Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/11/21/the-twisty-glass-mini-is-a-cla.html
…
“plant material” 
2 Likes
I’m really new to this. How does this work? I need a “plant material” for dummies video for this item.
1 Like
One of the less fun tasks of smoking anything in a pipe or device of any sort is that, eventually, you gotta clean the damn thing, and burnt, sticky, resin-y organic compounds are not the easiest to clean off. They’re generally not very water soluble, so soaking it will only get you so far. Usually, you end up resorting to physical abrasion (i.e. brushes, pipecleaners, paperclips, etc. to scrape the gunk out.
The twisty, in theory, does this scraping for you. As long as it makes good contact with the inner surface of the pipe, twisting the corkscrew will scrape down the sides of your pipe and push the yuck to one end, where you can dispose of it.
Rubbing alcohol usually DOES dissolve this sort of gunk, or at least loosens it up some, but if you don’t rinse it thoroughly after cleaning it can make everything taste funny.
really, though, I think the main appeal of this item is that it just looks kinda cool. Which isn’t the worst reason in the world for getting something.
2 Likes
I would start with banana skins.
5 Likes
Thank you for the explanation. I appreciate the in depth description. It makes more sense to me. I still have one of those old school metal pipes with metal screens from years and years ago, but that’s a whole different world from what’s available these days.
Yeah. After about five minutes it gets too gunked up to twist. Plus you are just filtering all that tar back through your “plant material” With a joint it goes so fast you don’t really notice, but with this thing after the first few puffs it just tastes like an uncleaned pipe. A small glass chillum and a jar or something convenient to pack it with is a better, cleaner tasting option.
I bought one of these, mostly because I’ve seen it posted here. It hasn’t turned out to be very useful as a mostly independant toker. After more than one use, it gets too gunked up to use, making me want to do a full cleaning in a solvent before using again. A pipe or a paper is going to be a better bet in most cases. Might be nice on a night out where you need to break up your discrete sessions, but otherwise, this thing is useless. Cool idea, but not practical.
Or, you could go down and support your local smoke shop and buy it from a small business.
I made a device which holds your ‘plant material’ between two screens so it gets heated, but the flame doesn’t touch it, somewhat akin to the screen on a Davy lamp. It works really well, and makes good hash taste a lot better than a conventional pipe.
This topic was automatically closed after 5 days. New replies are no longer allowed.
