web420
05-14-2005, 10:56 AM
Frequently Asked Questions about Color Changing Glass Pieces
1. Why is glass better than other materials?
Glass doesn't burn, sweat, give a flavor, or impart any impurities into the smoke. It can be cleaned completely. Glass is naturally attractive and alluring to the eye, it is also more versatile in how it can be shaped and colored than perhaps any other medium. The translucency of glass I believe has always appealed to people in a kind of magical way. Especially so in pipes as it lets a smoker see the smoke, and, more importantly, stale smoke, one can then blow the stale smoke out of the pipe before taking a hit. Stale smoke tastes like raunch from hell, and will make you gag and hack in the most unpleasant of ways. The vast majority of smokers I know (well over 90% of them) would rather smoke out of glass than any other kind of pipe.
2. How is glass colored? How does it change colors?
Pieces of metal (usually silver and/or gold) are held in the flame of the torch until vaporized (often called 'fuming'). The glass is rotated in this vapor stream until a fine layer of the vaporized metal is visible on the surface of the glass. After this, clear glass is applied (often in 'dots' and 'lines') to 'encase' the vaporized metal in between layers of glass. There are many techniques and methods of applying the fumes and clear glass making a myriad of different colors, and endless types of patterns that one can come up with. The colors produced with fumed metals are best when they are translucent, vibrant, and reflective. As the pipe darkens with use, the colors (many barely visible) become darker and much more conspicuous, thus causing the appearance of 'color change' (the glass doesn't really change colors though).
3. Should I use a screen with my glass?
To screen, or not to screen... In a word: no. Most people who use glass pipes these days have chosen to forgo the whole screen rigmarole. Although I have heard rumors that screens have a toxic coating you should burn off, I haven't validated that. For myself, I just find them too much of a hassle to mess with as they get clogged so easily. I use to not be able to stand 'sucking crap' down, burning bits in the back of my throat and all that, but, I have since become adept at avoiding this by learning when to suck hard, and when not to. Also if I do eat a bit of ash occasionally, I just swallow it. I discovered that the distastefulness of this was largely psychological for me, and I've even found that partially burned material doesn't taste that bad after all. On the other hand, I hate trying to hit a bowl through anything clogged, especially when you have to pull out most or all of the bowl just to get enough air flow for decent combustion, and nothing is more aggravating than trying to dig an air passageway through a bowl with a poker, and, not being successful, having to pull most or all of the bowl out just to clean the screen (and of course by the time you get the bowl loaded back up, you've somehow lost half of it). Others will swear by screens, and seem to require them with the same intensity that I require food and water. Screens may be best used if you only have shake to smoke. But to each their own...
4.How do I clean my glass pipe or bubbler?
Use Formula 420!
5.My pipe broke. Can it be fixed?
The answer to this is that it depends. It depends on whether you know someone locally with the skill and willingness to fix it, and on how bad the break is. A clean break can often be easily repaired, while obviously if it's smashed to smithereens, forget it. How bad is too bad? Fixing broken glass really is almost an art in itself, that being said, if you can conceive in any way that it might possibly be able to be fixed, it probably could be. I have seen blowers work what I called 'miracles' with broken pieces I would have just laughed at and chucked. It really depends on the blower, and quite possibly what kind of mood he is in at the time ;-)
6.How do they get the hole going through the pipe (making it hollow)
These are often the thoughts of someone being exposed to 'hand blown' glass pipes for the first time. For starters, the raw glass is available in both rods and tubes of varying sizes. Pieces of this tubing are rotated in the flame of a torch, and heated until the glass is pliable (think of a sugar-daddy on a hot day, or honey at about room temp). Once the glass is in this semi-liquid state, it can be manipulated with various tools, gravity, and by blowing into the hot tube. Patterns are added by applying colored rod, and/or encasing fumed on metals (mostly gold and silver) with layers of clear glass. I realize this description raises many more questions than it answers, but the process is really too involved for me to go into more detail here.
7. What is a glass lathe?
A glass lathe is a machine that spins glass so that the worker doesn't have to do it with her hands. This allows larger pieces to be worked much more easily. There are other types of lathes, including ones for working metal and wood.
