Step 1: Making a Roach and Choosing Your Rolling Paper
- The Benefits of Using a Roach
- Where to Make a Roach From
- How to Make a Good Roach Video
- How Important are Rolling Papers
- What Type of Rolling Paper Rolls The Best
Step 2: Grinding and Mixing
- Don’t Underestimate Grinding
- Grinding Marijuana Video
- Do's & Dont's
Step 3: Rolling The Perfect Joint!
- The Easiest Way To Roll a Joint
- How To Roll The Perfect Joint Video
- Helpful Rolling Tips (FAQ)
Step 1: Making a Roach and
Choosing Your Rolling Paper
The benefits of using a roach
So what exactly are the benefits of adding a roach to your joint. For starters, it prevents the tobacco and marijuana from going in to your mouth, so you won’t be spitting it all over your carpet.
Some of you will be smoking alone, but a lot of you won’t and since there’s always that one friend that likes to stick half the joint in his mouth (wet smokers) and pass it on to someone else with drew dripping of it, it would be a good thing to add a roach.
So your joint is prepared for that kind of wetness and also, you won’t have to throw away part of the joint because your friend jimmy like to smoke his joint wet.
A roach also prevents congestion at the bottom of the joint, because the roach keeps the part where you put your mouth open. Without a roach it would get wet and narrow, thus blocking the smoke and making it harder to inhale.
And last but defiantly not least, things like burned lips and fingers are a thing of the past. We all want to get the maximum out of our joints, so when we come at the end, we tend to smoke it until we feel something burning. By that time its to late and you got a blister.
A roach easily prevents this by separating the joint and the area where you hold the joint, much like a cigarette. So you can safely smoke your joint until the last bit without having to worry that you will set your lips or fingers on fire.
Note, if you want to roll a big spliff, you should make a large roach. It helps you how to roll your joint. Of course if you are low on weed and you are rolling a small joint you should go with a small roach. Sounds logical doesn't it =P
Oke, now that we know the benefits of a roach you probably wonder where you can make a roach from. So lets continue to the next part.
Where to Make a Roach From
“Where to make a roach from!!?” this sentence must be in the top 10 of most asked questions in the world, well…. at least mine world.
So, what material should we use to make the roach from and more important what not!
Of course the best material to make a roach from are original roach papers, these are available at every coffeeshop in Holland, but since the majority of people who are reading this book aren’t from Holland, we would have to come up with something else to make a roach from.
For all you macgyvers out there, I came up with some ways that everyone can use, all over the world.
I like to keep things very logical and simple. So the second best material (next to original roach paper) you should use for making your roach would be the flap of your rolling paper pack.
Since you need hemp or rice paper to actually roll a joint, I assume you got the rolling paper package where it came out of. Grab yourself some scissors and start cutting roach paper as shown on the picture below.
The picture kind of tells it all, for the size of the roach paper just look at the picture (for all you mathematical geek's out there, the original roach paper sizes are: 55mm in length and 18mm in width)
Since you also need tobacco to roll a joint I assume that you also got the package where it came out of. Not all tobacco packages are the same but I am sure you can cut a nice 55mm long and 18mm wide roach paper out of it.
I must admit that rolling a roach that you cut from a tobacco package is a bit harder then from a rolling paper package, since it is made out of harder material.
Watch the picture below where I reveal 2 hidden roaches inside a Marlboro package.
You can use the rest of the package to for cutting out roach papers, but this method is the fastest.
On the picture above, you see the 2 hidden roaches marked with a green V and next to it, you see the paper already removed from the Marlboro package and a already made roach out of this material.
Now that I showed you 2 ways of making your own roach paper, let me tell you about a few materials you shouldn't’t use!
Don’t use paper out of ANY magazine, the material is to soft and it got ink all over it!
Don’t use a roach/filter from a cigarette. It will filter to much of the good stuff!
Don’t use gum wrap paper or any kind of candy paper, its made out of plastic (most of the time) and it will have ink on it and I bet it smells like the candy.
Don’t be a smart ass by thinking you will get a candy like joint if you roll the roach from a candy paper, because it won’t work, trust me on that one!
