cheap quartz nail question

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herbivore21

Well-Known Member
Thank you for taking the time to explain these things for us. I appreciate it. I'm hoping these tests come sooner than later. I always love to learn something new regarding my hobbies, especially in the technical side of things. I just wish there was a way to do away with the paranoia or misunderstanding people have about these things.

To me it's like the Naturalistic Fallacy, where people automatically assume that because something is natural it therefore must be good for you, and if it isn't natural it must be bad. Same with cheap and expensive. That not always the case.
It is a pleasure, glad to help, my friend. :)

Identifying the naturalistic fallacy is one of my favorite pastimes in my day job lol. As you've no-doubt noticed, this is a particularly pervasive mode of illogical thought in the cannabis community as well.
 

ReeferChiefer

Well-Known Member
It is a pleasure, glad to help, my friend. :)

Identifying the naturalistic fallacy is one of my favorite pastimes in my day job lol. As you've no-doubt noticed, this is a particularly pervasive mode of illogical thought in the cannabis community as well.
Yes, "organically grown" makes my eye twitch every time I see it. lol
 

Rare

Active Member
what do these little hairline scratches or whatever they are indicate? is my banger not actually "all quartz and made in the usa"?

sq8EtYe.png
 
Rare,

weenstoned

Well-Known Member
The scratches don't really indicate anything. It's probably Quartz but given that you said on the last page that you got it for cheap it's highly likely that the seller lied about it being made in the US. Unfortunately lots of sellers feel alright lying about drug paraphernalia as the buyer doesn't really have any recourse when buying an illegal product (in most jurisdictions).

If you're set on American made you'll be paying at least $60 and probably closer to $100.
 
weenstoned,

Rare

Active Member
yeah, im prolly just gonna swallow my pride and buy a qcb to be completely honest. i figured he was lying but whatever. thanks for the reassurance lol
 
Rare,

weenstoned

Well-Known Member
There's a bunch of American brands besides quave that range from 70-120
Evan Shore, Nastee, Mizer, J. Hoyes
 
weenstoned,

ReeferChiefer

Well-Known Member
I saw a $200+ quartz banger the other day. It legitimately pissed me off to see that prize. lol I just don't understand it. At that point you're paying for a brand name, the equivalent of paying $400 for a Gucci belt as opposed to a $30 quality leather belt.
 

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
I saw a $200+ quartz banger the other day. It legitimately pissed me off to see that prize. lol I just don't understand it. At that point you're paying for a brand name, the equivalent of paying $400 for a Gucci belt as opposed to a $30 quality leather belt.
Actually, some quartz designs represent a hell of a lot more labor and hence cost than others.

The pukinbeagle deep dish banger for example. I owned this for the longest time before going to my infiniti with a sapphire insert and then finally getting my SiC halo for dabs too big that overflow the insert onto the ti (since the newer dnail v1 ti nails with v1 sapphire insert mitigates this problem, much bigger sapphire insert for the same $$$).

Beforehand, I had used a variety of cheap quartz, an infiniti and a pukinbeagle DI 20mm nail (the reclaim collector tube on this nail was incredible, never got anywhere near as much claim in the rig - highly recommended and I'd love to see that principle used in next gen materials like SiC and Sapphire!).

Working quartz into super elaborate designs with fine tolerances is super, mega expensive. Especially by hand. PB for example (probably at least some other quartz nail makers) is making these nails by hand. There is a lot more work and concentration and QC failure involved in producing these kinds of fancy designs by hand with functional tolerances.

I can vouch for my >$200 deep dish banger being well worth the money over almost everything I'd used up to that point.

Still, even if I didn't have my sapphire halo, I'd never use quartz anymore. I would not buy expensive quartz over $200 especially when the quartz halo is better and can be had cheaper. Still I wouldn't even use the quartz halo either. SiC is just better.

My SiC halo is back in full rotation at 540f for bedside insomnia medicine on my Kevin Murray rig. I really do recommend these even over quartz halos. When the quartz halos were being designed, it was with the knowledge that this is about as far as we can tweak quartz for dabbing purposes and still get meaningful functional improvement.