8.What is the difference between lathe work and hand work?
Lathe work tends to be larger pieces that would be too cumbersome to do by hand. There are also many techniques that can be performed by hand, but not on the lathe. We even make some pieces partially on the lathe, and then take them off the lathe for working by hand.
9.What exactly is 'inside-out' work? Why does it seem so much more expensive?
Most glass pipes have a color pattern of some kind on the outside surface of the glass (which is often encased in one or more layers of externally added glass). So called 'inside-out' work usually refers to glass that has the color patterns on the inside surface of the glass. Putting the work on the inside looks much more attractive and here's why: the entire color pattern is magnified by the thick layer of glass between the outer surface of the glass and the pattern. Also, as the inside work melts flush with the inner surface of the pipe, the color patterns 'sink' into the glass causing beautiful 3 dimensional structures to appear deep inside the glass - a look that's impossible to achieve with just outside work. Working on the inside is much more difficult and time consuming for the blower, making pieces done this way much more expensive than their outside worked counterparts.
10.What is a kiln, and why does glass need to be fired?
A kiln is a kind of high temperature oven most often used to fire harden ceramics. In glass, it is used to remove the stress that occurs to pieces as they are being made, and to prevent stress from occurring as the piece cools (this process is known as 'annealing'). We have seen unfired pieces spontaneously crack, and even explode for no apparent reason. Properly annealed pieces on the other hand are surprisingly strong, and we have seen many of them bounce off of concrete (4 ft drop) again and again, with no detectable damage (not that you should try this with your glass, even fully annealed pieces can break on the concrete).
11. What points determine a pipes overall quality?
There are several main points to look for when determining the quality of glass:
No cracks! - When buying a piece of glass, check it carefully for cracks. Hold it up to the light, and rotate slowly while meticulously examining for cracks. Any pipe that has a crack you can consider virtually worthless, as it will almost surely break there at some point in the not-so-distant future.
Thickness consistency - While thicker glass is stronger, and generally better, it is of more importance that glass be evenly thick (NOT overly thick on one side, and thin on the other). To understand why this is so important, you have to understand a little bit about how glass stresses as it cools. You can imagine that glass, like other materials, expands when heated, and contracts when cooled. When two areas of the same piece of glass have different thicknesses, a stress occurs between the areas, as they cool with different contraction rates. (This is because the thicker part retains more heat, thus contracting at a slower rate) This stress diminishes the structural strength of the glass causing it to crack and break more easily upon impact. This stress can be seen using a device called a polariscope. Firing a piece at 1040 degrees, and allowing it to cool slowly and evenly in the kiln (known as 'annealing'), helps eliminate this stress.
Structurally sound shape - Beware if your pipe is stretched out, blown out too thin, or narrow in any one spot. Can you visualize where the pipe would break if it fell on a hard surface (obvious weak spots)? As a general rule, convex shapes are sounder than concave shapes. Round is strong. You can take a perfectly round (Pyrex) glass marble, and repeatedly (and forcefully) bounce it off the concrete with no detectable damage. This is because the round shape of the marble is so structurally sound. If you took that marble, heated and stretched it out to a thin rod, you would find that it no longer bounces, but instead breaks. This is an exaggerated example, but it makes an important point: shape matters. Does the pipe you're viewing look like it has an overall stout shape, like it could withstand some impact, or does it have a more fragile appearance?
Flow - All the glass should 'flow' together, that is, you shouldn't be able to detect any seams or texture on the pipe by running your fingers across it, it should feel perfectly smooth everywhere.
Seals or 'welds' - If your pipe or bubbler is a 'two piece' (meaning that two pieces have been fused together), examine where the pieces come together (called a 'seal'). Seals are one of the more difficult operations facing a glassblower, with much opportunity for error. Look closely at the seal, is it smooth? Do you notice any thickness inconsistency or 'ripples' on the inside of the seal? These are tell-tale signs of a poorly done seal. If the seal is done well, it will not be easy to see where the two pieces actually come together, and you will have to pay close attention to where the color pattern breaks in order to see it.
