I really don't have much experience and / or knowledge on concentrates, (minus school hash) other than what I've read or seen online. I've only been able to get it one or two times and I'm pretty sure both times it would be considered wax. I didn't have a proper piece to use and the closest head shop is an hour and half drive, so I just topped off a regular spoon bowl with it a couple of boogers, but anyways I was wondering if someone could kinda give me a basic 101 on the different kinds of dabbing concentrates and what kinda of piece do you need for each or is there a couple that works for all? Sorry for my ignorance here but I only know a few folks in my area who even know what dabs are.
I'd be glad to assist on this one my friend - as many here were when I was new to this stuff.
Basically, there are a few ways to look at concentrates.
One is the consistency, as you mentioned. You can get shatter, wax, sap, crumble, honeycomb or runny super decarbed oil (or hashes of course). Each consistency sounds like the name. Shatter is such because it shatters like glass and is solid, sap is like shatter but with pull/give to it when you manipulate it. Wax is literally waxy, because of the plant waxes in the cannabis plant.
The most important way to look at concentrates for your purposes here is as follows - does it fully melt, or does it partially melt, or not at all?
You may have seen hashes before. Traditional brick/soapbar hash is less pure, with more contaminant, it is dark, hard and has been pressed together with the use of quite a bit of heat. This will not melt into oil/boil off to nothing so will either be smoked in a bowl (usually on a screen), or vaporized in a bud style vape.
Bubble hash or dry sift, on the other hand, depending on the quality may partially melt or fully melt. Partial melting concentrates are best used in a vaporizer (I recommend the Vapman for this task!), just smoking it is gonna destroy actives by the excessive heat/violent reaction with direct contact of flame.
Now when we get to our fully melting concentrates, which include high grade Bubble/Dry Sift, wax, shatter sap, oil, honeycomb or crumble, these are best dabbed on a nail.
A nail sits on top of your gong joint on a piece of your choice, you heat it either electronically (a la D-nail) or with a blowtorch. Then when it has cooled to the ideal dab temp (ironically a lot of people like to dab around 710f), you simply either by hand drop a piece of shatter onto the nail, or your use a dabber tool to touch the dab of concentrate onto the nail (make sure you are inhaling before dab touches nail or your vapor will fly into the air!).
You should not dab in the same piece you smoke in without a THOROUGH cleaning in between. Dabs taste great, smoke tastes dreadful. You will notice this difference immediately.
Now as to the kind of piece that suits dabbing:
For smoking or vaping buds, we make use of rigs with elaborate, complex percolators with a significant element of diffusion to smooth out the smoke. For concentrates that are dabbable, we want simpler percolators in pieces with less surface area of glass (ie: smaller pieces) generally (dab vapor will rapidly recondense on glass, leaving what is called 'reclaim', literally resolidified oil from your dab left in your piece - when you clean it with ISO, you can evaporate it down - you will need equipment to do this properly!) and then dab it again - little is wasted!
Concentrate pieces used to tend to have male joints, and many still do (typically 14mm male these days). However, an increasing number of concentrate pieces either have a 14mm or 18mm female joint on them now. Higher end (usually worked) pieces may come with a matching dropdown. This is a glass adapter that connects to your GonG joint on the piece and has a glass tube with another gong on the end so that you don't risk damaging the main joint when heating your nail (especially with a blowtorch!).
Get a dropdown if you get a pricey piece for the love of baby jesus!
Hope this helps you get started.
Dabbing is an exceptionally simple way to consume concentrates and if it fully melts, in my mind, it should be dabbed!
