textfiles/drugs/ALT.DRUGS/m4

From:  harmon@Metaphor.COM

> what is 'hash oil'? 

Its a thick black oil made from hash.  The hash is heated and pressed to 
release the oil.  (Same process used to make hash from marijuana, but carried
to an extreme.)  Its almost like a tar; very sticky, very thick.

> how is it used?

I've never seen it in the US, but When I lived in England, some 10 years ago,
it was occasionally available.  It came in two forms; sometimes it would be
in a little plastic vial.  Other times it would come in a piece of aluminum
foil.  From what I recall, the point was not to burn it, as that would burn
off the active ingredients; but you wanted to inhale the vapor from it.

The usual procedure was to get some heat resistant tube; the favorite was a
the clear plastic tube that is the body of a bic disposable pen.  Pull out the
end cap, and pull out the ink/ballpoint thingy.  Result: a clear plastic tube.
Then, smear a small amount of the oil on a piece of aluminum foil.  Hold the
foil with pliers.  With the oil on top, heat from beneath with a lighter.
Hold the end of the tube above the patch of oil.  As you begin to apply heat,
suck like hell.  The pliers (or something) are necessary because foil is
an excellent conductor of heat, and you can burn yourself.  It may take
several heatings to use up all the oil from a smear.  (You'll note this takes
three hands!)

For a nicer piece of equipment, take an old tablespoon.  Bend the handle so
that the handle bends away from the bowl, and then back so that it is pointing
up away from the bowl.  Attach same pen tube to the handle so that it points
down into the bowl of the spoon.  Smear oil into bowl of spoon, and heat
spoon from bottom. (This only takes two hands.)

Another technique, if you roll your own cigarettes, is to smear a streak of
oil on a cigarette paper, and then roll a cigarette with this paper.

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From:  harmon@Metaphor.COM

I grew up in England, and when I was in high school (pun intended? ;-) there,
all we could ever get was hash.  For some peculiar reason, no one ever thought
to use pipes.  So we had to roll cigarettes with roll-your-own tobacco, and
put crumbs of hash in them.  Sometimes, to avoid the tobacco, we'd use
disassembled clove cigarettes, or herbs like tarragon.

If you've never used hash, (which I've never seen in the US,) it comes as a
brown-green brick, which is VERY hard.  You warm a corner over a lighter to
soften it, and break crumbs off of it.  You can't roll j's with this stuff; its
solid.  (Sometimes, good stuff is very dark in color, even black; this is
usually very soft, and if squeezed, drops of hash oil may sweat out.)

I don't seem to recall it being very common to find head shops where you could
buy smoking equipment proper, but tobacco and rolling papers were very common.
I don't think equipment was common, because I do remember a couple of pieces
of homemade equipment; one friend of mine made a bong in his ceramics class.  I
made one with a thistle tube, cork, glass tubing, and erlenmeyer flask from
a chemistry set of mine.

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From:  cavasin@convex.com

>> what is 'hash oil'?
>Its a thick black oil made from hash.  The hash is heated and pressed to 
>release the oil.  (Same process used to make hash from marijuana, but carried
>to an extreme.)  Its almost like a tar; very sticky, very thick.

No, make that very, Very, VERY sticky.  Sticks to everything.  stays under
your fingernails for weeks after you've tried everything imaginable to get
it out (and you try everything imaginable because the milligram or so that's
stuck there is worth some money).  It ruins clothes; the only thing that
will take it off your skin or countertops is denatured alcohol or a similar
solvent.  The stickiest shit I have ever seen.

>> how is it [hash oil] used?

It turns up at dead shows occasionally.  A "friend" had some that came from
jamaica, which is where he assumes it was made.

"friend" says the smoke is better than the vapor.

>The usual procedure was to get some heat resistant tube; the favorite was a
>the clear plastic tube that is the body of a bic disposable pen.  Pull out the
>end cap, and pull out the ink/ballpoint thingy.  Result: a clear plastic tube.
>Then, smear a small amount of the oil on a piece of aluminum foil.  Hold the
>foil with pliers.  With the oil on top, heat from beneath with a lighter.
>Hold the end of the tube above the patch of oil.  As you begin to apply heat,
>suck like hell.  The pliers (or something) are necessary because foil is
>an excellent conductor of heat, and you can burn yourself.  It may take
>several heatings to use up all the oil from a smear.  (You'll note this takes
>three hands!)