Marbles, decorations - Any marbles or other added glass decorations need to be fully melted in with the rest of the pipe. Look at the seams where the marbles connect to the pipe. Are they consistent looking, or are there 'breaks' in the continuity of the seam? The seams themselves should not be pronounced, but instead should flow 'seamlessly' into the rest of the glass. The more of a seam there is between the marble and the pipe, the more likely it is to break off or cause a crack. Also, in general, a marbles widest point should be where it connects to the pipe. Marbles that 'get wider as they go' (like an upside-down pyramid or cone) tend to break off easily.
Aesthetics - Does the placement of the carb allow you to hold it comfortably in your hand? Does it stand up stable without spilling a loaded bowl? Is the carb large and placed well enough to allow the smoke to clear efficiently? How big is the bowl hole? It should ideally be between 1.5 and 2.5 mm. Anything smaller clogs too frequently, anything larger pulls the chunks into the pipe before full combustion. If it's a bubbler, do you end up with stinky-water on your carb finger?
These are just general guidelines that I recommend. If you see an artful piece that seems to violate these principles, don't necessarily knock it. For instance, marbles violate the principle of thickness consistency, as the glass gets thicker where the marbles are, yet there are many marbles that are worth having on a pipe because of the beauty they add. Almost all rules have an appropriate time to be broken, so keep and open mind, using common sense and your best judgment (all things considered) when making decisions.
12.What is the difference between 'glassblowing' and 'lampworking'?
Originally glassblowing was done with small furnaces fired by wood, and the glass was worked on the end of an iron tube called a 'blowpipe'. This method of using blowpipe and furnace is traditionally called 'glassblowing', while 'lampworking' came later with the invention of various kinds of 'lamps' that could melt the glass. They literally use to blow with their breath into the flame of an oil lamp; that was their torch, or 'lamp'. More sophisticated means of forcing air were eventually employed, and today (big jump there) lampworkers, or benchworkers mostly use compressed propane and oxygen which produces a much hotter flame than a simple gas-air torch. The old (ancient) style of glassblowing, with the furnace and blowpipe is also still very much in use today.
This info was copied from Easy Bong (http://shop.grasscity.com/shop/clickthru.html?id=web420)
1. Why is glass better than other materials?
Glass doesn't burn, sweat, give a flavor, or impart any impurities into the smoke. It can be cleaned completely. Glass is naturally attractive and alluring to the eye, it is also more versatile in how it can be shaped and colored than perhaps any other medium. The translucency of glass I believe has always appealed to people in a kind of magical way. Especially so in pipes as it lets a smoker see the smoke, and, more importantly, stale smoke, one can then blow the stale smoke out of the pipe before taking a hit. Stale smoke tastes like raunch from hell, and will make you gag and hack in the most unpleasant of ways. The vast majority of smokers I know (well over 90% of them) would rather smoke out of glass than any other kind of pipe.
2. How is glass colored? How does it change colors?
Pieces of metal (usually silver and/or gold) are held in the flame of the torch until vaporized (often called 'fuming'). The glass is rotated in this vapor stream until a fine layer of the vaporized metal is visible on the surface of the glass. After this, clear glass is applied (often in 'dots' and 'lines') to 'encase' the vaporized metal in between layers of glass. There are many techniques and methods of applying the fumes and clear glass making a myriad of different colors, and endless types of patterns that one can come up with. The colors produced with fumed metals are best when they are translucent, vibrant, and reflective. As the pipe darkens with use, the colors (many barely visible) become darker and much more conspicuous, thus causing the appearance of 'color change' (the glass doesn't really change colors though).
3. Should I use a screen with my glass?
To screen, or not to screen... In a word: no. Most people who use glass pipes these days have chosen to forgo the whole screen rigmarole. Although I have heard rumors that screens have a toxic coating you should burn off, I haven't validated that. For myself, I just find them too much of a hassle to mess with as they get clogged so easily. I use to not be able to stand 'sucking crap' down, burning bits in the back of my throat and all that, but, I have since become adept at avoiding this by learning when to suck hard, and when not to. Also if I do eat a bit of ash occasionally, I just swallow it. I discovered that the distastefulness of this was largely psychological for me, and I've even found that partially burned material doesn't taste that bad after all. On the other hand, I hate trying to hit a bowl through anything clogged, especially when you have to pull out most or all of the bowl just to get enough air flow for decent combustion, and nothing is more aggravating than trying to dig an air passageway through a bowl with a poker, and, not being successful, having to pull most or all of the bowl out just to clean the screen (and of course by the time you get the bowl loaded back up, you've somehow lost half of it). Others will swear by screens, and seem to require them with the same intensity that I require food and water. Screens may be best used if you only have shake to smoke. But to each their own...
