###########################
# THE ART OF MAKING BONGS #
###########################
Preface
--------
I didn't start smoking buds till my sophomore year in college. I hadn't
even drunk alcohol till college. Since I'm not much of a partier, I had
a pretty neutral attitude toward drugs. It's not that I bought the War
on Drugs misinformation that the government has been dishing out, but
rather that I just thought drugs had no place in my life. I had no
inclination towards them, I had a relatively satisfying life, and I
didn't care if other people used them or not. In college some of my
buddies smoked buds and I was often in the room when it was going on. I
was still indifferent until one of them explained to me how he felt
about pot. He answered all my questions honestly and I got the sense
that it certainly wouldn't hurt to try ONCE.
I suppose the rest is history, since I took a great liking to old delta-
9 tetrahydrocannibinol, and I now consider myself a marijuana/hemp
enthusiast, as well as a bong artisan.
I urge everyone to inform themselves about the FACTS of marijuana and
about the LIES of the "War on Drugs". Whether you smoke or not you
should know about the true detriments and *benefits* of marijuana. You
should also know of the wide range of uses of the hemp plant itself, for
medicine, paper, clothing, "wood", and food. If you don't know the
facts, FIND OUT the facts by talking to a lot of smokers. They know. You
can also search out marijuana-legalization groups. They know.
With your new knowledge comes responsibility. Pass on the truthful
information to friends, co-workers, EVERYBODY. The more real information
people know about drugs, the less the DEA will be able to bash down
doors, confiscate equipment, and deprive people of a perfectly natural
experience.
While I would like to get into the topic of drug advocacy, there are
many essays already out there (print and electronic text) which do an
excellent job of informing the public of the truth about drugs.
This essay seeks to fill a gap in the drug literature by going into
detail about bongs, bong-making, and bong-using. I bring my own
experiences, experimentations, and reading into the creation of this
document. I hope it will enlighten many people. Pass it on!
The Bong Concept
----------------
The anatomy of a conventional bong is *very* simple. It consists of a
bowl (and screen), a stem (sometimes optional), a chamber, some liquid,
and an opening for the mouth(s).
| | <---"mouthpiece"
/ \
/ \
/ \
chamber---> | |
| | \ / <---bowl
"carb"---> O | //
| |// <---stem
| /
| /
| |
| |
\_____/
The crude diagram above shows a generic bong. Water fills the container
and stem just up to the carb. The water level should really be at least
an inch below the "carb" ("carburetor", I guess) so that when the bong
is tilted the water won't leak. The job of the carb is to regulate where
the air will be supplied from. If covered, the air (smoke) will come
from the bowl; if uncovered, air will rush through the carb and force
out the smoke remaining in the chamber.
I won't go through a boring description of every part of a bong--if you
don't know, ask someone. The point I want to illustrate is that a bong
merely forces the smoke to bubble up through water, thereby filtering
it. Every bong works with this principle. I've tried many innovations on
the generic bong for different effects. [More later.]
Not all bongs work with this method, however. Gravity bongs work on a
different concept, but I've never seen one besides from the one I made
with a friend [details later].
Why Bongs?
----------
Not everyone uses bongs. New smokers may wonder why anyone bothers with
bongs, and I know plenty of stoners who *prefer* joints to pipes or
bongs.
Those who favor joints will wax romantic about the joys of rolling, of
passing around a fatty, and of super-potent roaches. While I will not
turn down a joint making its way around a room, I have never rolled one
myself. I disdain joints mainly because of their wastefulness. Consider:
While the joint is being passed around or stalled, it is still burning,
losing precious smoke. If you grow your own buds you may be able to
afford such carelessness, but that is a luxury. Most stoners must pay
astronomical street prices for what is, in essence, a WEED.
Bongs have a special advantage. A stoner can control the burning by
using the flat side of a lighter to extinguish the bowl after taking a
hit. [More on this technique later.] The practice of extinguishing the
bowl can save a lot of pot in the long run.
Even those who don't habitually extinguish the bowl will still save more
buds, considering the size of a bowl compared with a joint. A bowl holds
a smaller amount of bud, so the most you can waste is the quantity a
bowl will hold. Stalling a joint, though, will use up a much larger
portion, depending on the size of the joint.