Don't use a ballpoint pen unless you like to waste money (oil, same
difference).  This stuff costs a fortune--"friend" says $35/gram when you can
get it.  It's really not worth it at that price.  Anyway, as far as heating it
vs. warming it, "friend" says he's tried it both ways.  Both ways it's real,
real hard on your throat (worse than the harshest weed--almost as bad as that
"black morrocan" lettuce O shit).  It's a little harsher if you do the vapor
thing.  "friend" says seems to be more effective smoked, plus you waste less.

best vapor method:  put an old knife on a stove burner ("friend" used an
electric stove; use a gas job at your own risk).  let it get nice and hot (red
hot isn't too hot, but of course you don't wanna deform the knife...).  Get a
paper towell tube or similar-size tube.  GATHER EVERYONE AROUND CLOSE.  use a
real thin screwdriver or similar instrument to get a little dab of oil, stand
ready with the tube, press the screwdriver against the hot blade and suck.
don't take too much; it's got incredible expando properties.  The stuff will
smoke uncontrollably till it's gone, so make sure everyone gets in their suck
without letting too much go to waste (it's good if everyone has their own
tube). 

The aluminum foil method is okay, but "friend" thinks it's a little more
wasteful.  Eventually ya gotta throw that foil out.

"friend" says best way to do it is to roll it with some herb (tobacco kills).
Another good way to smoke it (according to friend) is to line a screened bowl
with rolling paper or leaf and put a drop in there.

However you do it, take SMALL hits.  the shit is lethal on your lungs.

Actually, now that friend thinks about it, the best way to do it is to put
about 10 grams in a 13x7" brownie pan with your favorite brownie recipe.  cut
into ~1.25" squares.  Eat one and have a wonderful night (sex is highly
recommended).  Eat two and become part of your favorite couch for 5 hours or
so.  Eat 5 or 6 and find out what heroin's like without having to mess with
needles. 

Of course $350 is a hell of an expensive pan of brownies.

>I always found that hash oil was much stonier than hash. (Whatever that
>means.....)  It gave me more of that feeling in my eyes of being in a smoky
>room when I was stoned on plain hash or mj leaves.

friend likes good hash better.  Easier to smoke, tastes better.  Right about
the buzz tho.  VERY intensly relaxing, almost paralyzing.

>Of course, this was all long ago, and I don't do that sort of thing anymore....

Of course, neither does friend.
:^)

A word of advice (from friend):  BE CAREFUL when buying this shit.  It's real,
real easy to get ripped off, and doling out $35 for a gram of roofing tar is
quite a bummer.

Is hash oil mentioned in a faq?  I'm too lazy to look.  If it's not it should
be. 

Oh, friend tells me to add one more thing: heating up the vial will make the
stuff a lot easier to deal with (liquifies it).  Also makes it more prone to
spillage, so take great care when handling it in its liquid form.  You can
heat the vial with a lighter or put it on an electric stove burner.

God, my friend is such a drug-craving unAmerican lowlife.:^)

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From: kph@cisco.com (Kevin Paul Herbert)
Date: 13 Sep 91 03:22:48 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Re: How to purify THC from leaves?

This comes from a friend of mine that doesn't have net access, so I won't be able to supply further details...

1. Run all leaf through a wire mesh sifter (such as a kitchen flour sifter)
2. Completely soak the leaf with ethyl or isopropyl alcohol for about 4 or 5 days.
3. Strain resultant product through silk (used for silk-screening)
4. Evaporate remainder by applying very low heat from kitchen stove
   Caution: be very careful - the product is *quite* flammable
5. After evaporating, there will be a remaining "goo". This is the hash oil.