Quartz is well and truly a last gen material IME and to be frank, I do not recommend using it in any form.

For those with lower budgets, the options are different of course. Quartz is very common as a cheap option for many. However, when I was in a less helpful financial position for dabbing purposes (we've all been here I'm sure - it is expensive medicine!), I ended up preferring ceramic as the best cheap option/last gen material for my needs. You can find flat coil ceramic nails for a steal and they function amazingly! :D

I do not recommend barrel coil ceramic nails as they require more heat from your coil and take forever to warm up IME (barrel heaters are just less efficient. You dab on the floor of the dish, not the sides!).

Ceramic is considerably tastier than quartz IME. Closer to SiC (and really SiC is more noticeably better for other reasons like durability/thermal shock resistance/thermal stability than for taste - which is slightly better nonetheless than ceramic).
 

weenstoned

Well-Known Member
Ya I definitely take less issue with Pukinbeagle's prices as their designs get a lot more elaborate.

Interesting to see your take on quartz has changed. If I were to buy a halo I would probably get the sic just for durability/longevity.
 

ReeferChiefer

Well-Known Member
Sorry brother, nothing can convince me that a quartz banger of all things is worthy of $230. lol It's like any other product, there are methods, materials, techniques and so on that make the prices go up. I don't doubt at all the quality of these bangers. I just could never justify spending that much on "design" alone. It's ludicrous to me. My $40 4mm deep dish banger has performed just as well as my friends $120 banger. Design isn't the same, I do like his better, but for what it's worth, if I'm able to get the same smoking experience/taste I personally cannot justify it.

Maybe if I made a lot more money than I do, I wouldn't mind. I would purchase the
pukinbeagle if it came with a male 18mm end at $130ish.
 
ReeferChiefer,

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
Sorry brother, nothing can convince me that a quartz banger of all things is worthy of $230. lol It's like any other product, there are methods, materials, techniques and so on that make the prices go up. I don't doubt at all the quality of these bangers. I just could never justify spending that much on "design" alone. It's ludicrous to me. My $40 4mm deep dish banger has performed just as well as my friends $120 banger. Design isn't the same, I do like his better, but for what it's worth, if I'm able to get the same smoking experience/taste I personally cannot justify it.

Maybe if I made a lot more money than I do, I wouldn't mind. I would purchase the
pukinbeagle if it came with a male 18mm end at $130ish.
You misread what I meant my friend, the design may be part of the reason for additional labor, but I am saying the main justification for the additional cost is this additional labor. I am a firm believer that if somebody works longer hours and produces something nicer, then they have every right to charge more, commensurate with the extra labor/functionality. I prefer to give my money to this kind of worker. Having used the product in question as well as many cheaper ones and other expensive ones, I can tell you that in my view, the cost is commensurate with the functionality increase at the time over other comparable quartz on the market. It is not the same experience and it definitely achieves better taste and quicker, more even vaporization (only than last gen quartz! remember, this is a last gen product, definitely not top of the line anymore!).

However today things are different - there are better options for less. Obviously it is a different story and the price seems outlandish now ;)


Ya I definitely take less issue with Pukinbeagle's prices as their designs get a lot more elaborate.

Interesting to see your take on quartz has changed. If I were to buy a halo I would probably get the sic just for durability/longevity.
That's right man, I've no doubt that there is overpriced quartz out there, but PB aren't the culprits - they work hard, produce by hand and produce some very impressive and innovative shit.

Their products have been imitated more than pretty much any other quartz I know of except maybe the QCB's. Especially the original PB jointed nails (with the floor of the dish mid way up the barrel coil instead of at the bottom like early, terrible quartz enail designs) got copied by everybody and their mothers!

There's a lot to be said for that additional durability too, SiC is the ultimate backup nail even for those who own a sapphire halo (yes, I have broken one before!).

I should qualify my later comments in the post you are quoting about quartz not tasting as good as SiC or ceramic do not apply to the dnail quartz halo, which is an exception to the quartz rule, but still IMO not as good as the SiC overall (in no small part for the durability reasons that you outline - it may be some of the toughest, best manufactured quartz for the job using bleeding edge technology but it is still quartz lol).