4.How do I clean my glass pipe or bubbler?
Use Formula 420!
5.My pipe broke. Can it be fixed?
The answer to this is that it depends. It depends on whether you know someone locally with the skill and willingness to fix it, and on how bad the break is. A clean break can often be easily repaired, while obviously if it's smashed to smithereens, forget it. How bad is too bad? Fixing broken glass really is almost an art in itself, that being said, if you can conceive in any way that it might possibly be able to be fixed, it probably could be. I have seen blowers work what I called 'miracles' with broken pieces I would have just laughed at and chucked. It really depends on the blower, and quite possibly what kind of mood he is in at the time ;-)
6.How do they get the hole going through the pipe (making it hollow)
These are often the thoughts of someone being exposed to 'hand blown' glass pipes for the first time. For starters, the raw glass is available in both rods and tubes of varying sizes. Pieces of this tubing are rotated in the flame of a torch, and heated until the glass is pliable (think of a sugar-daddy on a hot day, or honey at about room temp). Once the glass is in this semi-liquid state, it can be manipulated with various tools, gravity, and by blowing into the hot tube. Patterns are added by applying colored rod, and/or encasing fumed on metals (mostly gold and silver) with layers of clear glass. I realize this description raises many more questions than it answers, but the process is really too involved for me to go into more detail here.
7. What is a glass lathe?
A glass lathe is a machine that spins glass so that the worker doesn't have to do it with her hands. This allows larger pieces to be worked much more easily. There are other types of lathes, including ones for working metal and wood.
8.What is the difference between lathe work and hand work?
Lathe work tends to be larger pieces that would be too cumbersome to do by hand. There are also many techniques that can be performed by hand, but not on the lathe. We even make some pieces partially on the lathe, and then take them off the lathe for working by hand.
9.What exactly is 'inside-out' work? Why does it seem so much more expensive?
Most glass pipes have a color pattern of some kind on the outside surface of the glass (which is often encased in one or more layers of externally added glass). So called 'inside-out' work usually refers to glass that has the color patterns on the inside surface of the glass. Putting the work on the inside looks much more attractive and here's why: the entire color pattern is magnified by the thick layer of glass between the outer surface of the glass and the pattern. Also, as the inside work melts flush with the inner surface of the pipe, the color patterns 'sink' into the glass causing beautiful 3 dimensional structures to appear deep inside the glass - a look that's impossible to achieve with just outside work. Working on the inside is much more difficult and time consuming for the blower, making pieces done this way much more expensive than their outside worked counterparts.
10.What is a kiln, and why does glass need to be fired?
A kiln is a kind of high temperature oven most often used to fire harden ceramics. In glass, it is used to remove the stress that occurs to pieces as they are being made, and to prevent stress from occurring as the piece cools (this process is known as 'annealing'). We have seen unfired pieces spontaneously crack, and even explode for no apparent reason. Properly annealed pieces on the other hand are surprisingly strong, and we have seen many of them bounce off of concrete (4 ft drop) again and again, with no detectable damage (not that you should try this with your glass, even fully annealed pieces can break on the concrete).
11. What points determine a pipes overall quality?
There are several main points to look for when determining the quality of glass:
No cracks! - When buying a piece of glass, check it carefully for cracks. Hold it up to the light, and rotate slowly while meticulously examining for cracks. Any pipe that has a crack you can consider virtually worthless, as it will almost surely break there at some point in the not-so-distant future.
