What DIY project did you tinker with today?

[Mr.P]

How about a "DIY project of the day" thread? I'm imagining projects related to incense or perfume making but I suppose any DIY will do!

Today I was checking on my five second year Clary sage plants, they will flower this year and I'm going to make an extract - very excited about this one. There's nothing like good fresh clary.

just a couple of days ago I extracted some cannabis resinoid from flower I grew a couple of years ago. This has a nice aromatic pungency, smells a bit like hash but with a variety of other notes as well.

what have you all been up to?

 

[Shiningrobes]

What does tobacco flower smell like?

 

[Mr.P]

What does tobacco flower smell like?

for the fragrant species, the fresh flowers smell a little bit like Lily and a gentle fraction of ylang. Very little nicotine in this type, and the typical high nicotine type in my experience has flowers with almost no aroma.


The absolute ex enfleurage smells quite different yet still brings the flowers to mind. Floral yet kind of heavy oily waxy and maybe even a bit woody due to the literal tobacco aromas that are subtly blended into it. it's not entirely unlike oud because it's marrying floral with waxy and woody

 

[Mr.P]

OK don't laugh at me @mesOUD but here is my rig for trying to distill some clary sage over water and float a little oil… I will pack the whole column and the kettle so it will be a combination of Hydro and steam distillation I guess.

 

[mesOUD]

OK don't laugh at me @mesOUD but here is my rig for trying to distill some clary sage over water and float a little oil… I will pack the whole column and the kettle so it will be a combination of Hydro and steam distillation I guess.


View attachment 56051View attachment 56052

Man big or small,pro level or amateur
İ have big respect for all these projects
This is sweat

 

[Mr.P]

 

[Mr.P]

It's great having a collaborator on projects, makes all the difference in the world. In this case I know another retired scientist with a little bit too much time at weird times of day on their hand and they have kind of become hooked on the extraction and distillation thing, a new avenue of exploration for them.


Last week we were talking about trying to conceive some kind of a project to approach systematically, thoroughly, scientifically.

One option could be seriously studying rates of change in various extractions and macerations to come up with data to inform the process, so people are not relying on best guesses when trying to decide how long to let things steep before filtering etc.

Another example might be making a complete set of oils from the wood and needles of all of the species of evergreens in the local forests. Or perhaps the same set of plants but just the roots.

Anybody have ideas for some projects to undertake? Couple of bored dudes with stills and extractors, access to the woodlands and general raw materials, fair amount of spare time for this kind of stuff… taking suggestions for anything that does not involve very high costs.

Also for whatever it's worth if someone needs something extracted, I'd be happy to discuss that.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

When i tried to build an extraction table i first went the mathematical route, there are some underlying phenomena that can be expressed in a formula (with awful lot of parameters). But one parameter that can set the extraction time all over the place is the particle size. Turned out that the math route was pointless unless using a sieve to make sure you know the particle size.
I figured that aint the way to go and instead collected empirical data from all over the web. At least i now have a rough guide. But i already experienced taking 'coarse' to literal and the result is way off.
Anyways, you're welcome to verify and correct it 🙂 I would find something else less tedious though, if i were in your shoes..

Ofcourse it would be very interesting to see scent profiles of various trees, needles/leaves versus wood versus bark. That would pretty much be an extraction endeavour, i think. Barks are not famous for their oil contents (with a few exeptions).

Guess you both best dream up something that satisfies your own curiosity, best way to keep it fun.

 

[MaxFromHolland]

Another idea is about the somewhat paradox use of a rotovap or other apparatus like a vacuumchamber: same setup can be used to infuse alcohol with scent or taste (gin) of botanicals - or - to seperate alcohol and scent from each other. It all boils😁 down to temperature, evaporating alcohol with or without boiling it. Would be nice to read about what happens when, how to distinguish both phases, perhaps by measuring rate of evaporation, best practices etc.

 

[Mr.P]

Here is what I am getting after thoroughly vacuuming the tobacco flower solution to remove every trace of alcohol. Alcohol is long gone, two phases remain, neither is aqueous. I have to keep reminding myself that this sat for a long time as a film on a petri dish under a strong vacuum (where water boils freely) because my standard interpretation with the situation like this is oil floating on water or an aqueous solution. I don't know what it is, but it can't be that i think

 

[Joe]

Just a heads up that if you're interested in detailed information about projects that I'm doing, I will be posting those on Instagram moving forward. Sharing these long DIY posts in a general interest forum growingly feels narcissistic and weird (though it's nice seeing there are a couple of other folks who occasionally do so as well). It made a little more sense when I was trying to promote my brand but that is a thing of the past at this point.

I'm happy to discuss stuff if there's an interest but random detailed "here's what I'm up to" posts will be over there on Instagram where they belong... in the meanwhile I am sure there will be plenty to discuss here about the various attars and ouds circulating out there!

