Rolling a joint is a skill that anyone can develop.
Certain people make rolling a joint easy. But don’t let them fool you, it takes plenty of hand-eye coordination to do it well. But luckily for the average stoner, it only takes about 100 or so attempt before most people figure it out.
Even so, most of us will never develop the skill or technical expertise to roll artistic joints. No cross joints rolled with God Bud or AK-47’s out of AK-47. But that doesn’t mean our joints have to be crappy. In fact, the difference between a good joint and a crappy one is small.
Guide to a perfect joint:
Step 1: Grind weed and position paper.
Step 2: Add weed and filter. Form a cone shape by rolling weed with paper.
Step 3: Tuck the paper around and tighten the cone.
Step 4: Lick and seal the joint along the glue edge.
Step 5: Pack the joint tighter and add additional weed as desired.
Step 6: Fold paper over when done packing.
Step 7: Position crush-resistant filters and ensure a tight seal around paper.
Additional Steps:
Create Airway: Using a toothpick, create a hole that goes half way down the length of the joint. Make sure it is centered. This makes the joint smoke better and allows for tighter rolling.
Spit Bath: As gross as it sounds, you can use your spit to slow down the speed that the paper burns. Applying a THIN even coat of saliva can prevent uneven burning.
There are several important aspects to rolling a good joint.
Density, airflow and proportion are the key aspects of a joint. Fail to maintain any one of these and you’re going to have a bad time. Master them and people will throw weed at you to roll.
You don’t have to be an engineer to make amazing joints but being an artist may help you make incredible ones. Joint rolling artists can make an impressive living creating wild designs. There aren’t a lot of tools required but great artist can create masterpieces.
Like any skill, rolling a joint gets easier the longer you do it. But there is more to it than just technique. To get the best rolling done, you need to have the right kind of cannabis. We aren’t talking about strains here, we are talking about consistency.
You need to make sure that the joint is solid.
Nothing is as sad as a poorly rolled joint. Having large nugs or lots of stems will destroy any hope of getting a join burning nicely. The easiest way to ensure you have the right consistency is to grind the weed before rolling it.
You can tear nugs up with fingers but the result is less consistent than using a grinder. Hand shredding also tends to crush the product. Regardless how you grind the weed, a normal joint takes between .5 and 1 gram of cannabis to make. Using less is possible but using more often requires alternative or additional paper.
Packing the joint is also an important step that takes some practice to master. Pack the joint too tightly and it can be impossible to draw through. Pack it too loosely and the joint will burn up in moments instead of minutes.
You need the right amount of drag.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfP1IB62wBI
The reason grinders are so popular is that they create a uniform size of shredded bud. Not too big and not too small. If ground too finely, the weed effectively becomes a solid mass and no smoke gets through. Grind too course, and the air skips over the chunks of weed instead of through it.
You want to be able to suck through the joint and feel some resistance. If you get to the end of rolling and it’s too tight, you can gently roll the joint between your fingers to help loosen it. If it deforms in your hand while simply holding it, you can pack more weed into one end to help tighten it up.
It needs to have the right proportions.
Even with the variation to joint size and complexity that professional rollers deal with, proportions remain important. Cones need to taper evenly and tubes need to be straight. Having bends or uneven sections in a joint can negatively impact the joints performance.
Don’t get discouraged if yours aren’t coming out perfect yet. Having steady hands and practicing often will make getting the joint even a whole lot easier. But there are also devices to help those of us who just can’t seem to get it right.
Rolling Machines are great when starting out.
There are a lot of companies that offer rolling machines. These devices take a lot of the technique out of rolling a joint. They are perfect for new rollers who might not have the coordination to get everything going at once. But they do have some limits.
A rolling machine has strict limits on the size. If your roller is designed for standard papers, it won’t work with extra long ones. Extra wide papers pose less of a problem but may result in multiple layers of paper in the end product.
The machines also have limited capacities. You won’t be rolling any 7 gram blunts with one. Most machines produce joints similar to the size of a traditional cigarette. You can normally make then thinner, but rarely larger.
