How to Roll a Joint in Basic & Advanced Rolling Techniques

Rolling a joint is an important skill that every stoner should learn, and all you need is a lighter and some rolling papers. When you learn how to do it on your own, you can enjoy marijuana anytime you want, and it will take a few minutes after a little practice.

What is a Joint?

A joint is among the iconic ways of consuming cannabis, and it’s a great method of enjoying the flavor of your flower. A joint is a cannabis cigarette that is hand-rolled by an individual. Still, some dispensaries usually offer pre-rolls or joints that have been rolled in-shop for consumers to purchase.

A spliff is cannabis joint with both cannabis and tobacco, while a blunt is a cigar hollowed out and filled with cannabis. Blunts can also be made by rolling some cannabis in the dark and heavy tobacco papers used for cigars.

How much weed is in a joint?

When rolling a joint as a starter, using a half gram of weed with the normal or 1.75 inch sized rolling papers. The size is a good amount of weed for several people, and starting with less weed will make rolling a joint feel more manageable and get a perfect joint.

Notably, most pre-rolls that you purchase at the nearest dispensary will be a full gram, but some come in two packs of each half gram. When you get good at joint rolling, you can upgrade to King papers or full gram joints and widen your circle.

What do you need to successfully roll a joint?

There are a few supplies you may need if you want to learn how to roll a joint, and they include:

a). Dried Cannabis Flower

This should be your favorite weed strain, and it is the material to be used in your joint

b). Joint Paper

A joint or rolling paper is available in different sizes and materials, such as unbleached paper or hemp.

c). Weed Grinder

This is an optional tool, but it is beneficial since it ensures you get an even burn for your joint and make the entire joint easier to roll for a cannabis smoker.

d). Card Stock

This is necessary to create the mouthpiece or clutch for your joint, and you can also use a business card, index card, or a cardboard flap.

e). Pen

A pen or a similarly shaped object will help you pack the joint.

Step-by-Step Guide on How to Roll the Perfect Joint

1. Grind the cannabis

Before rolling the cannabis strain, you should prepare everything, and you can do this using a grinder or a rough finger grind, scissors, or homemade grinders to prepare your marijuana. Unfortunately, different grinding methods don’t smoke the same, so it’s advisable to play around with the different methods to find your preference.

A good quality grinder will give your marijuana a uniform consistency and even burn while maintaining the flavor. If you lack a grinder, you can pick the bud apart using your fingers and work gently and ensure you minimize damage to the cannabis trichomes as you remove the seeds and stems. The ground marijuana should be in small pieces but not in powder form.

2. Create joint crutch/filter

Many smoke shops stock pre-made crutches that will serve as a mouthpiece end of a joint, and while crutches are not a must, they usually help reinforce the mouthpiece and make a joint easy to hold. In addition, a crutch or joint filter will help boost airflow through the joint and minimize any risk of inhaling tiny medical marijuana bits or burning your lips or mouth during a hit. Crutches are also known as tips or filters, where some people might call them roaches, but a roach is the little last charred part of a smoked joint.

To make a crutch paper, start with several accordion folds at the end of your thin cardboard and roll the papers to the desired thickness of your joint. Next, fold thick paper into an accordion shape and wrap the excess paper bit around the accordion shape. Business cards are also great for making crutches and glass, and wooden crutches make super alternatives to paper, and they can be bought from some dispensaries, head, or tobacco shops.

3. Fill joint with cannabis

On a flat surface, place your paper with the glued edge facing up on the furthest side from you, then place your crutch where your mouthpiece will be. Use your fingers to fill the rest of the paper with your pre-ground marijuana, and don’t overfill it to avoid making it difficult to close.

Additionally, if you want to roll a cone shape joint, add less medical marijuana around the joint’s mouthpiece and put more towards the tip and taper it as you do and it will naturally help form a cone shape. A cone-shaped joint offers a smoother smoke, but the straight joints are easier to roll, and they are okay for the first attempts.

