Hot Knife Hash, Snakes and Rosin: Techniques by Hash Type

For the basics of how to smoke hash in a joint, pipe or bong, see the beginner's guide to smoking hash; what follows is the next step.

Pressed hash is resin condensed with force and mild heat into a ball, slab or cake; cannabis author Ed Rosenthal says good hash of any texture should soften with the warmth of your hands.

Crumbly hash is usually dry sift or hash that was never pressed properly, which Rosenthal says crumbles easily at room temperature.

Full melt is the top grade of dry sift or bubble hash: Leafly defines it as hash that melts completely without residue or char, usually rated five or six on a six-star scale.

Warm the piece between your fingers until it gives, roll it between your palms into a long, thin strip and lay it along the flower in the paper, as The Cannigma's rolling guide describes for sticky hash.

For hash too hard to roll, the same guide suggests a brief warm-up with a lighter. Hold the hash in tweezers rather than your palm, keep the flame moving and stop once it softens; Rosenthal notes that heat, light and air darken hash and slowly break down its THC.

Loose hash can go straight over flower, as kief does, but a pressed coin sits on a pipe screen instead of sifting through it. Press only once the resin is completely dry; Rosenthal warns that damp material can go mouldy.

A pollen press does it overnight: fill the tube, screw it shut and wait for a solid block. By hand, knead a small mound between your palms; Rosenthal says it can take 10 minutes or more to change density.

Move full melt with a dab tool rather than warm fingers; if it is too soft to shape, Leafly's hash hole guide says to chill it briefly in the fridge.

A hash hole runs a snake of rosin or bubble hash down the centre of a big joint; the hash burns slower than the flower, so a hole forms in the ash. Leafly's version uses a king-size paper, about 1.5 g of flower and 0.5 g of hash.

That is a heavy joint, so share it or shrink the snake. Use freshly cured flower so both burn at a similar rate, and take slow, steady puffs, since rushing can collapse the hole or make the joint canoe.

Also called spots, the method heats the tips of two knife blades, presses a small piece of hash between them and draws the smoke through a funnel, often a cut-off bottle neck. Wikipedia notes it is thought to be particularly harmful to the lungs, since the smoke comes off at such a high temperature.

If you do it, heat only the tips of two butter knives and turn the burner off once they are hot; cooler blades vaporize more and burn less. Use a glass funnel, never plastic, which gives off toxic chemicals when a hot blade touches it. Rest the knives on a heat-proof surface, keep hair and sleeves clear of the element, and skip it when drowsy, drunk or already high.

Use a device built for concentrates, such as an e-rig or concentrate pen, or a vaporizer with a maker-supplied concentrate insert.

Leafly suggests 500 to 545°F (about 260 to 285°C) for delicate solventless hash such as ice wax and hash rosin; lower settings keep more flavour but can leave oil that never vaporizes. Less-processed hash tends to leave residue or char; once the device is cool, a couple of drops of isopropyl alcohol on a cotton swab clean it off.

Rosin is hash or flower squeezed with heat and pressure, no solvents. For hash or kief, Leafly recommends folding parchment like an envelope, closed on three sides so the oil runs out the open one, and pressing below 250°F (about 120°C) to keep terpenes intact.

Wear heat-resistant gloves, because the plates and the fresh oil are hot. Never try solvent extraction at home: British Columbia's Office of the Fire Commissioner warns that solvents such as butane release flammable vapours that can explode.

The same office lists smoking materials among the top causes of home fires in British Columbia. Its advice: smoke outside where permitted, use large, deep ashtrays, keep smoking materials out of planters and garbage cans, and never smoke in bed or when drowsy or impaired.

Health Canada's lower-risk guidelines add: skip deep inhalation and breath-holding, which pull more toxic material into the lungs; leave out tobacco, which adds to the respiratory risks of smoking; remember that concentrates carry extremely high THC; and don't drive for at least 6 hours.

See the hash menu or the guide to buying hash online. GasDank delivers same-day across Toronto and the GTA, usually within 1 to 2 hours, and ships tracked mail orders to the rest of Canada.