First BLAB tek attempt

[curious1]

I am also an absolute noob [so far just perfecting 69rons food safe mescaline tek - dont laugh I am proud of it! lol] ....I have interests in various altered states and spiritual experiences yet I am not chemically inclined and I dont have access to the variety of illicit sources [whose purity and pedigree usually leaves much to be desired] needed ...I understand both viewpoints and both are correct - food safety, purity and KNOWING exactly what I am ingeating are supremely important for me ... without this site my life would not be filled with as much excitement and anticipation - thank you everyone as we all make this site worthwile [although some of us' like me will always be followers rather than pioneers]...soon i am going to try BLAB and I cant wait!8)

 

[Ice House]

take your time follow the steps. BLAB is the way to go.

 

[Heretic]

Swim has obviously spent too much time at sciencemandess and studying =p and has forgotten not everyone finds it as interesting as he does. Keep It Simple Stupid is a good one but he can't help but shake his head at people smoking decidedly ghetto extracts full of lye and metal contaminates but then again thats their choice. Understanding the processes allows you to modify them on the go and solve any problems that pop up but as you said the average joe won't care about that, he just wants spice quick and in a good yield so he follows instructions and gets there. If swim could change only one thing it would have to be people's attitudes towards purity and rank it higher on the list.

I love you.

 

[Myco]

Not a real A/B? What are the criteria for a real A/B?

A proper A/B would be when a full extraction is performed to get the product in acidic solution with the bark strained out and then that solution is basified. The criteria is that acid is being used for extraction from the bark, but most likely, the bulk of the extraction in BLAB is occurring in much the same way as STB. SWIM has extensive experience doing extractions in a similar way to BLAB and had a preference for it when doing wet extractions (used to think of it as a hybrid A/B/STB, but now considers it as a pretreated STB...PTSTB?). For example, SWIM's method of extraction is a limtek, pretreated with heat and vinegar.

Where the terminology gets really confusing is when A/B is used to describe extraction by basifying and salting out of the extraction solvent with an acid. SWIM thinks that it would be easier to understand that process as simply STB, limtek or drytek (depending on the method of extraction by basification) followed by salting (by FASA, FASW, FASIPA, vinegar or what have you).

The scientific community generally doesn't make a whole lot of distinctions between the types of extractions using either an acid or a base or both, as far as SWIM can tell (STB seems to be distinct to entheogenic extraction community), but this community's need for clarification and distinction greatly exceeds their own, considering the need for accessibility at a much more amateur level.

I really agree with your points on terminology. Expanding on the common connotations of A/B here in the forums is just confusing for new readers. Has been for me, but Iam learning quickly.

Also like the PTSTB idea--- I didn't understand the distinction before.

Great posts in this thread.
-M