These 3 examples are the most common wrong materials that people use, but if you just use common sense I’am sure you will be fine.
Once again I recommend you getting some original roach papers because as you can see roaches are a very important part of your joint, the right roach really helps you role your joint a lot easier, I’ll further explain this in step 3.
Now that we know the theory behind the roach lets move on and actually make one!!
How to Make a Good Roach Video
In the movie you will see me perform 3 basic tasks, I will list these tasks below so that you fully understand what I do in the movie.
Note, the movie begins with a pack of original roach papers for those who wonder what that is.
Step 1. You will see me fold one end of the roach 3 times, creating a M shaped form (this will stop anything from coming thru the hole of the roach)
Step 2. I slowly roll the roach paper around the M shaped form that I made in step 1.
Step 3. Apply some pressure when the roach is fully rolled, so that it won’t pop out of its shape (its oke if you bend the M shaped form inside the roach, it will still perform its function which is to stop tobacco and marijuana from coming into your mouth)
If somehow you have difficulties with the whole applying pressure part in step 3, you could also heat up the roach with a lighter. This way it would keep its shape and won’t expand.
Sounds easy? Well... that’s because it is easy, just watch the movie and pay attention to these 3 steps and with a little practice you won’t need more then a few seconds to roll the perfect roach!
Click here to start video (a new window will open)
Note, The first few attempts your roach may be to small or to large, just remember that the larger the roach, the larger your joint will be, because the roach really is the base point from where you will be rolling from. Play with this yourself, it won’t take long before you will master this.
How Important are Rolling Papers
Since there are several types of rolling paper, all made from different material and each having its own advantages and disadvantages we must know what you as beginner can use, so you won’t make it extra hard on yourself when rolling your joint.
Lucky for you there are only 2 major types of material to choose from, which are Hemp and Rice.
There are also bamboo papers but I won’t be discussing those. Check out the next section to see the advantages and disadvantages of each material and what is best suited for you!
What Type of Rolling Paper Rolls The Best
I can be very straight forward in answering that question, which are Hemp papers.
But since we want to be good in what we do, I will tell you why.
Hemp papers are thicker then rice papers, this thickness gives you more grip, thus making it easier to roll a joint. So far so good, but here’s the catch.
This thickness also has an influence on your joint when it comes to taste. I can really taste the difference between a joint that is rolled with hemp and a joint that is rolled with rice paper.
I personally prefer rice papers, since you will taste less of your rolling paper and more of your weed.
So rice papers may be harder to roll with, because its thinner then hemp papers and give you less grip, but you will notice a big change in taste.
For beginners this isn’t really an issue, but as your rolling skills advance, I really recommend you to try and roll with rice papers, they taste and look better since they are see-thru and isn’t that where this is all about, rolling the perfect joint!
Don’t panic, I won’t leave you guessing where and which rolling papers you should buy. I know there are lots of brands and sizes.
In general you could use any kind of rolling paper you want as long as it is made out of Rice or Hemp (depends on your rolling skill) and it is king size (110mm in length)
P.S. "The Premium Rolling Papers Combo" package is now on sale! This is a great package, because it has all kinds of different rolling papers in it. Which is perfect for beginners to experiment with.
Step 2: Grinding and Mixing
Don’t Underestimate Grinding
Now many of you may think, why did he made a chapter about grinding and mixing. Everyone can grind marijuana right….? Well, this sounds easy but somehow I still see people rolling joints with huge CHUNKS of marijuana in it. This is not what we want!
Let me tell you what happens if you leave chunks of marijuana in your joint:
1. It will be harder to roll (chunks of marijuana create bumps, thus making it harder to roll a tight joint.)
2. It can create congestion (blocks the smoke from getting into the roach)
3. If you don’t role it tight enough (which will be harder, see 1) you will get chunks of
marijuana falling out of your joint on the floor messing up your carpet or couch.
4. Joints with bumps sticking out the sides look ugly. We don’t want ugly, we want
The Perfect Joint!
Marijuana can be hard to grind in some cases, especially when its wet (fresh), it will be very hard to grind!
The best thing you can do with wet marijuana, is to put it between 2 tissue’s en let it try out. You can speed up this process by heating up the tissue’s with a hair blower. The dryer it is the better it will be to grind.