A bong burns a smaller surface area of bud than a joint does. It's easy
to notice that a joint lets loose a steady stream of smoke into the
atmosphere when it's being passed around, while a bowl tends to smother
the embers underneath ash and unburnt bud. Stoners may notice that a
stalled bong will release a very thin stream of smoke compared to a
burning joint. Moreover, bongs pull all the smoke into the chamber while
joints still waste smoke even while being toked.
Joints are *much* harsher on your lungs. While some joint-rollers will
use pre-made filters, or a makeshift filter made from a rolled-up paper,
nothing compares with the filtration effect of water. Ed Rosenthal of
_High Times_ has noted that water not only cools the smoke, but actually
removes harmful impurities as well. [Boiling water is a good choice in a
bong, too. More later.] Bongs have this advantage over pipes, which,
like joints, pass the unfiltered smoke right into your lungs.
Pipes are a little better than joints since they use a bowl the same way
bongs do. The burning is more controlled, and the bud will last longer.
Pipes can be made out of materials which cool the smoke a little, but
they will never cool it as well as a bong. Some commercial brands
feature a "resinator", a small chamber in the pipe's midsection which
stores a quantity of bud. As bowls are smoked, the smoke must pass
through the resinator, over the bud. A lot of THC-laden resin will be
despoited on the cache of bud, and when it is finally taken out and
smoked it will make for a mind-blowing hit. I have never seen a
resinator on a bong, but it would not be difficult to make a bong with
one.
Pipes (including hitters) and joints have the distinct advantage of
being very concealable and very portable. Hitters are great in crowds
because they are the easiest to pack. Some hitters are even painted to
look like cigarettes, so no one knows that YOU are smoking buds, though
everyone can smell it!
As far as portability goes, bongs can be made in a variety of sizes. I
made myself a portable bong out of a 12-oz. plastic water bottle. It
works fine, though the filtration leaves something to be desired.
Nevertheless, I prefer it over my corn-cob pipes, which I never use
anymore.
Considerations in Bong-Making
-----------------------------
When planning a bong, one should aim for specific goals. Should the bong
be portable? Fancy? Colorful? Here's a partial list of characteristics
which give a bong its individual personality:
airtightness
bowl size
choice of chamber/tube(s)
compactness/portability
decoration
draw
filtration
hit size
transparency
tube diameter
user accomodation
volume
etc.
My first time
-------------
The first bong I ever made was with a friend of mine. We were talking on
the phone about bud and we suddenly decided to make a bong together. We
wound up making two bongs: one fast-n-dirty gravity bong which worked
great and a "conventional" bong which sucked. The whole process was a
blast, as we were brainstorming and planning out every detail to come up
with a kick-ass bong. He dropped by my place at college and we headed
off for a nearby Ace Hardware to get supplies for the second bong. We
picked up a 10-foot length of PVC (polyvinyl chloride) for five bucks.
[NOTE: Do *NOT* use PVC for bongs--the heat of the smoke reacts with the
plastic, releasing small amounts of carcinogens. Ed Rosenthal says so,
too.] We had the helpful, but perplexed, hardware man cut it into five
two-foot sections and drill a 1/4" hole near the base of each. We bought
generous lengths of clear, flexible plastic tubing and some plexiglas
squares. By the time we were done, we had a *very* weird-looking,
primitive bong. But it worked (barely), and we were high. Good 'nuff.
Gravity Bong
------------
The gravity bong was much better. They are very easy to make, are hard
to fuck up, and give good hits. My friend and I made it entirely out of
a one-liter plastic pop bottle, a two-liter plastic pop bottle,
electrical tape, and some aluminum foil. After dumping the pop we sliced
the neck off the two-liter and sliced the bottom black part off the one-
liter (visualize this). The one-liter served as the "top" which fit
inside the "bottom" part, the two-liter. We took the plastic bottlecaps
and punched several holes in each, put them top-to-top and taped them up
(voila--the bowl) (silicone would have made a better seal). We put the
foil into one of the bottlecaps and punched a few tiny holes in it (the
screen).
