How to Roll a Joint — A 5 Step Guide to Rolling a Perfect Joint

How To Roll A Joint

So you want to learn how to roll a joint? Well, my child, you’ve come to the right place. Rolling a perfect joint is an ancient art. Smoking a joint is one of the most enjoyable ways to consume cannabis. If assembled correctly, smoking a joint can be a relaxing and fulfilling experience.  Learning how to roll a joint is simple. There are a few steps you need to follow. In this article, I shall be teaching you how to roll a joint in just five easy steps. Once you can understand and execute these steps, you will become a joint rolling master.

How To Roll A Joint Step 1: Gather Your Materials

Cannabis (Ground Up) – #1

Before you begin rolling a perfect joint, you need to gather your crafting materials. First, and most importantly, you will need cannabis. Any strain of cannabis will work, but make sure the cannabis is ground up. To grind up your cannabis, you can use a grinder, scissors, and even your bare hands. Make sure your cannabis is ground to a fine, sawdust like state before you pack it into your joint. If the cannabis isn’t ground up enough, you will have trouble wrapping your rolling paper around it. Cannabis that isn’t ground up properly will be awkward to roll, because of it’s irregular shape.

Rolling Papers – #2

When you have successfully acquired the right cannabis, you need to find some quality rolling papers. The right paper is essential to rolling a perfect joint. There are many brands of rolling papers to choose from, and whichever one you roll with is completely up to you. Rolling papers can be made out of different materials; these materials can affect the taste and feel of your joint. Papers made from wood pulp have a unique taste and are easy to roll with. While papers made from rice burn slower with a less apparent taste. With all the different types of paper available to roll with, it may be worthwhile to do some experimenting into which you prefer the most.

Filter Paper – #3

Next, we get to our filter paper. The filter is very simple to make, but you need to be a little selective with the kind of paper you use to craft it if you’re interested in rolling the perfect joint. Regular office paper can be used to make a filter, but a more durable type of paper is optimal. Many prefer to use paper with tougher stocks, like business cards or advertisement flyers. That’s right Chino’s Pizza and Shwarma, we’re rolling a joint using your restaurant’s menus and there’s nothing you can do about it! Come at me, bro! If the filter paper is too flimsy and weak, it might collapse under its own weight and prevent any smoke from flowing through it.

Additionally, pre-made filters are an easy option for rolling a perfect joint. You can buy at just about any head shop. For those of you new smokers, these are shops where you can buy bongs and pipes, not illegal opium dens where you purchase shrunken heads. These filters are often referred to as “W” filters. They have a clever little “W” shape crafted into the filter that welcomes inhalation airflow while keeping cannabis herb from leaving the joint. I like to think the W stands for ‘welcome’, as in “Welcome home! I rolled you perfect joint!” or “welcome to my lungs smoke! Please stay a while!”.”W” filters can be crafted by anyone as long as the material you are using is flexible and strong enough.  In this tutorial, I shall be using a business card for the sake of simplicity and accessibility. Preferably use a business card of someone who you don’t plan on calling in the future. This is essential to rolling a perfect joint.

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Pokey Stick – #4

Finally, we arrive at our last material, the pokey. A pokey can be anything long and thin enough to enter the open side of a cone-shaped joint to pack the cannabis in… Get your mind out of the gutter! Packing in the cannabis is an essential step to achieve a super packed, juicy, baseball bat of a joint. Items like pencils, keys, sticks and bobby pins can be used for the packing process. I personally use the trusty Raw Clipper lighter. It has a pokey built right into it, and its the perfect length for rolling a perfect joint.  Once you have gathered all of the necessary building materials, you will be ready to craft your joint.

Do you have everything you need? Good! Strap on in! We’re going to learn how to roll a joint.

How To Roll A Joint Step 2:

Filter for your joint

A proper filter is essential to rolling a perfect joint. First, you need to craft your filter. Grab your sheet of durable paper, and rip out a small rectangle shape. A rectangle is like a square but longer and sassier. For a visual depiction of what a rectangle looks like, click here.

This should be roughly half an inch by half an inch.  You can make it smaller or larger depending on what you prefer. I personally like to keep the filter smaller and more manageable. If your filter is too large, you may have trouble keeping it into your joint as you roll it. If your filter is too small, you may have trouble keeping it in the desired cylindrical shape. Shape and size are key to rolling the perfect joint.

When you have your little filter rectangle is the right size, roll it into a cylinder. When rolled, the filter paper should overlap a little bit. This ensures that the filter is enclosed. The last crucial step to constructing the filter is licking the edge to seal it.  Licking the filter shut helps to bind it together. So make sure to lick it slowly.  This will make working with the filter much easier. You don’t want the filter to unravel while you are trying to assemble the rest of the joint. Cause that’s just plain messy. Now that we’ve completed the first two steps of rolling a perfect joint, we’re on to the assembly.

How To Roll A Joint Step 3:

Assemble the Joint

Completing this step is just a matter of putting all the right ingredients in the right places but it is essential to rolling a perfect joint. First, take out a single rolling paper. The rolling paper should have a strip of glue on one of its edges. This glue-like edge becomes sticky and smelly when wet. Make sure that the sticky edge is on the inside of the joint, and not the outside. This can be understandably confusing. Place the filter you rolled on one side of the rolling paper. This will be the side of the joint you smoke out of.