Don’t microwave your marijuana! It will burn up and destroy the good stuff...
The whole grinding process really is the basis of your joint as you can see, if you mess that up, chances are big that you will also mess up your joint .
There really shouldn’t be any problem now with grinding your marijuana, but just in case I made a video for you all, so that you absolutely can’t go wrong!
Grinding Marijuana Video
In the movie you will see me perform 4 basic tasks, I will list these tasks below so that you fully understand what I do in the movie.
Step 1. Remove the leaves so that we have a good and clean bud.
Step 2. Grind the marijuana (using a hand grinder or electric grinder is recommended,
I will talk more about this in depth after the movie)
Step 3. Remove any small branches, some people just grind it all, including the
branches. This is a bad idea, since these small branches are sharp and will
sometimes stick thru your joint after you rolled it.
Step 4. Add some tobacco to your already grinded marijuana.
(more about this after the movie)
Note, Tobacco can also contain hard bits that can stick thru your joint, remove these as well.
Oke, enough talk. Time to watch the movie!
Click here to start Video (a new window will open)
Do's & Dont's
In the movie you see me grinding the marijuana by hand, normally I don’t do this. It takes up way to much time and afford (I’am a lazy guy).
But since I assume you don’t have a hand grinder or electric grinder when you are reading this book, you will be using your hands.
I do advise you to get a hand grinder or an electric grinder, they are very cheap in price and they will save you a lot of time, afford and irritation.
As you can see at the end of the movie, I mix up the marijuana with tobacco. The are a few reasons for this but the main one is simple.
Marijuana alone burns bad, you would have to hold up your lighter against the joint the whole time to keep it burning. So to make it more smokeable we add tobacco, other reasons why we add tobacco to our marijuana are:
- Without tobacco your joint would be to strong.
- You would smoke up all your weed to fast.
The amount of marijuana that each joint contains depends solely on yourself, if you feel like putting 1 gram of marijuana into your joint its up to you. More common value's are 0.5 to 0.75 gram per joint.
It would be smart to use a digital scale if you are new in smoking marijuana. This way you can get the feeling of how how much a gram looks like and a scale also allows you to check the marijuana that you bought, so you won't get sceamed.
I bet you are thinking, how much tobacco should I add… Well, that also depends on the person. I always say 50/50 you can’t go wrong with that. I wouldn't recommend putting to much tobacco in it, or it will mess up the flavor of your marijuana.
You can experiment with it yourself, where less tobacco means a stronger joint, but remember not to put to much tobacco in it.
Lately I see a lot of website’s claiming that you should use hand rolling tobacco instead of tobacco from a cigarette. They claim tobacco from a cigarette is dry and handrolling tobacco rolls better.
Handrolling tobacco rolls better, but is more denser then tobacco from a cigarette, thus making it harder to smoke with marijuana.
It also overwhelms the sweet taste of your weed because by default, handrolling tobacco is more stronger in taste then tobacco from a cigarette.
Even if you are a handrolling tobacco smoker, you should always begin with tobacco from a cigarette. You could always switch over, but I bet you won’t after you tried it with tobacco from a cigarette.
This covers grinding and mixing, bringing us to the best and final part, How to roll a joint!
Step 3: Rolling The Perfect Joint!
Congratulations if you made it this far, but there is 1 vital part left in this whole process and that’s putting it all together and rolling that joint!
We discussed the benefits of a roach. We discussed what paper you should use and we discussed how to crumble and mix up your marijuana.
If you watched the video’s and did exactly what I did, then this final step will be a walk in the park.
Why? Because we can only achieve perfection if every single component that we use in our joint rolling process is perfect. You can compare it with building a house.
Would you build your house on a crooked foundation? I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t. The same goes for our joint.
This is why I went into so much depth on every subject, so that you fully understand the function of every component. Now its just a matter of combining our already made pieces of our joint and roll it all up, creating the perfect joint!
Perfection is a big word, so don’t beat yourself up if you fail the first time. Remember, practice is the key here.
The Easiest Way To Roll a Joint
There are many ways you could roll your joint, I use a technique called: “rolling inside out”. This technique requires at least some experience in normal joint rolling technique’s before even attempting.
