LOL, I'm here for you Mr. P. 🙂

Appreciate it! I perceive this as a sophisticated crowd so I am hesitant to put anything out here until I get a little more experience under my belt.

I do feel like I'm learning something as I go but I'm still in the "holy crap this is all so unbelievably complex these blends are getting out of hand" stage which is why I keep rotating small batches through a local market as I try to figure out what really works and what is crude or unbalanced.

The constant desensitization to what I work with is infuriating though. I have a backlog of about 130 different accords / blends I want to test out, but I can only smell so many things in a day.
 
Frankincense & Myrrh
[Ouddict.com] Incense of the Day
 
An experiment I made using a new machine:
Three pieces of super or A grade mersuke asgon gyrinops oud was placed in a vacuum sealing bag, half an ml of mysore and half an ml of 40% benzoin were added to the bag.
The contents were vacuum sealed, then placed in a glass with hot water (around 80c) until the water cooled.
The bag was then opened, and the now soaked oud was burnt on a cool coal.

Results : it smelled quite nice, you’re first hit with the milky sandalwood then the sweet benzoin, then quickly the woody earthy oud kicks in.

Tips for the future: experiment with different ratios of oil to oud, and experiment with leaving it in the bag for longer (weeks instead of minutes) to allow the oil to permeate more, and experiment with different oils and sizes of oud.
 
Shoyeido King’s Aroma

This is just a perfect, daily burn. For my tastes it simply doesn’t get better than this. If there’s a blend that anyone can suggest to top the mastery of this recipe I’m all ears because I haven’t found it yet.
Agreed completely. One heck of an incense! And it doesn't achieve a good smell by being loaded up with one good smelling material it's just a beautiful balance like you say
 
An experiment I made using a new machine:
Three pieces of super or A grade mersuke asgon gyrinops oud was placed in a vacuum sealing bag, half an ml of mysore and half an ml of 40% benzoin were added to the bag.
The contents were vacuum sealed, then placed in a glass with hot water (around 80c) until the water cooled.
The bag was then opened, and the now soaked oud was burnt on a cool coal.

Results : it smelled quite nice, you’re first hit with the milky sandalwood then the sweet benzoin, then quickly the woody earthy oud kicks in.

Tips for the future: experiment with different ratios of oil to oud, and experiment with leaving it in the bag for longer (weeks instead of minutes) to allow the oil to permeate more, and experiment with different oils and sizes of oud.
Interesting! Are you pulling a vacuum in order to ensure better contact between the water bath and the materials being extracted by eliminating all air pockets,, or are you thinking that there will be better infiltration of the wood pores under a vacuum?
 
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Interesting! Are you pulling a vacuum in order to ensure better contact between the water bath and the materials being extracted, or are you thinking that there will be better infiltration of the wood pores under a vacuum?
The original intent was to force inject the oils in the porous, light wood. I thought about the hot water bath after I sealed it. The idea is that the hot water bath with reduce the viscosity and therefore the surface tension of the oil, making it travel more inside the wood.

Another experiment batch, 1g of Merauke, 0.5ml of New Caledonian sandalwood.
[Ouddict.com] Incense of the Day

I’ll leave this for a couple weeks.
 
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The original intent was to force inject the oils in the porous, light wood. I thought about the hot water bath after I sealed it. The idea is that the hot water bath with reduce the viscosity and therefore the surface tension of the oil, making it travel more inside the wood.

Another experiment batch, 1g of Merauke, 0.5ml of New Caledonian sandalwood.
View attachment 42730
I’ll leave this for a couple weeks.
Seems like a great way to do it because it pulls it all into close proximity and minimizes or eliminates air pockets
 
Seems like a great way to do it because it pulls it all into close proximity and minimizes or eliminates air pockets
It quite literally sucks the oil into the wood! You can see air bubbles escaping from the wood as the oil is pushed in. A similar technique is used to stabilize wood with resins

If I wanted to apply my method on a bigger scale I’d need a larger vacuum chamber/pot like the one in the video.
 
It quite literally sucks the oil into the wood! You can see air bubbles escaping from the wood as the oil is pushed in. A similar technique is used to stabilize wood with resins

If I wanted to apply my method on a bigger scale I’d need a larger vacuum chamber/pot like the one in the video.
That's excellent - you will be making nice rich bakhoor!
 
It's been a heavy hitters incense day. After Beckoning Spring I moved onto some incense that I bought in Hanoi from the same store I bought the agarwood from. It's simply called Do Xi Ha Tinh. Very rich and complex agarwood scent. A real treasure and treat to burn these. I've now moved onto Mysore dark meat and ambergris sticks from Kangiiten. These were a limited batch released last year. @-Renton- convinced me to spend the cash on them and I'm glad I did. I don't often pull these out but incense is made to be enjoyed not stored away gathering dust.
 
KyaraZen Dreams of Fragrant Harbour - Not sure if it's the dry air, or the spicy meal I was still recovering from, but immediately after lighting, I got the coldest aroma I've experienced from these sticks yet! Paired with that sweet citrus, almost orange-y like Sinensis profile these sticks are famous for, usually I get something more subdued, refined and subtle, but I guess not today!
 
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