[It was noted in a followup that ispropyl alcohol is generally sold denatured,
 so that its vile to drink.  The chemicals which denature it, however,
 *should* get evaporated by step 4, and further combusted when you smoke it.  
 Therefore the effect of these chemicals *should* be minimal, but since I
 don't have the foggiest idea of what the chemicals actually are, use at your
 own risk -- Lamont]

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From: goddard@cat55.cs.wisc.edu (Denis Goddard)
Date: 15 Sep 91 20:33:53 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Re: How to purify THC from leaves?

In article <1991Sep13.032248.2685@csl.sri.com> kph@cisco.com (Kevin Paul Herbert) writes:
>This comes from a friend of mine that doesn't have net access, so I won't be able to supply further details...
>
>1. Run all leaf through a wire mesh sifter (such as a kitchen flour sifter)
>2. Completely soak the leaf with ethyl or isopropyl alcohol for about 4 or 5 days.
>3. Strain resultant product through silk (used for silk-screening)
>4. Evaporate remainder by applying very low heat from kitchen stove
>   Caution: be very careful - the product is *quite* flammable
>5. After evaporating, there will be a remaining "goo". This is the hash oil.
>
>Kevin

 Use acetone instead of alcohol. THC is SUPER soluble in acetone - soak
 the ground-up leaves in acetone, then distill it off. best purity from
 any solvent I've ever tried. Next best choice is petroleum ether. Seriously,
 alcohols are too H2O - soluble for really good purity - lots of other
 nonpsychoactive stuff gets in the oil.

  P.S. once you've got the oil, it's REALLY sticky & hard to handle. mix with
  2 parts powdered leaf to form good hash.

   you're welcome.

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From: djh@osc.edu (David Heisterberg)
Date: Thu, 19 Sep 1991 20:51:52 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: THC extraction

Just for fun.  Here are some exerpts from the Experimental section of
a paper by Adams, Hunt, and Clark, JACS 62, 196 (1940).

    The hemp used in these experiments grew wild in Minnesota during
    the season of 1938.  It was cut in August, after flowering had
    begun but before seed had "set" in the female tops.  It was stored
    for six weeks in a room where a fan assured circulation of air in
    order to dry it completely.  No molding occurred.  The material
    was then beaten and shaken to remove the coarse stems which ammount-
    ed to about one-third of the total dry weight.  The stems were dis-
    carded and the relatively fine material that remained was extracted
    with 95% ethanol [equivalent to Everclear] in the manner described
    below.

    Four 20-gallon (75-liter) crocks, each holding approximately 23 lb.
    (10 kg.) of material, were set up in series for countercurrent
    extraction.  Each crock held approximately 61 liters of solvent of
    which about 41 liters were withdrawn at each transfer, the remain-
    der being retained by the hemp.
    ...
    The operations just described were carried out by Dr. John R. Matchett
    and his assistants in the Narcotics Laboratory of the Treasury
    Department, Washington, D.C.  They kindly furnished us with a gener-
    ous supply of ethanol extract. [don't you wish you had connections
    like that?]

The rest of the procedure involved removing ethanol and low boiling
components under reduced pressure (about 30 mm) and gradually increased
temperature (up to 200 C).  The remaining oil was distilled at 3 mm,
between 100-220 C.  This crude oil (180-200 g) was disolved in petroleum
ether (b.p. 30-60 C) and washed twice with water.  The pet. ether was
distilled off and the oil distilled at 2 mm, collecting the fraction
boiling at 175-195 C, yielding 90-110 g of "purified red oil."

So that's how the big boys did it back then.  University of Illinois
students and alums should note that the author Adams is none other than
Roger Adams for whom the chem lab is named.

At the time this paper was written it wasn't known just what the active
ingredient in pot was.  Cannabinol was the first compound identified in
red oil, and cannabidiol had just recently been isolated.  From the
conclusion of the introduction:

    Red oil probably contains other products closely related to canna-
    binol or cannabidiol in structure, such as partially hydrogenated
    cannabinols, isomers of cannabidiol, or molecules like cannabidiol
    with less unsaturation.  A large number of closely related compounds
    is possible.  The active marihuana principle or principles may be
    among this group of substances.  On the other hand, the possibility
    of the presence in red oil of a very potent active compound, entirely
    unrelated structurally to cannabinol or cannibidiol, is not excluded.