The concept of a gravity bong is as simple as a conventional bong. The
two-liter bottom is filled with water and the one-liter top is inserted
inside (both top-up). The cap is filled with bud (of course) and screwed
onto the one-liter. The bud is lit and the one-liter is steadily pulled
upwards. A vacuum is thus created in the one-liter, drawing in the
smoke. The chopped-off bottom of the one-liter must not rise above the
water line, or else the vacuum is destroyed and your smoke is lost. Once
the one-liter is pulled up as far as possible and is filled with smoke,
the bottlecap (bowl) is unscrewed and removed. While still holding the
one-liter up (you'll feel a steady pull due to the high pressure of the
smoke wanting to escape), wrap your lips around the neck of the one-
liter and LET GO! The one-liter will drop into the water, forcing the
smoke out and into your lungs. Cool, huh? Try another bowl!
Back to Basics
--------------
You can always make a simple, effective bong in a couple of minutes with
a plastic container, a stem and bowl, and some silicone. Finding a good
stem and bowl may not always be easy, depending on where you live. There
is a head shop in Chicago near where I live which sells all sorts of
paraphernalia under-the-counter. Thus, I have been spoiled and don't
know much about alternatives. Before I found the head shop, though, I
did make a crude stem and bowl from Ace Hardware parts--namely, a length
of copper tubing and a brass fitting glued together. When in doubt of
supplies to use, browse a hardware store. You'll be inspired.
[See bong diagram from above....] Anyway, cut a hole about midway up the
container (allow for the stem's angle), and shove in the stem. Seal it
up with generous amounts of silicone and let dry. Poke a small hole on
the side opposite the stem (about 1/4", below the level of the bowl) for
the carb. There. You're done. The silicone makes an airtight seal--very
important--so you don't waste lung power.
Aesthetics
----------
While the quick-n-dirty approach will yield practical results, you may
opt for a bong that looks nice as well. I have been celebrating my
greatest achievement of bong-making since a few months ago, when I made
a hooka (multi-user bong with tubes) out of a brass teapot. I found the
teapot at a garage sale for $4. The hinge for the lid was damaged, but I
didn't need the lid anyway, so I threw it out. I stuck a stem and two
thin (3/16") flexible plastic tubes down the top opening and sealed it
up with silicone. Voila. The spout serves as the carb, and water can be
flowed into or poured out of it.
I have gotten many compliments on it, and for good reason. It's
perfectly airtight and gives the *best* hits with a clean screen. It
looks cool--a brass beauty with two tenacles streaming out and a stem
and bowl emerging from the top. It is the best one I have ever used,
save for The Monster [more on that later].
The point of my bragging is to emphasize the aesthetics of bong-making.
If you take the time to find a container you like, you'll be able to
make a bong which is not only functional but also looks great and
receives compliments for hits and appearance. Check out garage sales,
thrift stores, hardware stores, flea markets, etc.
A couple buddies of mine had a plastic pig's head which was supposed to
be a toy bank. Guess what they did with it.... They stuck a stem into
the pig's mouth and widened the coin slot to make an excellent bong
which has a large chamber for smoke.
Basically, you should have fun planning and making your bong. If you
have fun making it and are proud of the finished product you'll
certainly enjoy using it. And so will other stoners.
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. If it's meant to
store food, it's okay. 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 1-liter,
heavy-duty Ehrlenmeyer flask with a two-hole stopper (+ stem & 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. I've seen stems and bowls made from
aluminum, copper, and brass. Stay away from any metal which could leach
into the water, and especially stay away from lead (duh).
Clay is great for bongs. The same friend who owns The Monster had a
buddy of his make him a small clay bong. It's only about 6" high, with a
round chamber, a stout neck and a fixed bowl. It wasn't glazed or fired,
but it's airtight and very portable, not to mention cute as shit.
Volume = Filtration
-----------------
After making a few junky bongs out of the PVC sections [remember, DON'T
use PVC!], I decided that filtraton is an important characteristic for
my bongs to have. I swiped a one-gallon institutional-size plastic
mayonnaise jar with screw-on lid and washed it out. I stuck some PVC
pipe through the lid [remember--PVC: *bad*] and poked a hole in the side
of the container for a length of plastic tubing. One end of the tubing
rested on the bottom of the jar. The tubing came out the side, wraped
around the neck, and ended in a corn-cob pipe. A bent coat hanger
encircled the neck and stuck out a few inches to support the tubing and
pipe. It looked huge--it looked weird--but it worked great.
