How To Make A Cone When Rolling A Joint

If you are preferential to rolling papers over blunt wraps, you will undoubtedly see the cone as the apex of rolling skills and joint aesthetics. 

Rolling a joint can often be an annoying thing for some beginner smokers, as marijuana has become legalized in the US it attracts a new market demographic of smokers.

Smokers who perhaps don’t have the experience with smoking or smoking paraphernalia like those who came before may not be used to rolling with papers.

Those who were already smoking before the drug’s legalization may already be highly proficient rollers and understand the hand shapes and rolling technique required to make a cone.

In this article we will reveal the tips and tricks to achieving a conically shaped spliff, the apex of spliff aesthetics.

Read on to find out our tips!

How To Make A Cone When Rolling A Joint

What Is A Cone Shaped Joint?

For a simple outline, a cone shaped joint is the type of joint that is thin at the filter end and tapers out into a cone shape near the tip of the joint.

There’s no real benefit or reason to roll a cone shaped joint beyond pure aesthetics. If you have ever seen Bob Marley or Wiz Khalifa smoke a joint they always seem to smoke these large conical joints. 

This is purely a stylistic choice, there’s nothing that makes a conical joint smoke better than a straight one. If you want to impress your buddies, or even a girl, with your rolling skills – this is joint to roll.

What Do You Need For A Cone Shaped Joint?

In reality, you don’t need anything extra to your normal rolling set up – you can technically make a cone shaped joint with any sized paper. You could also still achieve a conical shape with a blunt wrap – it’s more down to technique.

We would recommend using king size papers and a cardboard filter. While you can technically roll a cone chapped joint without a filter, the filter certainly helps to keep and form rigidity in the end result.

You can buy these together in these useful packs from OCB papers. The little fold-out booklet the papers/filters are encased in is an ideal little rolling stand to put your joint in.

Method: How To Make A Cone

These are our tips and methods to roll a cone, this method is based on using a rolling paper and filter.

Grind It Up

Your first step is to get your favorite high grade strain of marijuana ready for rolling. The island way is to just crumple up your nugs, and blunt rollers will already use their fingers for blunt wraps.

Our first tip is to grind your bud up if you don’t already, with the thinness of rolling papers this makes the whole thing much easier and makes the plant matter inside the joint generally more malleable and easy to shape.

Overall, it makes it easier to roll.

If you choose to put rolling tobacco into your spliffs, do it at this point. We don’t judge here, and if anything tobacco will help your joint burn better, but it’s your choice!

Roll Your Filter

This is an easy step, and only for those who use filters in their joints, but we promise it will help and also make your general rolling and smoking experience better – in our opinion.

We really recommend using a cardboard filter, especially the ones that the rolling papers come with. Often these filters will come with a perforated line you can follow to roll a little W or M shape in your filter.

The perfect scooby snack catcher, and it means you can smoke your joints from cherry to roach.

Let’s make this clear, the diameter of your filter now, will most likely determine the shape of your joint throughout. So this is a good place to consider the shape of the end result.

A filter too small won’t be great to smoke through and will make a pretty acute cone shape, a larger filter will be easier to smoke through, but will also create a less acute angle of cone.

Put The Weed In The Paper

Lay your paper completely flat, place the filter on the side you are most comfortable with (it doesn’t really matter unless you have a preference).

Proceed to fill your paper with your marijuana (and tobacco if you chose).

Fill the paper as you want your shape to be, start shaping the joint from the first second. Place less at the filter end and more at the top end of the joint, this will naturally create a conical shape.

Create A Boat With Your Fingers

This is an important step that is often worth getting used to if you want to be a good roller, there is an ideal shape that you need your hands to be in to roll well.

You know the hand shape you make when you do a chef’s kiss, or when you imitate Tony Soprano or another Italian? That’s the shape you need in both hands.

Curl both hands into a fist with your thumbs upwards and knuckles facing each other. Then stick your first finger (the finger you point with) and your thumb out so they are parallel to each other.

You should be able to make a long rectangle shape if you put your finger and thumb tips together.

Then stick your middle finger out (the one you use to flip people off). Your middle finger should remain the lowest finger, and your thumb and first finger should be both parallel and both higher than your middle finger.

Now, you should have a sort of three finger (or two finer and a thumb) pinch where the middle finger supports the weight of the joint while your thumb and first finger can clamp each side of the paper. 

On the side of the paper which has the filter your three finger pinch should mean that you can easily roll the filter between these fingers while still having a mild clamp on the paper.

In theory, you want to be able to roll your thumb up and down while your fingers clamp down on the paper. As if you were making the money sign by rubbing your thumb and fingers together.

Use The Edge Of The Paper As Your Guide

Now you should have the paper resting comfortably in your two finger and thumb pinch. Clamp your fingers and thumb around the filter side so both sides of the paper are touching.

The side of the paper that does not have the gummy facing you is your guide. Think of the line the edge of the paper creates as a sort of equilibrium.

When that edge of the paper (the one closest to you) is completely straight with the other side, your joint will be completely straight. 

If the edge is at an angle that is very thick at the tip of the joint and very short at the filter, your joint should end up being cone shaped.

‘Roll’ Your Joint

With the paper at this angle, where the closest side of the paper to you is at an angle that points away from the filter, clamp your fingers and thumb around the filter.

This clamp you have on the filter side should remain the same almost all the way through the rolling process.

If you think that the paper is curled around the cylinder of the filter, this is how you create the rolling motion you need.

By rolling your thumb up and down your fingers, using the filter as your little rolling helper, you should be able to make the plant material inside the paper into a cylindrical shape. 

This cylindrical shape means that the paper should be able to tuck into the crease by following the natural curvature of the cylinder.

To make this cylinder into a cone just make the edge of the paper at this angle where it points away from the filter and roll with this shape being held rigidly.

Tuck It Up

This is perhaps the most coveted and ‘hard to do’ part of rolling a joint – the dreaded tuck. Personally, we think the previous step is the harder and more important part of rolling.

In any case, the edge of the paper you were just using as a guide is the one you are going to tuck in.

To do this you need to roll it all the way down so that this edge is making almost direct contact with the plant material cylinder you just made. 

You should be able to basically see into your joint for a second as this edge comes down real low.

As this edge reaches this point you should be able to take your thumb (the thumb that is not holding the filter) off the joint temporarily so you can replace it where the filter is.

You should now be at a point where the side facing you is really low down, and your two thumbs should now be fairly close together.

While ‘rolling’ or rotating the joint with the fingers on the filter you should be able to roll the joint while your free thumb can help the paper naturally tuck itself into this crease by slowly sliding it along this cylindrical shape.

To really aid this cone shape, try applying more pressure at the filter end and become much looser as you reach the other side of the joint.

Lick It And Stick It

With your paper now happily tucked in, roll the paper back to the top so now all you have left is the gummy part of the paper.

Lick across this gum, trying not to make it too wet, and then roll the joint upwards into the gum rather than pushing the gum onto the paper, this will help it follow a good shape.

Once licked, this can be a good time to tighten any tucking you need to do as you roll it into the wet gum.

Final Thoughts

Now you should hopefully have a conical joint.

The most important thing to note when making a cone shape is the angle the closest edge of the paper is at.

For a cone shape the angle needs to point away from the filter end, this will naturally create a cone shape. It will take a little practice but we hope with these steps you have some access.

Scott Peters
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