Very soon after that is was determined that THC was the active principle.
Roger Adams synthesized THC and several related compounds, some of which
were several times more potent than THC.  Roger Adams has a number of
interesting papers, Joe Bob says "check it out."

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From: lamontg@milton.u.washington.edu (Lamont Granquist)
Date: Sun, 22 Sep 1991 04:05:13 GMT
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: Anon Post:  Makin' Hash

the following is an anonymous post which was forwarded to me by e-mail.

You haven't seen this yet, even though its quoted.
  
anonymous@somesite.somewhere sez:
>The following details an attempt at making hash from MJ stems..
> 
>  On friday I took a handfull of stems I had left from a QP we got
>about 6 months ago.  The MJ itself was by far the worst I've ever
>had..  I and 2 friends went through a half ounce without catching
>a good buzz.  But, I did keep the stems for some reason (Maybee
>I thought it'd be nice to have a foot long stem for cleaning bowls..
>Who knows..)  Anyway..  This is what I did..
> 
>  Fraday..  Put one handfull of stems in a jar filled with rubbing
>alcohol.  (It's hard to get everclear when you're under 21)
> 
>  Saturday..  Decided not to waste a month just to find that the hash
>was garbage, and did the following..
>  1: Put jar of Stems/Alcohol in a pot of boiling water (Leaving
>     the top of the jar open and above the surface of the water)..
>     I let it boil for about 30 minutes then decided that this was
>     going a bit too slow..
>  2: Strained Stems/Alcohol mix through 2 paper towels into a glass
>     pie plate.  (I was going to use coffee filters, but couldn't
>     find any..)
>  3: Put plate on stove and heated liquid until all of the rubbing
>     alcohol was gone.  (This took aprox 45 minutes on Med-Low
>     heat..  The Alcohol was gone after about 30 minutes. <The mix
>     did not have an alcohol smell>)
>  3.1 Caught one of the strangest buzzes ever while the mix
>     was evaporating..
>  4: Scraped up what looked to be a dark-brown oil with a razor blade.
>  5: Rolled the oil into a ball (This was no easy task..  The oil
>     seemed to liquify whenever I touched it..)
>  6: Smoked the oil in a pipe..  One drag and I was buzzing.  Another
>     and the pipe was clogged up.
>  7: Used a match and pulled out the remaining oil.
>  8: Used another match to set the remaining oil on fire..  It bubbled
>     and burnt on its own.
> 
>  Now for some questions about what happened..
> 
>  -Was it the Alcohol or MJ that was getting me stoned while I
>   was evaporating the mix?
> 
>  -Does rubbing alcohol leave behind any residue when it evaporates?
> 
>  -Does anyone out in net-land know of a better way to smoke the
>   oil?  I'd rather not mix it with tobacco or MJ.
> 
>  -Someone on the net was saying to leave the MJ in alcohol for a month.
>   What I experienced today would tend to make me believe this
>   unnecessary.  Did I lose alot of THC by boiling rather than waiting?
> 
>  -At what temperature does the THC itself start to break down?
> 
>                   Thanks for any help you can offer.
> 
>ANON

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> 
> Awhile back on alt.drugs you posted about having references for how to
> purify MJ into hash.  I was thinking this would be really good to add
> to the ftp site, along with the brownie recipies, etc.

I don't personally own these books; I just saw them in a "books by phone" 
catalog along with a bunch of other books--you know, Knuth's _Art of
Computer Programming_ volumes 1-3, Wirth's _Algorithms + Data Structures_...

_Cannabis Alchemy_, by Gold, 1990

_Great Book of Cannabis by Cherniak_, 1983

_Marijuana Chemistry by Starks_, 1990

I realize the above info is vague, but that's all the books by phone catalog
listed.

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Anonymous writes:

(1)	to utilize leftover marijuana components - sticks, water leaves
	and the like - simply put it in a double boiler with some butter,
	and let it simmer for a few hours, then strain out the butter and
	put it into a plastic container in the fridge. It's easy to make
	several cubes' worth of pot butter in this fashion ... and half a
	cube is about the amount of margerine or butter one uses when one
	is making brownies. No vegetable material actually enters the mix,
	such that the resulting brownies are substantially safer to carry.

	i've spent maybe ten years playing with petroleum ether and sundry
	other solvents, and it's really a waste of time trying to make hash
	with small amounts of marijuana. the cost : effect ratio just isn't
	justifiable. whereas the same materials, when invested in pot butter,
	not only utilize _every_ component, but can get a whole room full of
	people high ... or keep you sane for a few weeks, one a day.

