Hydrolife Magazine October/November 2016 (USA Edition)

heal
GEAR
THE
DABBING
by Ed Rosenthal
photos courtesy of Beyond Buds
An excerpt
from Beyond Buds
The Hydrolife team is pleased to present an excerpt from Ed Rosenthal’s
book Beyond Buds—the first to cover the shift from smoking buds to
vaping and dabbing concentrates such as shatter, wax, budder and oil.
A DIY guide to making butane and CO 2 extracts, as well as kief, hash,
tinctures, topicals and edibles, Beyond Buds features full-color photos
of award-winning concentrates and highlights the best products to use.
We start with a guide to dabbing gear:
NAILS
Nails are the workhorse of the dab world.
They get their name because they look
like a standard construction nail: they’re
long, thin metal objects that fit into a
bong’s downstem on one side, with a
wider top section for vaping hash. They
come in a variety of standard widths,
like 10, 14 and 18 millimeter, to fit into
different downstems. Nails are made
from a variety of materials that are used
because they do not create fumes at
working vaporization temperatures. The
most common materials used are quartz,
titanium and ceramic.
To use, you heat up the nail with a
torch, which is usually a six-inch or
larger butane torch, with flame control,
a safety lock and a flame lock. Affix the
nail in the downstem (wide side up),
flick on and lock the torch, and touch
the flame to the nail. Inhaling air that
has been superheated by a nail is not
healthy, so most dabbers are attached to
water pipes that cool the vapor. Remove
the torch as the nail shows the first faint
signs of glowing, then place the dab on
the nail. The dab flash-melts and boils,
generating vapor. Inhale.
DABBING RIGS
While nails are designed to fit into a
wide variety of downstems, they often fit
best with dab rigs, bongs and bubblers
specially designed for consuming hash.
Dab rigs tend to be smaller than water
pipes for flowers. Since hash smoke is so
much more potent, you don’t need to fill
a huge chamber with smoke to achieve
the desired highness. The length of the
system is actually a liability here, as
solvent hash condenses along the route
of delivery. The longer the route, the
more condensation, and hence, waste.
Consequently, dab rigs tend to closely resemble
traditional, handheld bubblers.
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grow. heal. live. enjoy.
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