I haven't really changed my mind all that much about the quartz halo in recent times. I still think it is the best quartz out there, just also think that the best quartz nail does not equal the best nail - and that it hasn't for a long time now. Quartz has had its time in the sun IMO.

Still, in earlier times I definitely did find that I got tastier hits with the quartz halo over SiC, this was because of my use of the heater retaining nut in between coil and SiC changing the required temp and my not having dialled it in right. Persistent comparisons (especially once I started using the heater retainer below the nut) have brought me back to SiC being better overall for a while now.

A d-nail quartz halo at equally low temps to the SiC will taste marginally better for most kinds of extracts, but at the expense of major trails/reclaim/incomplete vaporization. There isn't quartz that lets you get into the low 500's range of temps without major trails. The quartz halo does let you go lower than any other quartz I've ever owned/used (and that is a serious swathe of the available quartz out there) without trails though.

SiC's major advantage is that you get almost the same quality of flavor as quartz does at equally low temps but with quicker and more complete vaporization, way better durability (than pretty much anything except Ti), less money and FAR better torch functionality (SiC halo is definitely the best torch nail I've ever used bar none). SiC is also much easier to clean. It tastes better throughout the hit too than quartz.

Hopefully this clarifies. A/B/C testing the quartz/SiC/sapphire halos has been quite the learning experience!
 
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TelFiRE

Well-Known Member
Herbivore, your posts have been quite educational. Thank you for taking the time to explain this, I sure have grown frustrated with the mountains of bullshit surrounding nails. Knowing that the main advantage of sic is avoiding vapor trails at low temps makes so much sense to me, and makes me wonder why it isn't listed as a main feature.
 

BeardedCrow

Well-Known Member
Is there a way to test if the nail is quartz?
I bought some today for 15 each and asked if it was quartz and the gangsta employees said 'oh for sure'. I somehow don't believe them, but got them anyways as I don't have a nail.

I was thinking of taking it outside on the concrete and torching it fully.

I remember my old nail exploding before, after about a year of use. Normal?
 
BeardedCrow,

NorCalOrganic

New Member
Impurities in cheap Quartz being hazardous to your health is entirely based on tactful fear mongering and/or urban legend that recently caught attention.

Unless there is actual studies with testable and verifiable results, as any other health hazard are determined and published, people are simply being duped into emptying out their wallets for simple peace of mind.

The choice is yours, but if it was up to me I'd rather save you that money and assure you that you're ok health wise smoking out of cheap Quartz. But if you're willing to believe what you find on the interwebs without confirmation, I doubt anything could convince you otherwise.


This right here is spot on. I did a post today about comparing my V3 Borobook banger to my buddies "american" insanely high priced Quave Club Banger (QCB). I will simply just copy and paste my reply from the other thread here. Also most of those articles shared in this thread have since been taken down assuming once the the site owners realized bloggers were running wild with unreliable fear mongering propaganda based articles. Check for yourself....

"I just went through this same dilemma with my a couple buddies of mine. One of my friends has a Quave banger and I use it all the time, we were simply trying to figure out if the Borobook Banger is of the same quality or material. I ordered Two of the V3 Borobook bangers for under $100 and honestly they look just like the quave but they only heat slightly longer (10-15 second longer heat retention from the Borobook bangers vs the Quave club banger. (the materials look 100% identical, quave's joints are the main difference in my opinion) I've seen some alternative nails that just look awful, but Borobook bangers / domeless nails look real nice in person, totally a quality product when you hold it and examine it, and it does look very very similar to the QCB if thats the look your going for.

One major thing to note is My friend has to use his quave 10 seconds quicker then my Borobook V3 banger cools off. We both did heat stress tests (right when I bought my borobook banger I heated it up as hot as possible with two propane torches on full blast at the banger then dropped it in ice water to thermal shock it. To my amazement (and excitement) the borobook nail help up completely fine (if this were glass, pyrex etc it would of shattered, meaning if this was anything besides pure quartz it wouldn't withstand a thermal shock. I tried another heat test thinking maybe the first one did do some damage that I couldn't see and the second heat test would break it but again to my surprise. and it made it without a single problem. We did one single heat stress test on the QCB because its 1 month old and used but it survived as well.