Thickness consistency - While thicker glass is stronger, and generally better, it is of more importance that glass be evenly thick (NOT overly thick on one side, and thin on the other). To understand why this is so important, you have to understand a little bit about how glass stresses as it cools. You can imagine that glass, like other materials, expands when heated, and contracts when cooled. When two areas of the same piece of glass have different thicknesses, a stress occurs between the areas, as they cool with different contraction rates. (This is because the thicker part retains more heat, thus contracting at a slower rate) This stress diminishes the structural strength of the glass causing it to crack and break more easily upon impact. This stress can be seen using a device called a polariscope. Firing a piece at 1040 degrees, and allowing it to cool slowly and evenly in the kiln (known as 'annealing'), helps eliminate this stress.
Structurally sound shape - Beware if your pipe is stretched out, blown out too thin, or narrow in any one spot. Can you visualize where the pipe would break if it fell on a hard surface (obvious weak spots)? As a general rule, convex shapes are sounder than concave shapes. Round is strong. You can take a perfectly round (Pyrex) glass marble, and repeatedly (and forcefully) bounce it off the concrete with no detectable damage. This is because the round shape of the marble is so structurally sound. If you took that marble, heated and stretched it out to a thin rod, you would find that it no longer bounces, but instead breaks. This is an exaggerated example, but it makes an important point: shape matters. Does the pipe you're viewing look like it has an overall stout shape, like it could withstand some impact, or does it have a more fragile appearance?
Flow - All the glass should 'flow' together, that is, you shouldn't be able to detect any seams or texture on the pipe by running your fingers across it, it should feel perfectly smooth everywhere.
Seals or 'welds' - If your pipe or bubbler is a 'two piece' (meaning that two pieces have been fused together), examine where the pieces come together (called a 'seal'). Seals are one of the more difficult operations facing a glassblower, with much opportunity for error. Look closely at the seal, is it smooth? Do you notice any thickness inconsistency or 'ripples' on the inside of the seal? These are tell-tale signs of a poorly done seal. If the seal is done well, it will not be easy to see where the two pieces actually come together, and you will have to pay close attention to where the color pattern breaks in order to see it.
Marbles, decorations - Any marbles or other added glass decorations need to be fully melted in with the rest of the pipe. Look at the seams where the marbles connect to the pipe. Are they consistent looking, or are there 'breaks' in the continuity of the seam? The seams themselves should not be pronounced, but instead should flow 'seamlessly' into the rest of the glass. The more of a seam there is between the marble and the pipe, the more likely it is to break off or cause a crack. Also, in general, a marbles widest point should be where it connects to the pipe. Marbles that 'get wider as they go' (like an upside-down pyramid or cone) tend to break off easily.
Aesthetics - Does the placement of the carb allow you to hold it comfortably in your hand? Does it stand up stable without spilling a loaded bowl? Is the carb large and placed well enough to allow the smoke to clear efficiently? How big is the bowl hole? It should ideally be between 1.5 and 2.5 mm. Anything smaller clogs too frequently, anything larger pulls the chunks into the pipe before full combustion. If it's a bubbler, do you end up with stinky-water on your carb finger?
These are just general guidelines that I recommend. If you see an artful piece that seems to violate these principles, don't necessarily knock it. For instance, marbles violate the principle of thickness consistency, as the glass gets thicker where the marbles are, yet there are many marbles that are worth having on a pipe because of the beauty they add. Almost all rules have an appropriate time to be broken, so keep and open mind, using common sense and your best judgment (all things considered) when making decisions.
12.What is the difference between 'glassblowing' and 'lampworking'?
Originally glassblowing was done with small furnaces fired by wood, and the glass was worked on the end of an iron tube called a 'blowpipe'. This method of using blowpipe and furnace is traditionally called 'glassblowing', while 'lampworking' came later with the invention of various kinds of 'lamps' that could melt the glass. They literally use to blow with their breath into the flame of an oil lamp; that was their torch, or 'lamp'. More sophisticated means of forcing air were eventually employed, and today (big jump there) lampworkers, or benchworkers mostly use compressed propane and oxygen which produces a much hotter flame than a simple gas-air torch. The old (ancient) style of glassblowing, with the furnace and blowpipe is also still very much in use today.
This info was copied from Easy Bong (http://shop.grasscity.com/shop/clickthru.html?id=web420)