How To Roll A Perfect Joint?

Joint, spliff, doobie, number or skaife. Whatever you call them learning to twist up some cabbage and roll a phat one properly is a fundamental cannabis aficionados skill.

Joints are the most favoured method of consuming cannabis globally. Outperforming bongs, chillums and vaporizers in popularity. Counterintuitively they filter out more particulates from the delicious smoky goodness than a water pipe!

The main prerequisite of a good joint is that it should smoulder well. You don't want them to burn fast and hot like a cigarette. That bellows like heat destroys a lot of the goodies and you only receive half the benefits. Slow smouldering joints are flavoursome. The smoke warm and rich with brain-friendly cannabinoids and terpenes.

Read on for the A, B, C of rolling the perfect joint.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• About a gramme of your ganja du jour
• A grinder/scissors
• A pack of wide papers
• A piece of thin card to make a filter or crutch
• Optional tobacco or favourite dry herb

Pink Rolling Papers 'Runtz' Kingsize + Tips + Tray (Zamnesia)

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WHERE TO START

Step 1

Conveniently joint sized papers that don't require any modification are available for marijuana fans. Hemp ones, paper ones, flavoured ones, clear cellulose ones. No need for origami with small cigarette papers.

Papers come out of the pack with a handy ready to use fold that will cradle your weed. Make a similar crease on either side of the central line to pre-curve the paper making it easier to roll later on. This also lets the paper sit open on your work surface and not fold closed.

Step 2

The crutch or filter keeps the end of your joint stable and stops small bits of herb from sticking to your tongue. To save having to hunt for crutch card every time you want a toke, a standard manila folder is made from perfectly thick card for making joint filters. A pack of ten manila folders in a drawer will last a dedicated joint smoker months. This saves you forever having to find bits of card. Just cut them up into custom sizes.

Business cards are a little bit thick to roll well. An empty rolling paper packet is a perfect source for filters or if in desperate need the cover flap of your present rolling paper packet.

Take a strip one centimetre wide and four or five centimetres long. Concertina the end, making two Ms for Mighty Marijuana then roll into a cylinder. Voilà, your filter is ready to go.

Of course, you can choose not to use a filter, but things can get a bit soggy and gross and you can't smoke that last bit without burning your fingers.

Step 3

Grind your chosen weed into an even mix. Make sure it is even in size and texture. Uneven texture means uneven burn. Pay the same attention to texture if you are chopping up with scissors or breaking it down with your fingers. Crushing and twisting a bud between the heels of your thumbs works well. The mix should be well broken down, but not into overly small pieces which can prevent airflow through your joint.

Step 4

Some people like to add a small bit of tobacco or other flavoursome herb to their joints. Usually to help dank buds burn better. Sometimes buds can be so heavy with resin they won't burn properly.

It would probably be better to avoid chemical laden commercial cigarettes that can wreck the natural bouquet of fine cannabis. Source some untreated organic tobacco or use any number of smokeable herbs. Passionflower, rose-hips or damiana can be used as they burn evenly and can add their own special qualities to your smoke.

Step 5

Now evenly sprinkle your prepared weed in the valley of the paper. The full gramme will do nicely. Leave room at one end for the filter and space at the other end to allow for movement when you start rolling. Left-handers will want to have the filter on the left side and right-handers on the right.

Play gently and softly with the ground herb until it looks evenly distributed and slightly packed down ready to be shaped. The little mound should be broader than the filter because it will be compressed as you roll.

Step 6

Lightly hold the open joint, without pinching, between the thumb and forefinger of each hand. Using the filter as a fatness guide softly roll and gently compress the weed into your desired joint shape.

Now comes the tricky bit. Tucking in the unglued edge. The extra folds will come into play now. The paper is already bending in. Ease in the edge with your thumb-tips until the paper closes over itself and your joint comes into shape.

If using your thumbs feels weird, hold the paper the other way around so the glued strip faces you and use the length of your index fingers to roll the complete unglued edge under at one time.

Step 7

Softly lick the glued edge with the very tip of your tongue and press into place. The gum used only needs to be moistened slightly to stick well. No need to work up any saliva just a dainty dab all along the edge will do.

The super fussy can dab the edge with a water dampened finger, but letting go of your number can make it spring apart. Water doesn't seem to make the gum cure properly and they often come undone as the spliff warms up.

You will remember forever your first micro paper cut on the tip of your tongue. Sounds silly, but during a lifetime of enjoying joints, it will happen. Eyes will water and you can't taste bitter things for two days.

Step 8

Any fallout on your work surface that may have escaped out of the end when you were under construction can just be tipped back into the open end and be tamped with a pinky finger or pen. Only gently though if it is too compressed it won't light.

Fold the ends over neatly like a tiny present so that it lights evenly. Twisted ends encourage the dreaded black snake where one side burns faster than the other or goes rogue and burns down the centre. This makes for a harsh smoke and only happens because the initial burn was uneven.

Step 9

Admire your deluxe handiwork and spark that baby up!

A love for cannabis will have you rolling enough joints in a day to be a 'pro' in no time at all. Don't be disheartened if your first few are a bit deformed you will certainly have gotten the feel of how the paper moves and how the weed compresses. You will soon be producing evenly packed tightly wrapped perfectly slow burning aromatic and silky smooth custom joints for the rest of your days.

Luke Sholl

Luke Sholl has been writing about cannabis, the wellness potential of cannabinoids, and the positive influence of nature for over a decade. Working with several cannabinoid-centric publications, he publishes a variety of digital content, supported by strong technical knowledge and thorough research.

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