(2)	although this is not confirmed scientifically, i have read that it
	is believed that, when marijuana is burned, some of the CBN or CBD
	is converted to THC by the heating process. i have applied this to
	my own life by taking a handful of water leaves from said plant and
	microwaving them for about three minutes on defrost ( 40% duty cycle,
	which may not correspond to any other microwave oven manufacturer's
	energy usage profile ), blowing on them and stirring them around to
	evaporate the moisture this elicits, then nuking 'em for another
	similar period of time. this seems to make the resulting smoke just
	a bit stronger.

It's really a shame that the Establishment doesn't apply itself to teaching
people how to use drugs intelligently and creatively, since, clearly, such
paths to competence and maturity exist. If I had known ten years ago what I
have learned through much reading and thinking, I would have saved myself a
lot of money, and, more importantly, a lot of grief and self-destructive
behavior which I have, fortunately, survived.

Please perpetuate this information as widely as possible, the better to teach
people how to avoid addictive behavioral sequences while continuing to explore
the realms of awareness in a mature and thoughtful manner.

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anonymous2@anothersite.somewhere.else writes:
>anonymous@somesite.someplace writes:
>>(1)	to utilize leftover marijuana components - sticks, water leaves
>>	and the like - simply put it in a double boiler with some butter,
>>	and let it simmer for a few hours, then strain out the butter and
>>	put it into a plastic container in the fridge. It's easy to make
>>	several cubes' worth of pot butter in this fashion ... and half a
>>	cube is about the amount of margerine or butter one uses when one
>>	is making brownies. No vegetable material actually enters the mix,
>>	such that the resulting brownies are substantially safer to carry.
>>
>>	i've spent maybe ten years playing with petroleum ether and sundry
>>	other solvents, and it's really a waste of time trying to make hash
>>	with small amounts of marijuana. the cost : effect ratio just isn't
>>	justifiable. whereas the same materials, when invested in pot butter,
>>	not only utilize _every_ component, but can get a whole room full of
>>	people high ... or keep you sane for a few weeks, one a day.
>
>I have to disagree on the the 'waste of time' comment. In the past, I
>have had (through an act of GOD) the great fortune of having multiple
>ounces of green leafy material in my possession. As this material was
>not quite suitable for smoking (taste reasons...), I sought out to 
>find a way to make use of it. 
>
>The best method I ver used was really quite simple.
>
>First, I used a blender to turn the material into a fine powder. Then,
>combine the material with enough acetone to completely cover it. Let the
>mix soak for at least one or two days, covered and not near ANY flame
>source. Then, strain the acetone into a crock-pot (slow cooker). It's
>perfectly fine to have some of the finest ground material in the strained
>acetone when done, as this helps the pseudo-hash burn nicely. Now, cook
>the mixture on low heat until ALL the acetone has evaporated. Voila! You
>now have the closest thing to the real mccoy, and it came from LEAF! If
>you want to take it a step further, use a press to make small blocks. This
>is more time consuming than it's worth, though.
>
>Works like a charm, and the result is quite pleasing, to say the least.

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EDITORIAL BY:  lamontg@milton.u.washington.edu

Also, there was much discussion of "double boilers".  You use a double boiler
whenever you are trying to heat, and evaporate volatile liquids.  It should
be reasonably obvious that this is necessary to boil off the [acetone|alcohol|
isopropyl alcohol] which you would mix with the hash.  A double boiler is
simplely a large pot with water in it, which contains a smaller pot with the
"pot" in it.  The water in the large pot boils, heating the smaller pot but
never exceeding the temperature of the boiling point of water.  Thus, there is
a much smaller risk of blowing yourself up.  