I always filled up the entire gallon with ICE WATER before packing
bowls. While it took a little bit of lung power to initially pull the
smoke through the water, it was worth it. The smoke, after passing
through the ONE GALLON of ICE WATER as small bubbles, became so cooled
that it felt like oxygen when you brought it into your lungs. Stoners
passing through my room took enormous hits without realizing it and got
baked beyond compare.
While that bong wasn't sophisticated by any account, it definitely gave
the coolest hits ever. I miss it for that reason, and I am still trying
to find a way to make a bong with optimal filtration AND easy draws.
The rule of thumb to keep in mind when considering how much filtration a
bong will have is simple. The three characteristics which matter most
are the coldness of the liquid, the size/number of the bubbles, and the
time the smoke is in contact with the water. The one-gallon bong I made
turned out to have the best filtration because 1] I loaded it with ice,
then filled it to the top with water; 2] The smoke broke into hundreds
of tiny bubbles inside the chamber (maximum surface area!); 3] The
bubbles travelled through about nine inches of water to get to the top.
Scraping Your Bong
------------------
I think one of the coolest things about smoking buds is that even after
your stash is all gone, you can still get high. Scraping bongs not only
salvages resin for a strong-and-fast buzz, but also is a necessary part
of bong maintenance. Smoking joints is the easiest thing to do--at most
you'll probably want to save the roach. Bongs, however, do get clogged
with resin and need to be cleaned. The parts which get most clogged are
those with the smallest openings.
The screen, of course, 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.
The best thing to do is to 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. Bon apetit!
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 harshness. 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. I tried some cherry-flavored bug juice once (cheap Kool
Aid), and it was horrible.
Chamber
-------
The chamber is the part of the bong which fills up with smoke when the
pot is being burned. The larger the chamber, the more smoke is "stored
up" before inhaling it. In my portable bong (12 oz.), the chamber is
very small and a stoner will feel the smoke entering his/her lungs
seconds after lighting up.
I am personally indifferent to large/small chambers. Since I am fairly
athletic, I have a healthy lung capacity and can take *very* big hits
off a bong--the biggest make me gag and cough, though, so I'm not as
gung-ho as I used to be. Big chambers are nice, though, because you can
use multiple breaths to burn a lot of bud, filling the large chamber.
Once the chamber is filled, you carb it and suck in a mind-numbing
amount of smoke. Three-foot bongs are cool because you can watch the
"packet" of smoke travel up the bong after it's carbed.
In deciding where to drill the carb, it's necessary to understand that
the volume of the container must be split between water and chamber
space. I usually drill halfway up or higher for maximum water volume.
Remember, though, that the water level cannot be higher that the "bud-
line", or else your bowl of bud will get soaked by the water travelling
up the stem.
I would also caution against leaving too little a chamber space, because
the smoke seems to be harsher when inhaled straight from the water. It's
easier to stomach the smoke when inhaled all at once rather than
gradually.
Smoking and extinguishing a bowl
--------------------------------
Having hung out with many bong-smokers in my meager 1.3 years of
smoking, 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 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.
A stoner friend of mine tends to take a few smaller hits on a single
breath. He doesn't violate stoner etiquette [see below], but I don't
know if his way is more effective than one long draw. My reasoning tells
me that carbing it multiple times on a single breath would cause a waste
of lung power/space. This figures because breath goes faster with an
open carb (less air resistance), so the less lung time used with an
uncovered carb, the better. However, I haven't tried his way so I can't
accurately critique this method.
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. It is rude to start a breath over, even if due to bad lighting
technique (wasted lung space). The exception is when delays are caused
by a faulty lighter. 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 of stoners 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.
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.
Above all else, though, the most important characteristic to look for in
a lighter is reliability. It's depressing to be holding a packed bong,
ready for a hit, and flicking the lighter over and over without getting
a 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.
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!
