Another Tincture Thread - Try it, You'll like it

Part 4

Strength
​

Finally we come to the section I'm sure everyone has been anticipating. You're probably asking yourself just how you're supposed to determine the strength of your topicals. It's all fine and good that I've been able to get tests but that doesn't help you with yours, so what do you do?

You're going to do like I did before I was able to get tests performed last fall and that's estimate. Fortunately, I have the tests to back everything but the cream that I had tested had been made using this formula before the testing opportunity presented itself. So let's get to work.

​

The test above doesn't show a lot of different cannabinoids because with such low potency per gram those other cannabinoids can't be detected. They are there, though, in the ratios you would expect to find in a GD extraction of the original material. As you can see, it's not completely decarbed. When it was made I was still using the previous decarb time/temp and it really made no difference in the cream.

Let me explain what you're seeing there. We're going to look at the last value in the % column, "Total Cannabinoids" which in this case is comprised of the values high enough to detect. Here it reads "0.44%". Doesn't sound like a lot, does it? It represents the total cannabinoids per gram of the cream. 0.44% of 1 gram is 4.4mg per gram. Since this is a weight measurement, we use 28g for one weight ounce, giving us 123.2mg of cannabinoids per ounce of cream. This also includes the empty weight from the beeswax and Shea butter. Since it was the original formula it only had the infused coconut oil providing the strength.

It's simple to make a cream of this strength using your bud/trim GD or concentrates/kief because you can have a general idea of potency without needing to test. Your product will likely be a bit stronger because we are going to err on the high side to play safe. When and if you ever get a chance to test it then you can adjust things.

If you use your GD and figure that your extraction is about 15mg/ml at a 4g/oz ratio then you're going to transfer an ounce of that GD to EVCO. Your estimate is going to rely upon your starting material, of course, and your familiarity with your GD process. The amount of oil you infuse for topicals will depend on that.

I use 120mg as the standard per ounce of the original pain cream but your coconut oil is going to be a little stronger to make up for the "empty" weight of the other ingredients. And because you're going to be estimating we'll say that we want your coconut oil at ~5mg/ml. If your GD before transfer is 15mg/ml then you will use 3oz of EVCO for every ounce of GD. if your GD is 20mg/ml use 4oz and if 10mg/ml, use 2 ounces. Again for the record, I use the base equivalent of 4g/oz because it seems to coincidentally fall in line with the values of the original material and it's easier math.

If you use concentrates like shatter or wax it's easier. Those items average around 70% so that leaves you with about 700mg/g which will make 5oz of your topical strength EVCO @ 140mg/oz.

It's not much harder with kief as long as you have an idea of it's strength which, again, will depend on your starting material, whether bud, trim or fans. The lowest potency kief I've gotten was tested at just 13%/gram so we'll use that for our example. That kief was made from very poor buds that only tested at 9% to put in perspective. Often kief is about double the bud values. Using that 13% example, it totals 130mg/g. I would decarb and add that gram to an ounce of 190 alcohol along with maybe an extra 0.25g to cover anything left behind when finished. When your GD is finished, transfer it to your EVCO. 2g of that kief would make 2 oz of your topical oil.

Using fan leaf is a little more challenging to the brain. This option is for growers or someone with good access to a grower. I'm going to come at this a couple of different ways and then try to tie them together into a bow. A few weeks ago a dispensary owner consulted me about creating a line of topicals so at his request I put together a little presentation for him. That's going to come in handy now.

​

The test results above will be used for the base of this little exercise. I used old material that hadn't been well taken care of and was just the leaves. Most was nearly 3 years old. These results are the raw material. You can see that there is 2.75% of total cannabinoids or 27.5mg/g. This is on the low side of all the other leaf that I've gotten, some as high as 10% but we're going to use this to show our formula.

Since the material has 27.5mg per gram and we want slightly more than 120mg per ounce in our pain cream, you would use a GD base of about 5g/oz. If you have a quarter pound of leaf, 114g, even as weak as the example, you should be able to make 23oz of your infused topical coconut oil, rounding up. More than likely your fan leaf will have closer to 4-5mg/g so use your own evaluation of the leaf to decide to modify the ratio numbers. It doesn't hurt to have too much but you don't want too little.

If you have access to a lab and want to test to get a feel for the process, by all means do so. It's a valuable aid but most of us don't have that luxury or the bucks. Before I had the tests run I always used the 4-5g/oz ratio. It just seemed to work out well time and time again and it coincidentally was in line with my tincture GD ratio and the math was easy. Just luck that I hit on it. Having a formula, no matter whether it's this one or another, helps you maintain a consistent product that works the same day after day and year after year.

Now I'm going to toss you a curve ball. All this stuff I've been spouting is for your full strength "original formula" @ 120mg/ml using EVCO as only active ingredient but what about the 3/4 strength "buttery rub" and the skincare options? Even easier.

I infuse the almond and avocado oils at 2-3g/oz, half the amount of the EVCO, so I get twice as much from one ounce of the base GD. If I were to use the example above and used the whole quarter pound of leaf for one oil then I would have 46oz of the avocado and almond oils. Of course, you're going to be infusing all your oils separately so your actual oil totals will vary. You'll want to use the majority of your GD for EVCO since that is the one you use the most of.

I only use half the potency for the lighter oils because they are much lighter and are mainly unsaturated fats and best used as a carrier, as mentioned earlier. I infuse them to enhance their natural properties, not for deep pain relief although they do penetrate and relieve shallower surface pain. At 2mg/oz each ounce contains the minimum cannabinoid strength that I have found effective, 60mg per ounce.

Using these minimums for the oils, here are the strengths for some blends starting with the "original".

Original pain formula - Infused EVCO - 4oz = 480mg = 120mg/oz

Buttery Rub - Infused EVCO 2.5oz = 300mg
- Infused almond oil 1oz = 60mg
- Jojoba oil 0.5oz = 0
Total 4oz = 360mg = 90mg/oz

Avocado formula - Infused EVCO - 2oz = 240mg
- Infused almond oil 1oz = 60mg
- Infused avocado oil 0.5oz = 30mg
- Jojoba oil - 0.5oz = 0
Total 4oz = 330mg = 82.5mg/oz

​

I have a couple of other blends for roots but those have a different action and will be included in the next section which shouldn't take nearly as long as this one. I'm also going to explain using the depletion material in it's own post along with another with odds and ends.

I'm sorry this one was so disjointed but hopefully it will make sense. I'll get these added to the Index today.

​

 

Oh, yeah. I know a few people who tried them, some even claimed to "feel" it. I've even been in the room but didn't need to get "high" that bad. That was just one of a number of different things. Morning glory seeds, woodrose and just about anything else that would burn and was organic. People did some pretty crazy things in order to cop a buzz, nut much different than today and the synthetics.

Banana leaf, though, makes a great wrap for spliffs. No effects but gives a really smooth smoke of your ganja.

 

Have you every tried your DO without lecithin before? I never use it, smf, but it shouldn't be a problem adding it afterwards if you're using liquid. While you're waiting for your lecithin to arrive you may want to find your equivalent of a vitamin shoppe or health food store and pick up a bottle of lecithin caps. Take one at the same time you take your DO.

 

There can be no place for Hate or Terror

Orlando
​

 

Doesn't matter who you think is responsible. There's no place for it and it cannot be accepted. It's a dastardly deed whether some conspiratorial plot, terror, hate or just plain insanity, plain and simple.

 

There are no sheep or wolves in this thread. We are a community of diverse winners. We mourn the largest mass shooting in our country's history. It's not our role here in the thread to decide why it happened but only to decry that it did. We heal, not divide.