Here’s a tale from the hoary days of yore, but one that still has brothers and sisters swearing by the product.
In the olden days, if’n you knew what you were doing, you could grow more cannabis material that you could consume yourself, and as OMMP rules were clear that it couldn’t be sold, surplus trim was typically available for new patients just receiving their OMMP card in the form of donations, which was allowed.
Sadly, the ones with the surplus were typically those growing outdoors in the Green Triangle, so as more time passed after the outdoor harvest season, the scarcer donated material became.
It was during one of those dry spells, with only low grade material still available, that if we extracted half of the material, and combined it with the other half, that we could produce high potency medications from low grade material.
Two points, the first being that it worked very well, and the second being that there were unexpected discoveries about how to make low grade material more potent and less harsh on the lungs.
The reason for the reduction in harshness appeared to be the reduction in surface area from being finely pulverized and then compressed.
Another side benefit was that the same dies that we assembled to press Cannabuttons, worked for us to press Kif.
We made more than one version of a Cannabutton, depending on the grade of the material available to work with. For the standard Cannabutton from medium grade material, we just ground it fine with a coffee grinder and pressed the product into pellets.
The second version was the Super Cannabutton, where we extracted the essential oils from half the material and mixed it with the pulverized material from the second half before pressing into buttons.
To use, you just break off a chunk and crumble it up, and light and smoke it like hash. Flavor varies by material used, but the bottom line was that we made it through the dry season using medium to low grade material.
I also ground up and compressed some prime bud into Cannabuttons and shared some Cheese with a friend, who fell in love and has periodically asked me to make more. He likes to sprinkle the crumble over a bowl of bud to spike it some.
To press the ground material into buttons, we need extreme pressure, so I used a DIY 6 ton hydraulic glycerin press, which I simply rotated on its side so that the hydraulic jack was in the vertical position. See thread by that title for press details:
Hydraulic glycerin press
Press rotated so that jack is vertical.
I made a die out of a 1″ X Close Schedule 40 pipe nipple, with a cap. I then cut a 1″ steel dowel pin into two pieces, so that when the cap was in place on the nipple, the bottom piece fit about 1/4″ up into the nipple.
Die components
The nipple is then filled with ground material, and the top dowel placed on top, before placing into the hydraulic press and using the ram to push the second dowel into the nipple, compressing the Cannabuttons between the two dowel sections.
To remove the button, we simply removed the bottom cap, removed the bottom dowel section, and replaced the cap. We then placed the assembly back into the press and pushed the dowel into the nipple until the Cannacap is pressed from the nipple, into the cap.
We then remove the cap and drop out the Cannacap.
Die made from Schedule 40 nipple and cap, with steel dowel pin
Ramming finely ground material.
We finely grind the material using a coffee grinder. I sagely scored one especially for the purpose, instead of using Grayfox’s existing Krupps.
Closeup of die in action
Die with pressed Kif