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(63 votes) Published: Feb 23, 2005 7:26 p.m. In 3 Favorites Lists Viewed 3999 times
The Best Bong
Every so often, I will find myself smoking so much of such good bud that I consider it a milestone. That is, it will be the best high I’ve ever had, which raises the ceiling once again. Well, the same thing happens with bongs. I’ve been very happy pulling tubes on my hooka. As much as I love my hooka, I have to say here that I’ve found a better bong. The guys who live across the hall always smoke their Graphix 3-footer, 2-chambered bong. They’ve named it "Stella Blue" because it has a blue tint, like many Graphix bongs. Stella Blue is more than a milestone -- it is the shit. I recommend that any stoners who want to get huge hits without tossing up a lung should get one of these.
Being commercially made, it’s got everything I value in a bong. It’s 100% airtight, it filters the smoke like no other, and you can see the smoke make its way into one chamber, then get pulled up into the top chamber and out. Even though it’s so tall and pulls the smoke through two chambers, it still is very easy to pull through, especially with a clean screen.
But wait -- there’s more: These guys used to have two of these three-footers, but the bottom part of one broke off (just above the stem-tube intersection). So they went to Ace Hardware and bought a half-foot-long rubber tube that encircled the tube. They fastened it with a metal belt to the bottom of the broken bong. Now, whenever the urge for a six-foot bong hit strikes, they just plop the top bong on top of the bottom one for a triple-filtered hit!
Materials
While there’s a wide variety of containers and materials you can use in making a bong, make sure they will be safe. PVC is out (as mentioned above). When deciding whether to use a certain kind of plastic or not, the rule of thumb is to make sure it’s safe for food. Otherwise, don’t risk it. Plastic tubing is fine. Glass is optimal because it’s inert, but many stoner acquaintances of mine have seen their $50 Graphix bongs accidentally shattered. The best materials to use are chemistry supplies. After all, they are designed to be airtight, to withstand high temperatures, etc. Therefore, they’re safe to use and they give the best hits. The tradeoff is that they don’t look pretty. My friend’s bong, "The Monster," is made from a one-liter, heavy-duty Ehrlenmeyer flask with a two-hole stopper (plus stem and bowl) and a length of rubber tubing. It’s simple, it’s airtight, and you can watch the smoke fill the chamber while your friend is taking a hit.
Metals are fine to use, too. Brass, aluminum, and steel are completely safe. Stay away from copper, though -- it reacts with the smoke and leaches off carcinogenic material.
Clay is great to use for bongs. A friend of mine had a small clay bong made for him. It looks like a little rounded clay jar with a two-inch neck off the top and a flared bowl on the body. It’s solid, uncomplicated, airtight, and portable, not to mention that it stays cool and is cute as shit.
Scraping Your Bong
I no longer think that resin is that great for smoking. If you have real buds, smoke those. Resin should be reserved for the truly desperate. Think about it -- when you burn wood in a fireplace, you get soot left over. Resin is basically the soot of bud. It contains all the tar and impurities that you want to get of by using a bong. Don’t scrape up that shit to put into your lungs.
Getting rid of resin is important, though. The screen gets caked very easily and should be blown clean after every bowl. I always tap the ash out, then blow a fast lungful through pursed lips into the bottom of the bowl. When you can see through the holes in the screen, you’re set. If you let the screen get too caked up, it will be very hard to get good bong hits because it will feel like you’re trying to draw smoke through canvas.
When scraping your bowl and stem, you should use a thin, narrow metal object. The awl attachment on a pocket knife works well. I’ve heard of stoners using an unbent coat hanger, although I am partial towards a jeweler’s screwdriver.
If you must smoke resin, here is how to do it: Save some leftover ash, then scrape your bowl. The flakes of resin which come off are very sticky and are hard to roll without smearing them all over your fingers. Resin smells very strongly, too, and won’t come off your fingers for a few days. If you roll the resin with the ash, the ash acts as a binder and keeps the resin from sticking to your fingers excessively. After scraping the resin onto a smooth, flat surface, roll it with the ash into a ball. When done, stick it back into the bowl and smoke it.
Changing the Water
Another maintenance tip: Change the bong water often. If you can get into the habit of changing before every new session, that would be the best. Why so often? Just think of it this way: When you clean a wall with a bucket of water and detergent you will see the water get dirty. The dirtier the water gets, the less dirt it can further "absorb." So if you want your bong to filter effectively you should keep the filter clean. Simple.
