Decarbing crystals

[Gingerbeard]

Having said that and reading back to Mr.furley, I said an O is released. Mr.F said a carbon chain. I had to research to understand. More undocumented, but I get it. What I understood to be off gassing of the O is actually off gassing CO2: a carbon chain. Thanks, Mr.F.

"The acids in cannabinoids contain 22 carbon atoms, 30 hydrogen atoms, and 4 oxygen atoms. The group lost in decarbing contains only 1 carbon atom and 2 of the 4 oxygen atoms, which we know as CO2. After removing this carboxyl group, the THCA reduces by 12 percent and converts the active THC compounds."

 

[Gingerbeard]

Success!
After all was washed and decarbed, I took and smashed the crystals. They shattered into powder after the heat instead of breaking into smaller diamonds. Remembering what I read about THC being powder and THC-A being crystal, the final product resembles what I read.
Had me a little of the off-white powder with a Skor bar about an hour and three bits ago. Absolutely no flavor. Probably just the thing for folks who want to make edibles without the pot taste.
It is a reassuring high. Not relaxing. Not motivating. But I am reassured that whatever I do will be all right.
I will need to revisit this with diamond sauce: diamonds with terps like the second picture in Post Number 7 above. That might be another conversation. THC-A decarbs at about ???°. (Can we please not get into y'all's different times and temps!!) Terps generally do their thing at much higher temps. Maybe decarb the diamonds and cook up terps seperately?
Experimentation for another day.

 

[ChubbNugg]

I know that feeling very well. It's like everything is just OK, or going to be OK. it's a smooth and subtle yet powerful feeling. that's exactly how my coconut oil works. I think it's fantastic!

 

[Gingerbeard]

Here's a final note. Kind of a big note.
Online and others say alcohol dissolves THC. My experiment was to wash terps off THC-A diamonds.
It worked. I did my wash and was left with a few, small, white/clear diamonds and a few larger that were amber because of imbedded terps. Is 'Inclusions' the word for diamond imperfections?
After decarbing the diamonds, I was left with the same size and shape pieces that looked no different than what I started with. Online says THC-A is crystal and THC is a powder. When I crushed the decarbed diamonds, they shattered into powder. THC-A breaks into smaller diamonds.
I just washed a small silicon container that held the THC powder. The little remains that were in the container dissolved. To make things were actually dissolved I poured the cleaning alcohol onto my stove to dry. The remains are sticky but not gritty.
Take from it what you want. I now know what to do with crappy diamonds. And please, can we not talk about why buy crap in the first place?