How can I make ice hash for less than $5 outlay?

Cost? - if the ice cubes are free then it should not cost any more than a few bucks for the small scrap of mesh needed to separate the water and resin heads from the vegetative matter, I told you it was low cost!

• Electric mixer (or 2 x tireless arms)
• Refrigerator (or if you are in the bush, substitute the refrigerator with a bucket of take-away ice and water)
• Ice cubes
• Glass bowl
• Soup ladle
• Teaspoon
• 3 or 4 tissues
• Blow dryer (or let naturally dry)
• A piece of polyester monofilament fibre mesh - 30 cm x 30 cm, (1 ft x 1 ft), 100 lines per inch mesh or " 100 mesh " (approx. 155 micron size), available from all screen printing/art shop supplies and from online ....

Note:
Don't use pantyhose material or silk scarves because the hole openings may not be the right (consistent) size to allow all the resin heads to fall through and keep most of the vegetative matter out ....the correct screen mesh with monofilament fibre strands is the most important aspect of any ice hash collection method - get the correct mesh, a small piece will last for years.

• Wet or dry leaves, manicuring trim and/or lower fluffy "pop corn buds" ...at least two handfuls

How to make it:

Place the fresh or dry herbs in a sealed plastic bag in the freezer for at least an hour.

Put equal amounts of freezing cold water, ice cubes and herb (Put herbs in last)into an electric mixer, blend on low speed for 2 - 3 mins
or
Use a medium sized glass or plastic jar with a screw on lid and manually shake vigorously for several minutes.

(Note: "disappointing green slop" instead of "tan coloured wet sand" can occur with too much mixing and poor starting material)

Slowly pour the green liquid through the mesh screen into the glass bowl, the vegetative matter is caught on the mesh as the resin loaded water passes through the small mesh holes.

Put the glass bowl into the freezer section for about 45 minutes, tapping the bowl occasionally to allow the frozen resin heads to fall and collect on the bottom of the glass bowl as they are heavier than the leaf matter that floats to the top.

Very carefully ladle or siphon out, 95% of the liquid from the bowl, take care not to muddy up the water otherwise you'll get more contaminates in there ....then slowly teaspoon out the last water and use a tissue to suck up the remaining moisture.

Blow dry the remaining moist ice hash on medium for a few minutes , then collect it all together into a lump with your index finger. Or place the bowl in a warm place for a day to let the resin dry out.

Please note:
The results may vary with longer or shorter mixing times, slow or fast mixing speeds, using hand shaking, drills or electric mixers, wet or dry material, letting it sit longer or shorter, by using another smaller sized mesh to separate the resin from the water etc - read and experiment, this is just a very low cost method of ice hash extraction, there are many methods.

You can also repeat the whole process with fresh ice cubes to get a little extra ice hash as well.

With all things being equal ...this method will get you same amount of "ice hash" as any other more expensive ice hash extraction methods and "kits"

....the only thing different is that all the ice hash extracted will end up as a single grade lump ...not in 3 different grades like the bag kits ....I can live with that! especially that this method can be done with small amounts of harvest "trim" to start with which is ideal for the average small grower who gets only a shoe-box or two full of trim for each year.

This might be a good method for those who want to try out ice hash extraction before splashing out and buying a set of professionally made ice extraction bags.

Recently AF flat screened a small amount of high quality trim and got a small amount of lovely sticky resin that pressed into "hash" very easily and set that aside. AF further "worked" the remaining trim over and over the screen until there seemed to be no more resin passing through, just more broken up vegetative matter and worked that powder into a ball with a bit of spit and thumb pressure in AF's palm. The remaining trim was "shaken, not stirred" in the above ice method and returned a small amount of pure light coloured, sticky ice hash - definitely worthwhile!

it's nice with ice!