Length of water = hard pull
The easiest bongs to pull smoke through are those with clean screens and a short distance of water. When I was experimenting with the physics of bongs, I made a Graphix-type bong (cylindrical chamber, open-mouthed hits) with one innovation: Instead of just sticking a stem into the chamber, I used a length of flexible plastic tubing which came out of the bottom of the chamber and coiled around the tube a few times before ending in a corncob pipe. The idea was to create some length of water for the bubbles to travel through, thus cleaning the smoke more.
The guy who introduced me to smoking argued this point with me. He said that it was the volume of water which made a difference in cleaning the smoke, not the *distance* that the smoke travelled. I think he was right, because the one-gallon bong [see above] had much better filtration than the coiled-tubing bong.
The down-side to the coiled-tubing bong was that it took some initial lung power to pull the water from the coils into the chamber, creating the necessary vacuum for the smoke to bubble. Veteran stoners and cigarette smokers (especially) didn’t like that part of it because of the lung power it required. I didn’t mind so much, because I was used to it, and once the bubbling started it had an easy draw. The one-gallon bong was the same way, but it could have had easier pull if I used a simple stem instead of a long length of plastic tubing.
Liquids
Tap water is not the only liquid that can be used in a bong. I prefer ice water, since it really cools the smoke, depending on how much water you have in the bong. Lately, though, I’ve tried hot/boiling water in The Monster [see above], and I like that effect a lot. The steam moisturizes the smoke and removes the dryness and harshoess/ If your bong can withstand hot or boiling water, I’d recommend it.
Trying various kinds of liquids in a bong is a lot of fun. Using beer and/or liquor in a bong gives the smoke a tasty flavor, covering over the smoky taste. I’d suggest Lineinkugel’s beer, or Jim Beam/Jack Daniels whiskey. The downside to using alcohol in your bongs is that you will lose THC, because it is alcohol-soluble. Feel free to drink the bongwater after for a drunken high, though. {grin}
If you want to fuck around, try a half-and-half solution of water and mouthwash. The mouthwash will give a delightful minty flavor to the smoke, covering over the smoky taste -- every hit will feel like you just brushed your teeth! Also, try using Chloraseptic or some other kind of throat spray in the bong water. The medicine will coat and numb the back of your throat, allowing you to take astonishingly big hits without feeling them. The flipside is that I don’t know what the dangers are to smoking through these substances. Try it at your own risk.
Smoking and extinguishing a bowl
Having hung out with many bong-smokers, I’ve seen many ways of smoking a bong. The simplest way, or course, is to cover the carb, light up, wait till your lungs are 75-90% full, then carb it and inhale the chamber.
There are variations on this basic technique. As mentioned above, one good thing about smoking from a bowl is that you can extinguish the bowl in order to prevent wasting bud. The best technique I’ve seen is to partialy cover the bowl with the lighter, a few seconds before you carb it. This method will taper down the air flow toward the end, then will completely stop the burning when the bowl is completely covered and the bong is carbed.
For longer bongs, you might want to use several breaths on a covered carb to fill the long chamber with smoke. Carbing it will then pull in the full chamber’s worth of smoke.
If the bong you’re on gives great big hits, you might consider pacing your lungs on a hit. Bubble some, rest some, bubble some more, rest some. It’s really the burn of the smoke on your throat and lungs which makes it necessary to slow down and pace your hit. A variation of this is to take several short hits--on one breath, so you don’t violate stoner etiquette. Especially if the bud’s burning strong, take a short and big hit and carb it to bring in the smoke. Then cover the carb back up and keep going. You might be able to do this two or three times before running out of lung space.
Etiquette
***Disclaimer: This section on etiquette is meant to be a personal observation of stoner manners. I do not mean to imply that this is how stoners, as a whole, do or should conduct their smoking.
Bong etiquette seems to allow each person one lungful (inhalation) per turn. Every person should get a decent bong hit on his or her turn. The turn-taker is also allowed to finish the chamber of smoke (carbed) on a second breath. If a person doesn’t get a good amount of smoke in a hit, they’re allowed to smoke first (if going in order) from the new bowl.
The bong and lighter should be smoothly passed onto the next stoner. The veteran stoner will have already extinguished the bowl so that no bud is wasted for the next person.
Etiquette for the host suggests that s/he provide his/her guests with a spittoon (garbage can), water, and munchies (optional, but very generous!). Needless to say, the ambience should be comfortable and inviting. Bud is best enjoyed in company and with entertainment, so bud should be shared with friends.
