Cannabuttons and Super Cannabuttons

One day I threw together a button die for pressing hash pucks out of bubble or kief using my DIY glycerin press and decided to try grinding up bud and seeing what sort of puck it made.

Wow, what a surprise when I smoked it! The smoke was much smoother and cooler, while retaining the taste of the bud.

One of our pharmers asked if it would work with just trim, because at that time there was a serious backup of new forum patients requesting med donations, so I made one and it did. The sugar trim was of course more euphoric than the fan leaves, but all were smokable.

What I ended up doing was extracting oil from the abundant fan leaf donations and mixing it with cannabuttons made from leaf, and it was without exception embraced by both the test panel and the needy patients that it went out to.

I also made "super" cannabuttons (with oil) using prime bud and one low tolerance tester advised me to include a warning label.

I was reminded of the cannabuttons this morning because yesterday I had two patients request it for different reasons.

The first was because the persons lungs had reached their limits even with a vaporizer and when reduced to cannabuttons, her favorite strain of Cheese didn't cause her to cough and it only took two puffs for her to medicate.

The second request was from a patient who is doing substantal travel around Oregon and unobstrusivness and packability of the compact 3 to 4 gram buttons is a plus, despite it being perfectly legal.

Here is my class handout on how I make them:

Cannabuttons:
The smoothness and smoke-ability of cannabis bud or leaf material can be improved by grinding it to a fine powder in a coffee grinder and compressing it into a pellet or button using high pressure.

The resulting button can be broken up like a piece of hash and smoked or vaporized, but will produce a much smoother and cooler smoke than the original material. Because the cannabinoids are compressed into a small space, smoking it or vaporizing it also produces a more intense initial impression of potency, vis a vis just smoking it.

Because most of the dead air space is removed by compression, it burns so cool and smooth, that even leaf material previously requiring iron lungs to smoke, can be utilized.

The buttons can be a blend of leaf and bud, or indeed can be all leaf, but treated with honey oil so as to make Super Cannabuttons, which possess hash like potency.

The equipment required for Cannabuttons include:

A Coffee grinder.
B Button die
C 12,000 psi hydraulic press.

See attached pictures for of the impromptu die and press.

1.0 The first step in manufacture is to select properly cured material and pulverize it.

1.1 If it is bud, loosely manicure it to remove the sticks like you were preparing to roll a joint and then pulverize the material into a fine powder using a dedicated coffee grinder. I say dedicated because it will gum up your spouseâ??s favorite one almost irretrievably.

1.2 If it is leaf, pass it through a pasta strainer size screen so as to remove the leaf veins and stems, before pulverizing in the coffee grinder.

1.2.1 If the leaf material is too wet to readily pass through a pasta strainer, spread it on a cookie pan and place in a 200F oven. Continue to periodically turn with your hands so as to feel the moisture content and remove from the oven when it just becomes frangible when rolled between the finger and the thumb. It is then ready to pulverize in the coffee grinder.

1.2.2 Any leaves from a blooming plant can be used here, but including the large fan leaves adds a large amount of plant fiber and flavors for the amount of medication it contains. I reserve those leaves for oil extraction.

2.0 Step two is to create your Cannabutton blend. While you can simply spoon the material you have prepared to this point into the die and press it into a button, you can also custom mix and match.

2.1 For instance, blend the leaves and bud. Just pour them together in a bowl and mix them thoroughly. It will still be a smooth tasty smoke with as much authority as you blend into it.

2.2 Or mix in un-pressed granules of bubble hash or kief. You can even press 100% hash buttons in the die.

2.3 Or make a Super Cannabutton by adding Honey Oil to your pulverized blend, mixing it well, and baking it in an oven at 200F and stirring frequently until all the solvents are driven off, before pressing.

3.0 Spoon the prepared mix into the button die, tamp firmly using the die ram and finger pressure.

3.1 Insert the die ram in the die and place the whole assembly in the hydraulic press.

3.2 Press the die ram into the die until it meets firm resistance at ~12,000 psi hydraulic pressure.

4.0 Remove die from press and remove bottom cap. Remove bottom pin and replace cap.

4.1 Return die to press, but place bottom pin on top of the die ram, and press the newly formed button down into the die bottom cap.

4.2 Disassemble die, remove button, and clean die thoroughly inside and out with a toothbrush before next run.

5.0 Rub buttons lightly between your fingers to remove loose material and place in sealed container for storage.

6.0 To use, break off a suitable sized chunk and roll it between your finger and thumb to reduce it back to a dense resinous powder.

6.1 Place on a pipe or vaporizer screen and treat as hash.

Bon appetite!

GW