One thing to note though is the gold labeling on the Quave comes off, it was totally fading away after we ISO cleaned it and did our heat stress test, I would definitely prefer a sandblasted label over those Bake on labels on the QCB's but I got the V3, I will have to try the Borobook diamond edition soon and do some tests on that sandblasting but I would imagine heat or ISO wouldn't affect it since its blasted into the quartz.

A friend of mine blows glass and has actually worked with quartz many times, he let us know that when torched any un-pure minerals within the quartz will glow. Essentially if you have a brand new quartz banger and torch it to heat it up, it should not glow or look like its getting hot, it should be completely transparent still. If there is aluminum, lead, etc these elements will glow and the rest of the quartz will say transparent. Well, guess what, the Borobook Banger passed this test without a single problem, My mothership swing even has slight specs that glow more then the Borobook Banger (not saying anything bad about mothership) but this swing that I had from them that costs $160 was literally less pure then the Borobook Banger.

I love to have the nicest of the nice and if a brand name earns that extra premium I'm happy to pay a brand name or designer names premium price IF ITS WORTH IT, in this case it is absolutely not worth it. So In conclusion I am as happy as can be with my V3 Borobook Banger and plan to order some of their other designs in the near future.

As for your second question as to why Quave's pricing is the way it is, no it has nothing to do with the materials. If you've ever taken a look at a Quave rig for sale they are over $10,000, that's not because the glass he uses is insanely quality or high priced (it is quality but thats not where the price comes from). Quave is an artist, (like Picasso was with cone temperate art) he is one of the top paid artists in the glass industry and If he's rigs can pull 5 figure price tags from collectors no problem then anything with his name on it will come with a high ticket. (Picasso paintings didn't use some kind of million dollar paint). Other factors may come into play such as manufacturing processes etc but the majority of the price hike comes from the name. Hope this info helps if you haven't gotten a banger yet if not I'm sure another FC user will have this same exact question in the future."


Happy Derbin Everyone and Don't Spend the Money (Unless you want to)
~~NorCalOrganic
 
NorCalOrganic,

NorCalOrganic

New Member
Is there a way to test if the nail is quartz?
I bought some today for 15 each and asked if it was quartz and the gangsta employees said 'oh for sure'. I somehow don't believe them, but got them anyways as I don't have a nail.

I was thinking of taking it outside on the concrete and torching it fully.

I remember my old nail exploding before, after about a year of use. Normal?

Hold it up the the light. The entire nail bucket should be transparent. Impurities can sometimes be visible to the eye. The best thing to do is heat it up as hot as possible and dunk it in some cold water, if it survives chances are its Quartz. A quartz nail can break while doing this thermal shock test if it has a weak point, weak weld etc so this isn't always the best way but if they nail completely explodes when you heat it up and stress it with a quick cool down then its definitely glass / not quartz.
 
NorCalOrganic,

herbivore21

Well-Known Member
Herbivore, your posts have been quite educational. Thank you for taking the time to explain this, I sure have grown frustrated with the mountains of bullshit surrounding nails. Knowing that the main advantage of sic is avoiding vapor trails at low temps makes so much sense to me, and makes me wonder why it isn't listed as a main feature.
Only just saw this one, but I am glad to have helped you man!

I think a lot of the time the misinformation comes from people only talking about the quartz nails they've used (because everyone has heard or quartz by now and information travels slow, a lot of folks just getting into dabbing now are probably still getting info from old articles/videos saying that quartz is the best - in no small part because back then, the alternative was Ti lol). These folks haven't necessarily experienced newer nail materials or had a chance to really compare different nails to one another - let's face it, trying each different kind of nail material for yourself is fucking expensive!

Increasingly, more people are finally trying sapphire now and more folks still have had a chance to use a SiC nail so I expect the info I've shared will be of diminishing usefulness as time goes on!

I wouldn't dab on quartz at all now, especially since I've moved to high quality solventless concentrates like the full melt pictured to the left of this post. To me dabbing on quartz feels like wasting material due to incomplete vaporization or inferior taste vs SiC or sapphire respectively. :2c:
 
herbivore21,
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