Bowl packers are subject to a much looser constraints. Since the person packing bowls is in essence doing everyone else a favor, few arguments can be made by the recipients. Bowl packers can be dictators and direct the route of the bong. They can also smoke as much of their own bud as they want, even if they’re out of turn or whatever. The kindest bowl packers pack so much bud into a large bowl that the air can barely be sucked through it. They pass the bong around in order and re-pack the bowl liberally. Not everyone has the money to afford this philosophy, but stoners are usually generous people.
Usually the person packing bowls will take the first hit off a new bowl, but not always. When a fresh bowl is passed to someone else, it is a generous gesture towards that stoner.
While stoners can be obnoxious, they are all too often labeled as "bad stoners." This unfarly derisive term means that a stoner acts goofy while stoned. It’s very uncool to blame some stoner’s goofy behavior on the fact that s/he’s stoned because it’s too easy to make a stoner self-conscious (and that sucks). It is more polite to allow everyone to enjoy the bud in their own way and not be judgmental of others.
The best attitude to have is to relax and enjoy the company and the surroundings. Bud is finicky that way -- every experienced stoner knows that you should be in a good mood when stoning.
Lighters
Lighters come in a variety of shapes and sizes. Ordinary cigarette lighters are adequate for smoking bud, but they’re not the best. If ordinary lighters are used, it’s best to make sure the flame is at least 1.5" tall. When lighting, the lighter is best held vertically, with the flame being sucked over the edge of the bowl onto the bud. This method avoids singed fingers. Another advantage to having a large flame is that you can torch the entire surface area of the bud at once, getting a great big hit. If you are using a disposable lighter with the flame-height adjuster slide on front, you can make any flame you want. If, after turning the flame up all the way, it’s still not big enough, try this trick: Pop off the metal protector from the top and look at the slide. It’s essentially a tiny wrench used to turn a toothed gear. Lift the slide up and move it to the left without turning the gear. Then plop in down into the gear on the left side and slide it to the right. Now torch that bud!
If possible, a pipe lighter should be purchased. Pipe lighters emit a tall flame at a ninety-degree angle, making it easier to light a bowl. The same effect can be achieved with conventional lighters by using a lighter "holster." The only one I’ve seen was made out of leather and had a "belt strap" on the back. The lighter was put into the holster, and the index and middle fingers fit snugly into the belt strap (with the holster resting on top of the fingers). The thumb could then flick the lighter with all fingers safely away from the flame even if the lighter were held sideways to light the bowl. Even if you don’t have a "lighter holster," you can imitate it and save your fingers by placing your middle finger on the bottom of the lighter while lighting it with your thumb. Now by squeezing the lighter lengthwise, you’re keeping your whole hand on the backside, away from the flame.
Carb vs. slide
Most bongs use a carb to clear the chamber of smoke, but they’re not the only way. Some stems are removable, and they’re called "slides." The slide fits into a slightly larger-diameter fixed stem. A little gasket at the base of the stem creates an airtight seal whenever the slide is in the stem. When "carbed," the slide is pulled out of the stem by a little handle, allowing plain air to be sucked through the water, clearing the chamber.
Both slides and carbs are fine, and the choice of one or the other is totally a matter of personal preference.
Wetting the herb
Some time ago a stoner wrote in to High Times that he gets more smoke (up to three times as much) from his bud when he wets the herb. I’ve tried smoking dry and wet buds in my bongs and have found no difference one way or the other. I may be doing it wrong, but I really doubt that wetting the herb makes any difference.
What I have found out since I first wrote this phile is that wetting the bud dampens the smoke. I keep an eyedropper taped to the side of my water bottle, so I can drop water onto the bud and then suck it through. It takes longer to get the bud lit, but the bud feels mellower on one’s lungs. Try it.
Conclusion
I hope this article will be informative and useful to some stoners. I apologize if some of the information is obvious, but I like to err on the verbose side.
In closing I urge all stoners to realize that there is no reason for marijuana/hemp to be illegal. Mainstream drugs like alcohol and nicotine are much more dangerous.
If marijuana is ever to be legal, it will require that stoners come out of the closet and talk openly about the benefits of pot smoking with everyone. Tell non-stoning friends, relatives, colleagues, co-workers, teachers, parents, etc., as much as possible. Be informed and answer questions honestly. Although it can be difficult to tell people you’ve known all your life that you smoke pot and think it should be legalized, it is easier than you think. If you follow up your admission with good arguments, your friends (etc.) will be forced to seriously wonder why marijuana is illegal at all. Happy stoning!
[b]
Feb 23, 2005 8:09 pm - cool. good for people who dont know things. Its probably a bad idea to post your face on the internet and admit you do things, really not a good thing.....
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