4. Pack the joint

Once you load and shape your joint, it’s now time to roll a joint. Pinch your rolling paper with your index fingers and thumbs, roll it back and forth between them and pack the cannabis down to the final shape. You can also use objects like a dollar bill or a gum wrapper apart from your fingers, and it will help you roll a perfect joint back and forth and compress it.

5. Roll the joint

This is the make-or-break step in learning how to roll a joint as it can break or make your joint’s quality. Tuck the paper’s unglued side into your roll, roll it up using the glue side edge and tack down one end of the rolling paper using a little moisture into a cylinder shape.

It is better to start with the crutch side because it will help guide your paper as it rolls around itself. Then, once you tack down the paper on one end, work your way down to the seam by tucking and sealing your joint to the end.

6. Leak and Seal your Joint

Continue rolling between your fingers until your paper is tightly pulled and one edge can be easily folded with the tip. Next, roll the glued side until it’s tucked slightly under the unglued side and lick it thoroughly through the outer layer hitting the glue layer and sealing the sides while leaving the end open. If you seal it too tightly, it will be hard to draw in smoke, and if loose, it will burn unevenly.

7. Pack your Joint

Packing your joint allows for an even and smooth burn, and you can do this using a pen or a similarly shaped item to press down the cannabis from the open end carefully. Next, hold the joint upright from the filtered end, tap it gently on a flat surface, and compact the cannabis pushing the crutch for reinforcement.

8. Twist your Joint’s end

Seal your open-end by twisting the extra paper for it to resemble a candle wick, and this way, there will be no possibility for any weed to fall out. You can store away your joint if you don’t smoke it immediately, and when ready to smoke, the twisted end will be your lighting point. Go ahead and enjoy your hand-rolled joint and try to smoke it without relighting as it affects the taste when you consume cannabis.

How to Roll a Joint: The Advanced Joint Rolling Techniques

What we have listed above is the basic method of learning how to roll a joint, but there are other joint-rolling methods you can use, and they include:

a). The Cone Joint

A cone-shaped joint is achieved using a crutch at the end and aiming for a wide and non-symmetrical shape. However, cone joints will need more post-roll cannabis stuffing and can be wasteful in plant matter getting burned at any given time. Even though it’s aesthetically pleasing, it’s not fully efficient.

b). The Back Roll Joint

With this technique, you get an inverted paper with the glue facing downwards and near your body. When you roll the perfect joint, you wet the glue and tuck it in your joint, leaving a small piece of paper sticking outwards from the back of the joint. You can then light the little fin to remove it from a joint, and it will leave you with a solid smoke making this a simple but impressive technique to start rolling a joint for a party trick.

c). The Cross Joint

This is a mixture of two joints with one small stick inserted into a hole inside the larger one, and then they are strapped together using glue from other papers. Since these get heavy, you may need to use filter tips or a crutch.

How to Choose Rolling Papers

Most rolling papers are made with fibers extracted from non-wood sources such as hemp, rice straw, esparto, or sisal but the type of rolling paper to roll a perfect joint is more of personal preference. Many cannabis consumers will prefer using rolling hemp papers, making the entire a cannabis-derived product. Preferences of rolling papers are influenced by factors like how easy the cannabis smoker will find using a particular type of paper, how well the smoker will feel a certain type of paper will burn evenly, or the flavor of the smoke, among other factors.

Rolling papers are also available in different sizes, and the most popular ones include:

The single wide size that is the joint paper version of a table for one
1¼-inch, a popular size that makes a joint enough for a trio of smokers
1½-inch size is larger than your regular cigarette and serves a party of four
Double wide size is not popular, but it has a high paper-to-weed ratio
King size, it is bigger, and the joint burns longer, and can easily handle a party of five
King slim size is as long as a King size and as wide as a 1¼-inch size, and its best left to experienced rollers