Back when I was cooking off in the toolies I noticed that once the temp got below about -45c we would have to start warming the propane tanks. Curious, I put a propane torch out in the cold for a half hour, and lo and behold I poured myself a half cup of propane, it had the consistency of a light jello and burned even after I poured it on the snow. My questions are:
Would this be a solvent?, being a liquid hydrocarbon I would think so, and would it be polar or non polar, ie: could I use it to make rightious weed oil in a matter of hours?
Also do you think any of the smelly additive would remain in the finished product?
Cheers.

that would do the trick, if you can keep it cold enough. it's just an alkane, so it's absolutely non-polar. the only problem with butane is that it boils at a very low temperature at normal pressures, but this isn't a problem to you, i guess. try it out for the hash oil idea & tell us how it goes... the only problem i could possibly foresee is that the low temperature would hinder anything as a solvent.

Yup yup and yup.

But it would have to be motherfucking cold to use it as a solvent for any kind of reaction at atmospheric pressure. Butane would be the best bet if it gets really cold in your neck of the woods. I mean up here it drops below -40 very rarely, and I'm probably the Northernmost person on this board.

Supercritical THC extractions with propane might be cleaner than those with butane, probably not to the degree of beeing worth it though.

The camp where I figured this out was, an oil rig camp, just outside of a place called Indian Cabins, about 70 k south of the territories border, for almost a week it was totally clear and never cracked -45. I will be up there again this winter and will bring a 1/2 lb of clippings with me to play with, my plan is to find a piece of pvc pipe that will fit the end of a tiger torch, tape a few layers of screens to the other end, put the clippings inside and go to town. I have not figured out how to get rid of fine particulates, but then again I have no experience doing anything other than iso extractions, so this should be fun!

Sounds cool...very very cool.

To trap particulate matter plug the bottom of the pipe loosely with cotton balls using the screen to hold it in. The propane will go right through loose cotton. A sock would probably even work.

I took a year off school to work and ended up spending my winter in the patch, North of Fort St. John (Ladyfern-huge new find two years ago) and my first week was spent in -50 and lower temps. Then it stabilized around -40 to -45 for the rest of the season. I was running a chain saw in that shit. What do you do culinary?

So cold everyone leaves their trucks running 24/7.

I am a cook, one of the few indoor jobs up there. I love the sense of adventure I get as we drive farther and farther into the bush, the days are long and some of the tool pushs' are real knobs, but I really get a kick out of doing something that is "not for everybody". Precursors abound, I doubt the anhydrous used to react out H2S is denatured, anything diesel is started with ether, and I bet a lot of the alchohols and solvents would help in a synth. Too bad I did't take organic chem! I have always been facinated with drug chemistry, if this board had been around when I was a reckless teenager all of Penticton would have been kyped on my product, I even stole the glassware even though I had no idea what to do with it! Thanks for your help with the extraction idea. One more question if I could: I have had "cherry oil" few times, it is reddish brown when smeared on a paper, so I suspect the solvent is only taking red chlorophyll or is changing the chlorophyll in some way. Also it was more transparent than any oil I have ever had, you could see a light through a fiver. It was very potent, 1 toke got you a four hour "goofy" buzz, I found it to be very relaxing so it is probibly missing some of the cannabidols that metabolize in your liver to produce stronger thc re-enforcing effects. (this is just a theory) Any idea as to the solvent/method?
Cheers

Cherry oil? Hmm. sounds very clean probably extracted with butane or a polar extract that had been re-extracted many times with alcohols and brine/basic and acid water washes. Something like that. Maybe it was re-washed and that took out some of the actives which account for the goofy buzz. Or it could be dyed honey oil from butane, something like that.

I suggest doing the extract with propane and taking a small amount of the product and boiling it with 15 percent sulfuric acid for an hour or so then isolating the oil again. I've heard that this hydrolyses some of the THCdiols into active THC isomers. Worth a try to compare.

Camp cooks rock! I've worked out of half a dozen camps in the oilfield and in the local logging bush and the food makes the whole experience tolerable. (Having every single satelite channel in camp is nice too)