Personally, I've never met a frankincense I didn't like!

If you were using joss powder, it's mostly a matter of practice. It's a little trickier than using tabu no ki, but the techniques are the same. Different blends have different properties, so it will vary depending on the ingredients that you use. Joss powder is a little sticky when wet, so it may be that your gloves or hands are pulling the dough off the stick as you roll it. If that's the case, you can try powdering your hands or your rolling surface. Alternately, you can try the same thing, only use water rather than powder. Sometimes with joss powder, it's like flour dough and it needs to "rest" before rolling. If the other ideas don't help, try rolling your incense dough and then cover it and allow it to rest for an hour before you roll it. Other techniques include pressing it firmly onto the stick (even if it looks funny) and then giving it the lightest roll possible...just enough to smooth the surface of the incense. Some incense makers find it easiest to extrude a stick and then insert the bamboo split into the joss stick. If done carefully, you might not need to roll it at all. I have a video on my channel that shows several of these techniques. It also shows how to insert a split into the end of an extruder and extrude incense directly onto the split.

@@IncenseDragon Thank you for so much detail. I've seen the video where you show some techniques, you make it look very easy! I just need to roll a thousand incense sticks, then they'll look okay :o)

That is odd. Usually, crumbling means either not enough liquid or, occasionally, not enough binder. First, I'd try adding a little more liquid to see if that fixes it. If not, try increasing the amount of binder very slightly and see if it improves the rolling properties.

That would be your best option. YOu can use a dropper or even a small paint brush to apply oil to the surface of the sticks. That usually requires a lot less oil than soaking them.

Thanks... your book just got here today...and the extruder.. I see you're in Oregon I'm in Olympia Washington.... thanks my friend

Curling is caused by either uneven drying. I have a video in the works now that talks about this issue.

www.IncenseDragon.com

There are 2 ways to approach this. You can roll your own blanks and then soak them in oil, the way incense dippers do. A different method (that I prefer) is to mix the oils into the incense dough before rolling. You get a much richer scent because the oils are dispersed throughout the incense and not just on the surface. Made this way, they will also have a much longer shelf life. Using this method offers less flexibility than the dipping approach (since you have to decide on a scent before rolling), but gives a better result. I suppose (this is theoretical, since I've never tried it) you could combine the two approaches. Make your incense dough with oils in it and make your blanks. Once they are dry, you would still be able to soak them in oil later. This would be an essential oil version of a makko blend, since all of your incense would have the scent that you rolled into the dough, but they would all smell different because you would soak the blanks in different scents. Hmm...something to think about.

Marshmallow and cats claw are both unexpected binders. I'm trying to work marshmallow into one of my future makko blends.

I have no idea. That's something I've never tried.

No. Oils do not contain water, so that won't work. You can add oils, but not in place of water.

Good question! 🤔

Ratios vary widely, depending on the material used. Leaves and flowers use a much different ratio than resins. Resins need more base material than most leaves or flowers.

After you add the initial amount of water, add some drops of essential oil. After that, continue to add more water until the mix is ready to roll.

You absolutely can, but you can use most wood powders for that purpose. Sandalwood and cedar are both good choices.

www.TheIncenseDragon.com

So it sounds like it is a water issue. I would guess that you've been hitting on each side of the right amount, but haven't quite dialed it in. I would suggest that you try again, but once you get it to the "crumbly" stage, start kneading it. It's important to knead to disperse the water throughout the mixture. If you don't, water can hide inside and you might end up adding too much. Once you begin to knead it, see if you can gather it into a single ball. If so, knead the ball. If you can't gather it, you likely need a tiny bit of additional water. Once you an knead the ball, you can "fine tune" the water. I would add 1 or 2 drops at a time to the ball and then knead some more. Repeat the process until your ball of clay is smooth, without cracks on the surface. It should still be able to retain the ball shape even when you set it down. At that point you should be good to roll. Joss powder is a little stickier than tabu, so that's normal, but it's just a minor concern. For the last couple of weeks I've been burning the incense I made when I shot the video and it's all burned fine, so I don't think there's any issue with the recipe itself. If you try this and it still isn't working for you, contact me privately and we'll see what else we can figure out. Joss powder is too cool to let anyone give up on it, lol. Thanks for watching

Thanks!!! Absolutely will try this again and will report back. Would LOVE for this to work and I do suspect it was a water issue I was having.

There can be a lot of different reasons for that. I've got a video about troubleshooting incense that won't burn. That might give you some ideas.

In most cases, makko will work every bit as well as joss powder. The real key to scent is your blend. If you use tabu-no-ki (often called makko), you will get a somewhat different scent than if you use true makko (check out this video for a detailed explanation: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/l9OIeriknsislZc.html ). No matter which binder(s) you use, you should test your new scents before rolling them. The easiest way to do that is to blend a small amount and then heat it in an aroma lamp, incense heater, or on charcoal. You can also use the "incense trail" method to test scents. Test a small amount and then adjust the recipe until you get the scent you desire. Once you have the scent you want, then roll your first batch. That method can help you avoid a lot of time wasted on rolling and drying incense with an untried recipe.

Usually when I have a sticky batch, it has too much liquid. It also sounds like there might have been too much binder. You can usually fix dough like that by adding additional base material and rerolling. Tom figure out why your incense didn't burn, I might need to check out your ingredients, but the cause of that can often be the shape. Try again with dough that you can easily shape and then make a thin stick. Dry it and see if it burns. If not, there's something else behind the problem.

No. Just use less oil. "Cutting" oils isn't necessary.