So, I've got a pipe. I assume it's Pyrex, it's very thick and sturdy. The meth is good quality by my standards. It's pretty clear with a white tint, kind of like salt, and has a strong taste and smell. Anyway, I think I'm just repeatedly burning my shit in the pipe, which is annoying. It's weird, sometimes I get an awesome hit and everything goes perfectly, but not always, and I've yet to figure out the technique.
It takes practice, just like anything else. Before you know it, you'll be an old pro blowing smoke out like puff the magic dragon with every hit.
I use a candle because I find it easier to hold onto than a lighter. I keep the pipe anywhere from around an inch away to all but touching the flame, based on what I'm doing and whether I'm ready to hit it. I put a small amount in the pipe at any one time, like half what I'd snort.
First, some may agree or disagree, I think it's just a matter of what works best, in reference to the fire department - but if you want to use a candle, that's fine. But if you say you have a SUPER thick pipe (I have one that's realllllllllllly long and thick, you could knock somebody out with it if you wanted to, like a hammer) a candle wouldn't work for that. It won't get hot enough, fast enough, and you'll just end up making the dope taste like shit. I use my mini torch for the thick glass pipes. I started out using candles and now that damn near my entire room is covered with wax in some way/shape/form I kinda put the kebash on that. Bic Lighters or my trusty torch work the best.
Don't EVER touch the flame to the bowl. Never ever ever ever. My friend always says over and over to people when they're roasting the bowl, "Hey man, it's already been cooked once, it doesn't need to be cooked again!!!" With dope, think low and slow. Take your time. I never have the flame closer than at least 3/4 inch from the bowl. Doesn't need to be. When you do that, you make your dope brown, your pipe black, warp the pipe, and blah yuck ish - it just ain't good. When I smoke a bowl, the stuff stays white/opaque throughout almost the whole bowl, until the last 2-3 hits (I usually pack a fat bowl, even fatter if guests are around, repacking and repacking gets old and irritating.)
Also, it sounds like you're not putting enough inside the bowl. I used to only put a teeny tiny tad in the bowl when I first started and wondered why I couldn't get big hits and why I had to repack the bowl constantly. I just packed the avg. sized bowl I usually would and weighed it just for the hell of it, and it was
0.05 g. I'm just gonna go through here and list exactly what I'm doing so you can check your process against mine and see what you are doing differently.
1. Pack bowl. (I use a pen cap. Just works best for me. Some use a straw. Sometimes I use a business card folded in half. Whatever.) As I said earlier, use a decent amount. Don't be stingaaay, yo
Think about it this way: the more product there is in the bowl, the more potential there is for more smoke. So yeah.
2. Get your fire of choice. You seem to dandy the candle. Cool. As I said earlier, that works fine if the glass is thin. If it's thick/very thick, nix the candle biz.
3. Hold your fire about an inch and a half under the bowl, steadily. The other hand should have your bub with chunky shards rotating from 10-2, slower at first, but then gaining speed as it starts to melt. KEEP THE FLAME AT *****LEEEEEEEEAST*****ONE FULL INCH AWAY FROM THE BUB! There is absolutely no reason it should be closer than this!!!! When the chunks are almost dissolved into the liquid, turn off the flame but keep rotating the pipe from 10-2 at a steady pace - the residual heat from the bowl will melt any other chunks that are left. If it's good stuffs, it should resolidify quite quickly. Now, you should have a fat, white/opaque stripe at the bottom of your bowl kinda like a smiley face. Huzzah, it's time to walk on sunshine. (Melting the bowl took about 60 seconds)
4. Hammer time. I start out not with the pipe in my mouth, but I start out the same way I would to melt the initial bowl. No need to waste lung space on stuff that isn't heated to vape temp yet. Again, I hold the fire no closer than 1" away from the bowl, while slowly rotating the bowl 10-2 again until it starts to just smoke. Put it up to your lips and continue all the same stuff you've been doing, and suck slowly. Keep rotating the bowl - yes, rotate the bowl in between your lips. This is key to keep from burning. When you sit there and just blast the flame on a motionless puddle in the bottom of the bowl, hell yeah it's gonna get brown and taste like donkeys. Don't do dat den!!!! Rotate, my friends! (hitting the pipe takes well over a minute, from start time to end. Again - low and slow. No need to cook your dope.)
Thing is, it's turning brown after I take a couple of hits.
Yanno, some dope just kinda does that. Sometimes I'll have stuff that will stay clear as day from beginning to end, and some stuff will get a slight caramely color to it throughout the whole bowl...it just depends. But there's definitely a difference between a slight brown color and burning the crap out of it.
Yet at the same time, it doesn't move fluidly much at all. I can get it hot enough that it's totally liquid, running freely, and it's still clear at that point, but it quickly turns brown from there. Am I just too impatient?
In one word? YES. Smoking dope is not a race. Think: Tortoise and the Hare. Seriously - slow down, Tiger!
Anyway, like I said, it really does seem to take a lot to liquify. I apply heat, I move it around, I roll it, I don't just torch one spot relentlessly. But if it's anything but the first light (that is, if I've already let it solidify and am lighting it again), it takes forever and sometimes has to have direct, prolonged heat before it melts, and in the meantime while I'm waiting for it to liquify, it's smoking.
Yes, it does take a moment or two to get the dope up to one-hundred-seventy-five or eighty degrees fahrenheight (sp) which I believe is around the temperature it takes for the solid to turn into the vapor, which is what you inhale. It does NOT NEED direct heat!!! A steady quick 10-2 rotation and a still flame will melt the stuff, no problem. And yeah, it will start smoking before the whole thing is liquid. Because the whole chunk ain't gonna all melt at the exact same time! The moment you see the smoke, you put the pip in your mouth and start your slow draw. At this point, MAAAYBE you can bring the flame A TAD closer to the bowl, but never closer than 3/4".
Long story short, if I'm making it smoke before it's liquified, that means I'm burning it, right? I honestly don't know how to avoid it. It re-solidifies very quickly too, so I don't have the option of rolling/spreading it all that much.
First - never complain about it resolidifying too quick. THIS IS GOOD!!!! The faster it cracks back, generally the better quality.
Second - I'm having a little trouble answering this, because, well - the dope can't smoke unless some of it is liquified. As I said before, the whole puddle isn't gonna all melt at the same time, but that doesn't mean you can't catch the beginning of the smokey smoke. A lovely, generous fella that I know packs bowls so damn huge (damn near 0.3 or more oz in a freakin bowl, gotta love him) that the whole thing doesn't even melt till it goes around the circle of three of us a couple times. You can still puff on it tho.
Also, occasionally I'll feel like I'm doing it right, I'll be moving it steadily while it's liquid but not turning brown yet, and when there seems to be a sufficient amount of smoke being produced, I take a hit, often to find I exhale nothing. The only time I get a good hit that fills my lungs is when I'm burning it. Could this batch just be cut with something that doesn't vaporize well?
Time to end the candle era. Move up to Bic Status, baby. - You're not getting the right amount of heat at the correct rate (if that makes any sense.)
EDIT: If you're doing everything right, and this is still happening (the feeling that you're gonna get a huge hit and barely any smoke comes out) you've got a bag of NOPE (get it, it's not dope - it's fake, so it's 'nope'). I hate hate hate that shit. Bring it back to your dealer and tell him to quit buying junk from whomever he's getting it from, or tell him to spare you the cut. Or find someone new that doesn't throw that crap in there. Yuk.
Any suggestions are appreciated, I've been trying to perfect this skill for a while now.
You learn soon, grasshopper. Practice make perfect. You have any more question, you make sure to ax me. I be happy to help you.
