does anyone know if one could use baking soda instead of lye to convert to base. i read a "dry tek" where you can use baking soda, but would it be strong enough in a normal "wet tek"?
No it will not work. It's like putting acetic acid inside your battery instead of sulfuric acid. You need a Strong base to make the conversion, that is why the pH needs to be ~13-14. That is why NaOH or KOH is used over NaHCO3 or NH4OH. Now using Na2CO3(washing soda[sodium carbonate]) to clean your product of any extra NaOH/KOH is okay so that you have a cleaner product. But you need to stick with the big boys when you are using andy TEK whether it be A/B or STB .
damn, i guess ill try using washing soda to clean it. im tying to find a all natural tek, there is one with d-limonene thats a lot better then using naptha, but it still uses a strong base that could be harmful.
Well, i look at it this way. With what you could find in your tap water I would not be to worried about using a Base that is used to make soap and other great things. Do it right and you will have clean spice.
there's a thread on the lycaeum for a naphtha and lye free extraction method, but you will still need Ca(OH)2.