When dealing with flammable liquids like these solvents, proper ventalation
is required, and flames are an absolutely contraindicated.  There is a stupid
text file running around the net on how to "make" Methamphetamine, which is
actually a procedure for extracting psudoephedrine.  One of the brilliant
suggestions by the authors of this article was to evaporate by placing a
solvent on a hot water heater.  This is dumb.  Real dumb.  Particularly if
you've got a gas hot water heater with a pilot light.  (Can you say "Kaboom"
boyz & girls?  I knew you could...).  Be a little careful. 

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FROM:  Anonymous
                                     
I don't ever touch marijuana anymore, but I had to comment on the correct
method of smoking hash oil. When I was younger I had a girlfriend who lived
in Calumet, in a little house on the edge of town. Across the road was
an old tailings heap covered in long grass that waved in the wind. Anyway, 
she loved to drink ginger brandy and she loved to get high. She had some
hash oil that summer and we smoked it together. Actually, I had more fun 
smoking it being high afterward. It was really too strong. But the smoking
method was a kick, and it didn't waste any of the oil. 
    We would sit at her kitchen table and heat a small, thin glass pipe
with a crook in it, but no bowl (there had been a bowl once, but it had
broken off, and it was not needed for the method) and heat the lower part 
WITH A PROPANE TORCH. Once the glass was glowing red, one of us would 
dip a wire loop into the hash oil and apply it to the inside of the lower
extremity of the glass tube while the other person inhaled.
    The oil vaporized instantly, but some always precipitated on the inside
of the pipe. After a few hits, we would 'cook' the pipe with the torch along
its length to get this resin out. 
    I maintain that this method, as opposed to others described, is truly
efficient and easy--AND YOU GET TO WAVE A FLAMING PROPANE TORCH AROUND
WHILE GETTING UNREASONABLY HIGH!!

[Disclaimer:  If you need a disclaimer to point out the potential danger of
 doing this, then you're too dumb to live and we can just think of it as
 natural selection in action -- Lamont]

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From: fiend@sideways.welly.gen.nz (Fiend)
Date: Tue, 15 Oct 91 14:24:01   Y
Newsgroups: alt.drugs
Subject: HASH EXPERIMENTATION

I read with interest a compilation of older net messages regarding the usage of
hash oil and hash block.
.
What I say here may not be 100% correct, but if not, I'm sure someone will
straighten me out a few points. Spelling etc etc etc is not my strong point, so
please bare with me.
.
If you have heard it all before, let me know! I'll keep my big trap shut next
tyme! Similarly, NZ supplies of things may be different from USA.
.
OIL.
.
Usually brought in capsules that used to contain prescription drugs. It is very
dark in colour (darker usually is the better quality) but has a slight
brown/green tinge to it depending on process used to make and the quality of
ingrediants.
.
It just so happens that this particular oddity is almost as common as grass in
New Zealand, and represents better value for money. The average J over here
would set you back $6 NZ - That's 1/3 of a B @ $20NZ. I have never payed more
than $40NZ. This represent a good deal of stoning, about double value for money
from the original green!
.
BLOCK.
.
This stuff is not as common as the above. Harder to make, and best made in
*large* quantities - Thus the home manufacturing idea goes out the window,
unless you are charging the earth.
.
Again, $30-40NZ for an average block, although occasionally one or two come
along a little more expensive. I think the expensive stuff (well... These are
street prices, so I know it's ALL looking expensive... Work out our exchange
rate by the way...) comes from inland resources, where as the cheap is Jamican
origin, or therabouts.
.
My prefered of the two? Well, let's just say that you loose $5 worth of hash
for ever $30 you manage to intake. You probably loose less (money speaking) of
oil than block. For that reason - OIL!
.
However, (oh gawd, here we go!) block is truley magnificient when dropping
shavings of the stuff straight onto an element. It isn't really a portable
drug, block, as it needs a lot of work to take.
.
CONSUMPTION.
.
Don't know about you guys, but we just use some sort of funnel placed over the
approx area of burning. Works fine, never bothered with anything more
complex/expensive.
.
A tip for the outdoors - Tin Foil held up by some sticks over a candle, and
just drop block onto it. For oil - Try a laying out some decent size spots (1x1
inch) and get all your mates around with straws!

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