The biggest benefit of this technique is that you remove excessive paper and really customize your rolling paper to match the content of the joint, so you would never smoke more paper then needed. This makes the taste of the joint much better. But for you as beginner this technique is not relevant.
You might wonder what technique is relevant to me then! Don’t worry I have developed a technique to roll a joint, that even a child could perform, as you will see in the video.
So without further ado, follow me and pay special attention to the following rolling steps!
How To Roll The Perfect Joint Video
Just like every step before, I will explain exactly what I am doing so that you fully understand what’s going on. I know you want to push that play button, but bare with me for a short moment, so I can explain to you what I’am doing in the movie.
Step 1. Laying down the Rolling Paper.
The video will start with a overview of all the things we will be using. You will see a rolling paper layed down with the sticky side (the side that you lick to keep the joint together) away from me.
Also make sure that the sticky side is facing the sealing and not upside-down facing the floor. Don’t get confused, I will literally point this out in the video as well.
Step 2. (Optional) Loosen up the Rolling Paper.
A lot of first time rollers have problems with the turning/wrapping motion in step 5, because the rolling paper is to stiff and they can’t get it to bend the way they would like.
I have found a very simple fix to this problem. Simply put a cigarette in your rolling paper and start rolling around the cigarette. This bends the rolling paper in the right direction and helps a lot when you’re actually rolling your joint in step 5.
Just to be safe, I will demonstrate this optional step in the movie to, but since this is an optional step and we want to keep the file size of the movie to a minimum, I will perform this action briefly. But don't worry, its very simple.
Watch the rolling paper when i' am done with this action, you will see that its
bend exactly the way we would like.
Step 3. Adding the Roach.
Place your already made roach at the left or right side (I prefer the left side) of your rolling paper (remember if you want a small joint we use a small roach and the bigger the roach the bigger the joint).
Step 4. Equally divide your mixture onto the Rolling Paper.
!VERY IMPORTANT! Hold your joint by the roach and EQUALLY divide your mix of tobacco and marijuana onto your rolling paper. Use your index finger to spread the weed and tobacco evenly over the paper.
Since the smaller parts of marijuana and tobacco are at the bottom of the pile, I will start by grabbing of the top and place it at the middle of the rolling paper and put the mixture that is on the bottom at the roach.
I do this because the mixture at the bottom is more denser then the top part. This will be easier when rolling and will make the connection between your join and roach stronger.
See how I take my time and make sure that everything is equally divided all the way to the top.
So in fact what your doing is going from small to bigger where the roach side should be small and you end big at the end. Again, don’t worry, I will lead you thru this in the movie.
EQAULLY really is the key here. I can’t stress this enough. Also make sure that your mixture is laying tight against your roach, we don’t want space between your mixture and the roach.
Step 5. Rolling the Joint.
Now that you’re sure that everything is equally divided, you should hold the joint between your index and middle fingers for support and let your thumbs apply the pressure so that everything inside the rolling paper becomes more firm and stable.
You will see my left hand at the roach the whole time and my right hand will start at the middle of the joint. From there I will roll the joint with my left hand by the roach (the roach is round so I can easily roll it, shaping the joint) and my right hand will assist the motion of my left hand making sure that everything go's equally to the top.
Just watch how little effort I put in actually rolling the joint. Since I equally divided it so good in the previous step.
The motion I’am making really is a simple motion as you will see in the video. At this point you should make sure that the joint is smooth and consistent.
Here comes the part where most people go wrong, they did everything perfect but at the end the screw it up by failing to perform the last action, which is to wrap the joint.
The trick here is to wrap it as tightly as possible, because then and only then will you have the perfect joint. You could have done everything perfect, but if you fail this part, your joint will fail you to.
This last action is really important, so pay close attention to it in the video. You will see me using my 2 index fingers to turn the paper around the joint (I will move them around, so you can clearly see them) and my thumbs to hold the joint tightly together. Then with both hands roll it around a little further, so everything is tightly packed.
Note, Don't let go of the roach with your left hand, or it will become lose and you can start all over. Also make sure that you roll with feeling, its oke to apply some more pressure when you wrap the joint at the end to keep it all tight together.
