Hit da bong 4:20's basic rolling!
Basic "J" rolling
Rolling a joint is tricky at the beginning, but once one builds the
confidence and concentration needed to roll a good one, the rest come naturally.
From there on the possibilities are limitless, big ones, fat ones,
small ones, thin ones, single sheet, double sheet, cigar paper, etc. We
will begin by
rolling a medium sized joint and using very simple rolling techniques.
You will need a pencil, a sheet of paper, some stash, some tobbacco or
tea or
herbal substance, and some rolling papers.
So, here I have my RIZLA king size papes, some tea (I prefer to smoke
with tea when available. Joints are also easier on the occassional smoker
when
rolled with menthol cigarettes.) and my old French book for a mix sheet.
Rolling papers come in all shapes colours and sizes, but I am used to RIZLA.
If you flip most rolling paper packs on their back, you can undo them
easily to find a small cardboard strip designed to keep the paper straight.
This is
excellent for rolling filters and comes just in the right size. You
can also rip off portions from the pack itself or from any business card.
The filter (roach)
is the most important part of the joint. It's compactness, width and
length all determine the outcome and desireability of a joint. Here I have
ripped off a
nice little square. This roach will come out a little longer than most,
but I prefer to make mine longer so that the joint doesn't become too hot
when smoked
to the end, and so that there is more support for holding it.
Here I have rolled the roach. It is fairly loose and wide so that the
joint becomes nice and fat (the way I like it). Rolling thinner roaches
will make the joint
thinner and the looser the roach is the fatter the joint becomes but
don't make it too loose or a lot of tobbacco/weed/hash/tea/herbs will come
into your mouth.
Ideally, there should be an S shape or a spiral within the roach to
stop some of the stuff you're smoking from being sucked into your mouth.
Flattening the
roach temporarily helps this but don't close it too much or you won't
get any smoke through. Place the roach at the end of the sheet after you
have put your
stash in.. Make sure no stuff is coming behind or under the roach (like
it is in the example) and make sure that your tobbacco/weed/hash/tea/herbs
is
evened out. If there is more in some places than others your joint
will look strange.
You can test that the substance is even by holding up the paper and
threading your thumbs across the joint. It also helps to squeez the stuff
so that it becomes
compact, thus elimiating large gaps of air. Turn the paper around so
that the roach is being held by your preffered hand. (This is crucial because
you will have
less control if you don't hold it with the hand you write with, and
you need lots of control because the joint has to be rolled very tight
around the roach or else
it will fall out, get soggy and/or come apart.) Keep pressing your
thumb across the paper until you feel that everything is pretty even and
that you are ready
to roll.
Actually rolling is the hardest part, because there is a constant uncertainty
about the tightness of the joint, and one doesn't feel like "now is the
right time" to
fold the paper over. Just concentrate here, and starting at the roach,
slowly turn the paper over, making sure that the sticky side of the paper
is above the
non-sticky side. (Having the sticky side behind or under the non-sticky
side will make it impossible to seal the joint) As you roll continue to
make sure that
the joint is tight, and that your roach is not loose. You will spill
a lot during this process, but as long as you have your mix sheet underneath,
everything is
cool because you can always pack it in later. Once the sticky side
of the paper is coming close to touching the joint, moist it with saliva
or whatever and
make one final tightness-check before you paste it down onto the joint.
If you have failed at rolling a good joint, you will see it immediately
and the best
thing to do is to tear out another sheet and try again. It takes a
lot of practice, patience and concentration at the beginning.
If you feel like you have rolled a nice joint (it looks very fat and
lopsided because of the picture dimension, but if you click the image you'll
get a better idea)
then you can proceed to the finishing touches. My joint is a little
loose here, but it will do for a good smoke. (The way you can tell that
a joint is a little loose
is if portions of the paper are very white, and you can see scattered
fragments of tobbacco/weed/hash/tea/herb along the line. Another way to
tell is if there are
wrinkles (as in the example) along the joint. A very tight joint looks
uniformily dark all around. Once you have gotten a satisfactory joint then
you can proceed
to packing it with the rest of the stuff that you spilt or left out.
Widen the opening at the top and sprinkle the remainder of your stash down
the joint. Use a
pencil or another long flat object to press down and compact the stash
as much as possible (I left out that move in teh example as you can see)
Tapping the
bottom of the joint against a surface also alows the contents to compact,
and blowing down the top will do the trick as well. Once you haveput in
all you want
to put in, twist the top to close it and smoke when ready!