip is to keep a test tube and a cork handy and snuff your bigger joints out by starving it of oxygen instead of crushing it out. You’ll get an extra session or two out of your spliff that way!
Grind Your Doobie First
How and why to crutch your joints
Have you ever been handed a joint with a soggy end that you can barely smoke? Don’t be “that guy” responsible for subjecting your smoking circle to that experience. Also called a filter or tip, a crutch is essentially a mouthpiece made of glass or wood pulp – you can purchase perfectly-sized rolling tips or make them at home. They act as a handle that aids in holding and passing to others while optimizing airflow for an easy draw. As if that weren’t enough, they also aid in the joint rolling process by providing a perfect cylinder to which the rolled cannabis can be integrated. The best part: now you can smoke your joint to the very end.
Arrange Slowly Before Rolling
Have you ever noticed that some joints come out looking like they have a little”pooch” in the middle? A bit of gentle organization with your fingertips is all that’s needed to position your bud properly and prevent the “pregnant” look, but it’s often overlooked. Pinners (straight, cigarette-shaped joints) are typically rolled for smaller groups and are very efficient, whereas cones (fluted joints that flare at the end) provide a powerful hit and maximize the size of the rolling paper.
Final Setup Then Roll Patiently
It’s not easy to roll great joints if the weed is all over the place, so take some time and get it arranged neatly in the paper. Take a little time time to work the cannabis down into the paper to create a pencil shape. If you are struggling, keep at it, there is no substitute for practice!
After you’ve arranged the bud and rolled the paper back and forth between your fingers, set the whole thing down on the table and see how your roll behaves. If it doesn’t hold its pencil shape, you won’t be able to get that tight roll you’re looking for.
Create Paper Tension Using the Tip
If you get a little crinkle in the paper after the initial tuck, you can fix it! Using one hand hold the tuck in place, shift your other hand to the tip of the paper and pull away from the crutch. Focus on creating just enough tension in the paper to smooth it out, but don’t pull so hard that you tear it. This is an easy place to struggle, so we have some more detailed tips for how to roll a cone joint to help you get through the tuck and roll process as a beginner.
Light it Correctly, No Inhale on Ignition
Do not try to earn style points when lighting your joints. Cannabis and organic raw hemp flower joints do not burn like cigarettes, and therefore should be ignited in a different fashion. Gently rotate the joint while slowly increasing the amount of direct heat to create a long-lasting, slow-burning cherry right from the tip of your joint, preventing the dreaded “canoe” that forms when part of the joint burns more quickly than the rest. If someone rubs their saliva all over the side of the joint to slow down the canoe, you might feel like skipping your turn.
Try Rolling An Inside-Out Joint And Smoke Less Paper
Did you know you can roll joints with the paper flipped inside out? By minimizing the amount of paper used to seal the joint, you can further decrease the burn rate and avoid the unwanted paper taste. Rolling inside out may have a steeper learning curve, but those who master it rarely return to the traditional style. Give it a try once you have your basic technique down — you might surprise yourself.
Twax for Potency
Twaxing is to apply hash/concentrates to the inside, outside, or tip of your rolls/bowls in any way, shape, or form.” The main benefit here is a huge increase in the potency of your joint, which makes concentrates a great addition. If you don’t have access to BHO or any cannabis concentrates where you live, you can still learn how to make dabs at home! By implementing the inexpensive and easy-to-execute rosin press tech, you can use any cannabis flower to produce concentrates for your joints or blunts. Basically squish some bud in a press and the goo is good to go!