Everything I do will be slow and exaggerated, so you won’t miss a thing.
Don’t worry if some of your mixture falls out the back of your joint, we will put this back when we’re done rolling.
Step 6. Lick it up!
Lick the sticky side of your rolling paper (that I point out) and start rolling the sticky side from the top all the way down, around the rest of the joint, while turning it with your left hand by the roach.
Step 7. Adding the left-over mixture.
Stroke the joint a few times to make sure that everything inside the rolling paper is equally divided and then tab the bottom of the joint a few times on the table so everything inside sinks down and becomes tighter, so you can add the mixture that fell out in step 5.
If your joint is filled to the top and there is no room to add the mixture, you can use a cigarette to press it down some more.
Step 8. The Finishing Touch.
When everything is done and your joint is complete, you close the top of the joint by rolling the top of the rolling paper together creating a thin pointy stick.
You could hold this pointy stick and swing the joint around a bit so everything inside tightens up some more, but if everything went well this really isn’t necessary. I will also perform this extra action in the movie.
Don’t get intimidated by the amount of steps that you’re seeing, I might look like a lot, but its actually a lot less when you’re watching the video.
This is because I really try my best to explain every single thing that I do in the movie (for example, step 1, 2 and 3 only take a couple of seconds). So there will be nothing that you won’t understand.
Now its time to lay back and watch me how I lead you thru the above steps.
Note, most of the movie will be shot in a way that will appear like you are looking thru my eyes. So you see everything that I see. This will make it easier when you are trying it yourself.
Click here to start Video (a new window will open)
Helpful Rolling Tips (FAQ)
Of course, I won’t leave you hanging like that. There are a lot of things that can go wrong for first time rollers, so that’s why I included this extra helpful rolling tips FAQ section.
Luckily, these mistakes are very common, so I’am sure that you will find a answer that fits your problem.
Don’t forget to go thru the basic rolling steps a couple of times to get familiar with them, you should also watch all the movies a couple of times to make sure that you are doing everything correctly, This is how to roll a joint.
For those who got the basic steps down and still end up with something that looks like an ugly weenie, read the following rolling tips:
Q: “My hands are to smooth and I can’t make the turning/wrapping motion to roll the joint”
A: This is actually a very common phenomenal. A lot of people have very smooth hands, which makes it hard to get a good grip on the rolling paper, which can lead to a lot of irritation.
For those people with smooth hands, try washing your hands with water and partial dry them up, so your hands are still a little moist. This really helps and should fix this problem instantly and remember to use HEMP rolling paper if you are having trouble with smooth hands.
Q: “I overdid it with the whole licking part, and now my joint is to wet”
A: Going up and down with a lighter against the joint should fix this, watch out that you don’t burn holes in the joint. There is a hidden benefit when you are heating your joint up with a lighter.
Because the fire is making the rolling paper more crispy and this actually makes the joint tighter. Note, if you rolled a very lose joint, you could easily burn holes in it because of the free space within the joint.
Q: “I went crazy with the lighter and burned a hole in my joint”
A: Depending on the size of the hole, you could fix this problem quite easily.
Tear off the sticky side (in length) of a rolling paper and paste that against the hole. Of course you first have to lick the sticky side before pasting it against the hole.
You should tear of a good piece of the sticky side, like I did on the picture below and wrap it around a few times so that you fully cover your hole.
Q: "I did everything you told me to do and I still can't roll the perfect joint"
A: You can't expect to be a joint rolling expert in 1 day, don't get me wrong, it happens to some people. But the majority of people need to practice a couple of days before they can roll the perfect joint!
There is not wrong with that! If you are stressed or you are having a bad day, then try and pick it up the next day. Its all about feeling. If you squeeze your joint to hard, rip up the rolling paper and you have been trying to roll a joint for a hour, you need to realize that its you that is the problem. RELAX, chill out and try again later =)
Now, if everything went well, you should be sitting behind your computer with a spliff in your mouth. If this is the case, Gongrats. You made it! It might not be the perfect joint yet, but it will be in a couple of days!
Sincerely,
Top Dutch -- Founder
Joint-Rolling-Guide.com