That book by Clarke is my favorite. Old school rules.
I will choose properly aged brick hash or cannoli rolls over the high tech extracts ANY day.
Things I have learned over the years as I am about to press my 2020 harvest next week.
a) Cure and age your material like you planned to sell it as top shelf smoke. I try and grow enough that I can cure my harvest for a full year before step #2
b) Better that your buds are too DRY than even a hair too wet.
c) FREEZE the crap out your buds before, during and after the kief sifting process. I have a dedicated freezer where ALL Kief is stored until I am ready to press it.
d) Frozen buds get pulsed with three short bursts in a fancy coffee grinder then go back into the freezer until sifted. I found sifters made of metal so they are so cold my hands stick to them before I use a nylon brush to agitate the trichomes into kief. I get better quality doing this by hand than my fancy $600 tumbler.
e) Put frozen kief into a pre-form press that has been heated until its almost too hot to hold. I usually heat it in a double boiler. Using a wine bottle full of boiling water can work well too for small batches.
f) press, remove, fold in half, repeat
g) if it crumbles its too impure or not warm enough, if it sticks to everything like goo it may be too hot. (I like my hash blonde)
h) finished product should cool to room temp then into a glass container and BACK in the freezer.
I dont add oils, alcohol or use ovens. Parchment paper in the pre-press works nice.
For a BIG batch I combine several small bricks using a device from the 19th century called a 'Copy Press' that I restored myself...it looks just like this and cost me $75
