I agree with jogro he knows his shit. (and sometimes worry that he is going to come in and correct my posts)
I'm flattered, though sometimes I'm full of shit, too. I'll just respond to below
BHO is not dangerous. Make it in your garage with the door cracked a bit and a fan blowing out. Butane sinks to the ground.
For me BHO is the strongest but not that enjoyable to smoke by itself. I only make BHO with buds I do not want or with dry leftover stuff.
Well, I'd say this. If you know what you're doing, and use appropriate precautions in doing so, its possible to make BHO safely at home. But empirically, BHO *is* dangerous because every week you can read a story in the paper about some idiot blowing themself up or burning their house down trying to make it. Also flaming blowtorches + being stoned out of your gourd. . .not a good combination either.
I've never actually made it, but that's because after having tried honey oil in the past, I just don't have interest in the product. What I will say is that this will yield the best quality of the chemical extracts, if made correctly plus the strongest.
Bubble Bags
The next strongest and by far the tastiest and best smelling. If done right you will not get much, but it will kick ass. Do not use buds with bags, the yield is tiny. You might as well make BHO. Good wet frozen trimmings will make more and better bubble hash than buds. I bought a bubble machione for about $150 and it is great. If you do not have that you should hand stir
Of the methods you mention, I agree.
IMO, the tastiest and best smelling is actually a good old fashioned dry sieve hash, freshly sieved and pressed, but with the advent of bubble bags, almost nobody is making this anymore. Rubbing/tumbling over a silk screen is probably the least efficient way of making hash, and one of the slowest. Bubble is a close second, and for most people probably a better choice.
Note that if you want to make water hash from buds
you have to mince them up very finely first. If you just try to agitate whole buds, the trichromes inside the buds won't break off and you waste about 90% of them. Also, if you completely grind the crap out of them (like toss them dry in a blender), you'll lose much of the trichromes before you start and introduce lots of leaf dust lowering your quality.
If this is going to be a comprehensive post on ways to make hash, let me also mention "gravity" hash, or "gumby" hash. This is basically the same as the bubble-bags, just without the bags to grade the hash and sort out the micrscopic broken off leaf and other "junk". After agitation in ice water you just let the trichromes settle out of the ice water to the bottom, then concentrate them by siphoning off most of the water from the top and doing a second suspension then drying. IMO, this is the best "poor mans'" hash technique. Again, you won't get the same efficiency as a chemical extraction, and you won't get the same quality as with bubble bags, but you'll still have a good quality hash with no chemicals.
Dry Ice
Less strong than the above, slightly stronger than ISO? It is really easy to make and you will get a good product and more of it.
Never tried this, have little comment.
My understanding is that this is somewhat comparable to a dry sieve in terms of what it gives you. . .which shouldn't be a surprise, since this basically *IS* just a dry sieve, just with added dry ice to make the trichromes more brittle. Quality depends on how much extraction you do. The less shaking/extraction the less hash you'll get, but the higher the quality.
ISOYuck. Less strong than bubble bags or BHO. I will not make it again after trying full melt bubble hash. It is easy, cheap and works well, but yuck.
Could not have said that better myself. ISO has water in it, plus its denatured. . .yuck.
Acetone is probably superior to isopropanol as a solvent, by the way, giving better yield and flavor but you'll want to use a good quality acetone.
I've heard that petroleum ether (aka naptha) can work well too, though I've never tried it. That one is EXTREMELY flammable, plus the fumes are bad for you too. As a chemical acetone is safer, though I don't know how the extracts themselves compare.
IMO all chemical extractions are OUTDOOR ONLY. If you're going to cook anything, use an electric hot plate set on LOW.
Everclear
Same deal as ISO but i would rather have alcohol in my hash than ISO. I have made tincture after carboxilizing (fuck, can't remember what that word is) weed and it was incredible. Every thing went slow motion .
Agree again.
Back when I was younger and had access to same, I've done it using reagent grade 100% dry ethanol and *if* you can get it, its probably better than everclear. . .but still not as good as bubble.
You have to decarboxylate the extract if you want to create a true tincture that will be absorbed via the mucous membranes of your mouth and be active.
I was looking into getting one of those nail and dome attachments to dab to oil into. Im just now starting to get into extracts so I probably wont use high quality herbs the first time. That bubble bag full melt sounds amazing! Ive only had some black hash from a dispensary that i really liked and that iso which wasnt too good.