Glass pipes are Contemporary tobacco smoking accessories and smoking anything other than contemporary tobacco is not entirely recommended.
Glass pipes are usually one-of-a-kind sort of thing, but blowers will frequently repeat popular designs and patterns. A glass piece can run from as low as five, or even up into the thousands of dollars depending on the amount of color and work the artist puts into the piece. Glass pipes come in the following styles: Cliliums, bubblers, bongs --ooops, Don't say the B-word-- I mean "water pipes", color-changing, and uh, every imaginable shape. It's up to the glass blower to decide what their skills and imagination will allow.
Common names for styles and patterns blown into pipes.
Double/triple blown - Color
and design is inside a thick
clear glass coating.
Inside out - Color appears on the surface.
Fritz - Crazy, random speckled, dotted pattern.
Cord - Thick lines of decorative cording made from a pre-blown
cane.
Rake - Thin lines dragged across the pipe.
Latticino- Swirl of thin lines in a woven-type pattern.
Color changing?
To give glass its color it undergoes a process called fuming. Metal alloys like, silver and gold, are mixed into the glass and heated to vaporizing point. Entrapping the ions, giving it the tinted hue that's best viewed with a build up of resin in the pipe. Giving the color-changing pipe the name, the color doesn't change but becomes darker when resin collects in the pipe.
Cleanliness is next to godliness
A clean glass pipe will provide a pure tasting hit up until point it becomes filled with resin. On the other hand, a metal pipe will have a metallic tinge up to the point it becomes dirty. After that point, any dirty pipe is considered a seasoned pipe and will taste like whatever has been smoked out of it. Glass is also easier to clean compared to wood, but there is not as much difference between metal and glass. Wood will add a nice taste, metal is durable and can stand up to the rigors of life, but glass is by far the cleanest toke.
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