I can never tell if my signature works on this site or not because I never see anybody else's signatures even though I've set my preferences to allow me to view them. As it probably says right down there in my signature, the Instagram account is @wabisabikouki

I actually get a lot from your posts too. And I think you’re earlier idea of a DYIY Project of the Day is pretty fantastic. I’d post in it. And share from what I’m researching or reading (learning about Trade Secrets for businesses born from your post about copyright and lists/formulas—if youre eligibility is met, and the standards are low, you’ve essentially protected, legally in the US, your formula. I’d post stuff like that as well as my process. I think perfumers’ process is interesting to learn if one cares to share them. ) 😂

 

[Joe]

for the fragrant species, the fresh flowers smell a little bit like Lily and a gentle fraction of ylang. Very little nicotine in this type, and the typical high nicotine type in my experience has flowers with almost no aroma.


The absolute ex enfleurage smells quite different yet still brings the flowers to mind. Floral yet kind of heavy oily waxy and maybe even a bit woody due to the literal tobacco aromas that are subtly blended into it. it's not entirely unlike oud because it's marrying floral with waxy and woody

I don’t know of anyone who has put it in such definite terms. I need some now—the ex from enfleurage.

 

[Mr.P]

I actually get a lot from your posts too. And I think you’re earlier idea of a DYIY Project of the Day is pretty fantastic. I’d post in it. And share from what I’m researching or reading (learning about Trade Secrets for businesses born from your post about copyright and lists/formulas—if youre eligibility is met, and the standards are low, you’ve essentially protected, legally in the US, your formula. I’d post stuff like that as well as my process. I think perfumers’ process is interesting to learn if one cares to share them. ) 😂

Thanks… I'll definitely keep the updates coming, but also trying to put a little more energy into Instagram posts and try to learn about some easy to use alternatives for hosting some of the detailed stuff that doesn't need to be on the forum.

 

[Joe]

Thanks… I'll definitely keep the updates coming, but also trying to put a little more energy into Instagram posts and try to learn about some easy to use alternatives for hosting some of the detailed stuff that doesn't need to be on the forum.

Yeah, I can understand that.

 

[Mr.P]

I don’t know of anyone who has put it in such definite terms. I need some now—the ex from enfleurage.

My neighbor (whose name also happens to be Joe) did most of the legwork in terms of cultivating, collecting, infusing the oil, and transferring to alcohol. I just helped him clean it up and concentrate it, so the ball is in his court what to do with it, I believe he wants to sell it so that he can keep mucking about. Either a bunch of small samples or a larger lot, to be determined.

This is another type of thing that I should keep on the Instagram side of things. Excess from the experiments will occasionally be listed there for sale

 

[Joe]

My neighbor (whose name also happens to be Joe) did most of the legwork in terms of cultivating, collecting, infusing the oil, and transferring to alcohol. I just helped him clean it up and concentrate it, so the ball is in his court what to do with it, I believe he wants to sell it so that he can keep mucking about. Either a bunch of small samples or a larger lot, to be determined.

This is another type of thing that I should keep on the Instagram side of things. Excess from the experiments will occasionally be listed there for sale

Okay. Since we’re already friends on IG I’ll keep my eye on the notifications from your account.

 

[Sproaty]

Just a heads up that if you're interested in detailed information about projects that I'm doing, I will be posting those on Instagram moving forward. Sharing these long DIY posts in a general interest forum growingly feels narcissistic and weird (though it's nice seeing there are a couple of other folks who occasionally do so as well). It made a little more sense when I was trying to promote my brand but that is a thing of the past at this point.

I'm happy to discuss stuff if there's an interest but random detailed "here's what I'm up to" posts will be over there on Instagram where they belong... in the meanwhile I am sure there will be plenty to discuss here about the various attars and ouds circulating out there!

I can never tell if my signature works on this site or not because I never see anybody else's signatures even though I've set my preferences to allow me to view them. As it probably says right down there in my signature, the Instagram account is @wabisabikouki

hey yea I see you signature but your instagram isn't a link - could be worth changing it as I would have to search it on Google to find as opposed to just following the link

 

[Joe]

Okay. Since we’re already friends on IG I’ll keep my eye on the notifications from your account.I know I already commented. Just wanted to say Joe/Joseph is a good name. I got it from my dad, a bit narcissistic tbh , who got it from his dad.

 

[Mr.P]

I have another opportunity to work on something with a colleague this afternoon, I may do another clary distillation, I may try distilling the mountain mint in my yard, and we also have some more tobacco flower infused alcohol to make into absolute.

Does anyone have any practical experience distilling mint?

 

[Mr.P]

Tobacco flower absolute from enfleurage (low temp immersion type) - fresh batch today, this represents about 300 flowers' worth of oil

 

[DubOudh]

hey yea I see you signature but your instagram isn't a link - could be worth changing it as I would have to search it on Google to find as opposed to just following the link

Was just checking out your latest video on your gardening project. Looking good @Sproaty
Although shooting in portrait mode is understandable for Instagram etcetra....it's brutal everywhere else....😇