Next, you need to put cannabis into the joint. This is the green stuff that gets you high. Grab your cannabis and distribute it evenly along and inside the paper. When this process is complete, you should have an open rolling paper with a filter on one edge and cannabis sitting all the way to the other edge. Use your finger to push off cannabis that is piled too high. If you have too much cannabis in your joint before the rolling process, your joint can burst from the seems with cannabis while you’re crafting it. To avoid this catastrophe, distribute the cannabis evenly and equally atop the open paper. You need to really eyeball this one, and it may take a few tries to get a feel for how much cannabis is just enough. Eventually, you will get a good idea of exactly how much cannabis you need for rolling a perfect joint. The rest of the process of how to roll a joint is manageable enough.

How To Roll A Joint Step 4:

Roll and Seal the Joint

This is one of the most gratifying parts of the rolling procedure and essential to rolling a perfect joint. In this step, you will finalize the shape of your joint. Keep in mind that you want to aim to make your joint cone shaped. The cone-shaped joint is optimal for structural strength, packing potential and roll-ability. So the first part of this step is the compressing of the cannabis in the joint with one’s thumbs. Compressing the cannabis throughout the joint ensures your rolling paper will roll snugly around it with an airtight fit. This is essential to rolling a perfect joint. The last thing you want is air pockets forming because your joint wasn’t compressed enough. Air pockets lead to an uneven smoke, requiring constant maintenance and re-igniting.

Compressing may seem simple at first, but it can get a bit tricky. Before compressing the cannabis, you need to make sure you are holding the unrolled joint in the correct fashion. Holding the joint incorrectly while compressing could compromise the entire joint, and it may fall apart on you. To avoid such a disaster, make sure you are holding the joint with balance and care. Essentially, treat it like you’re cradling your own child. One of your hands should have a thumb pressed on the filter and your fingers cradling the bottom. This ensures the filter won’t fall out. Slightly tilt your hand cradling the filter side of the joint so that the open, non-filtered end is pointing slightly up. This ensures gravity is helping your hand keep the joint steady. Once you have the joint balanced, use your other thumb to push the non-glue side of the rolling paper over the cannabis in the joint. Using the paper over the skin of your thumb ensures the cannabis won’t stick to you.

Take your time compressing and apply pressure slowly. Compress too fast and hard and you risk ripping the rolling paper or displacing the cannabis. You want to compress the cannabis into a nice even shape that reflects the cone shape your joint will be. When compressing for shape, reference the form of a baseball bat. Study it… become one with it. This will be thin on the side of the filter, but gradually and evenly tapering outward as you get to the open end.

Once the cannabis is compressed, you need to bring the joint up to your mouth and give it a clean lick all the way across the glued, gummed edge of the rolling paper.  Licking the glue edge to seal is a crucial step. So lick it slowly. If you miss any spots while licking, the dry parts of the joint will not bind, and the joint will unravel before you. Apply too much saliva, and the rolling paper could become too wet and saturated, making it crumble and under the weight of your finger pressure thus compromising the herbal contents inside.

Once you lick it just right, you need to roll it all together. Use both of your thumbs to roll the compressed shaft of the joint into the licked half of the joint. The licked half should overlap the dry half of the joint until it feels snug and airtight. Once the two halves of the joint are bridged, make sure you run a finger along the overlapping licked edge to get rid of any holes or folds that are not sticking together. When this entire step is finished, the joint will really start to take shape. If performed correctly, you should have a seemingly complete joint with the nonfiltered end open. And there you have it. You know how to roll a joint

How To Roll A Joint Step 4:

Pack the Joint

This step ensures your joint is fully packed to the brim with cannabis, essential for rolling the perfect joint. This step is relatively optional if you are in a rush, but essential if you want that fully loaded cannon of a joint. To complete this step, grab your pokey and gently compress the cannabis that is already inside. You don’t want to push too hard here, because too much packing pressure could lead to cannabis bursting from the seems of the joint you just sealed shut.

Another cannabis war crime you want to avoid is packing it too tightly. If the joint is too tight, you risk blocking airflow from the flame to the filter; this makes the joint effectively impossible to smoke. You want to pack the cannabis with enough space to deliver the smoke through the joint all the way to your mouth. After you’ve packed the cannabis that already sits in the joint, pick up some more ground cannabis from your stash and drop it into the top, and pack again.

It is here where having a cone-shaped joint with a large opening on one end really makes things easier. Rinse and repeat this process until the joint is fully loaded all the way to the top! Leave a little excess paper at the top so you can twist the joint shut. Grab the excess paper at the top of the joint with your thumb and index finger, squeeze them together and twist. This ensures that cannabis won’t fall out of your joint, and it is safe for transport. This is the final step to crafting, packing and sealing your joint. Now you know that rolling a perfect joint isn’t so hard after all.

How To Roll A Joint Step 5:

Smoke the Joint!

So your joint has been rolled, packed and sealed!  This last step is by far the most fun part of the process. The smoking of the joint itself! There are far fewer restrictions to this part of the procedure, and you can get very creative with how you consume the joint. Many people roll joints specifically for parties because they are easy to pass and share among large groups of people. You can also use the joint you rolled to get yourself through boring events like your girlfriend’s great aunt’s 75th anniversary or your room mate’s cousin’s daughter’s baptism. You are armed with a cannabis hand cannon in your pocket! You can conquer anything! Enjoy this step to the fullest!

I have linked a few more tutorials below.  I hope these folks can help you as well!