Gemstone advice.

[Enialis]

I'm currently in the market for a gemstone insert or two and could use some advice, been looking at all of the cheaper sources, as well as constant gems as their on sale. Right now they have a clear sapphire insert for $80 and I was wondering how that compared to ruby? It seems cheaper but I cant find anywhere else that has them. Right now I'm looking at bear quartz and 710coils for ruby inserts and constant gems while they are on sale and really dont know if there is any functional difference or not.
The constant gems ones have a bevel it looks like and the bear quartz is cheap enough at $60 that I could buy two and not feel bad if one breaks, where as the 710coils one for $90 makes it expensive enough to hurt from breaking and also not be able to replace if nessesary right away. Decisions decisions. Ill likely pick up multiple over time to make sure i eventually support 710coils even if i dont go that route now, but ideally the bear quartz would be identical to the one from 710coils quality wise so i could either get 2 of them or get 1 and then the sapphire. Constant gems ruby insert is also normally like $250 and is on sale for $110 but i have no idea if they are higher quality or not.

Any thoughts? I'm not in a huge rush since i wont use it until after i replace my enail controller but since thats already on its way this would kind of be my last purchase before i could be done for another couple years so it would be get it over with as well.

 

[strech]

For dabbing purpose sapphire and ruby are the same just different color in my experience.

I have constant sapphire inserts myself and happy with them.

 

[Enialis]

For dabbing purpose sapphire and ruby are the same just different color in my experience.

I have constant sapphire inserts myself and happy with them.

Is sapphire any easier to clean the ruby? My reasoning is that it's clear and sense ill do being low temp and uptemp it might be easier to keep clean. My ruby pearls get black fairly quickly since I'm only doing uptemp and coldstarts at the moment while waiting on a new sic insert to arrive and getting a proper controller for low temp.

I've tried to figure out a way to keep my ruby pearls cleaner without resorting to the torch or 900° on the enail so they stay bright red every dab but it seems to bake material onto the surface before im comfortable throwing them in iso.

Whats a good cleaning routine for gemstone? I'm a heavy user but only do 25-50mg a dab so having one to use and one to soak would be idle if I can figure out the routine. Torching gemstone sounds dangerous considering I just broke sic through much less of a heat change.

 

[strech]

I keep a small jar with cleaner that I put my inserts in to keep them clean.

Sapphire and ruby will dirty up and clean up at the same rate. The sic inserts will give you a sense of it staying cleaner but i I think it's just the fact it's dark you don't see it dirty as much as the sapphire.

As with anything your temp, what your dabbing, and of course how well you clean between hits all have a factor. If I'm doing low temps 400 or so on the controller I get more pooling and a bit easier to clean. Go up in the temp and you'll get no pooling and more staining on the inserts.

 

[arb]

Anyone used diamond?

 

[strech]

Anyone used diamond?

With the price of the ruby and sapphires I'm almost scared to look at diamonds. But then again DIAMONDS!!!!!

 

[invertedisdead]

By generating a lot less reclaim, I figure my gem inserts are one of the few pieces of gear that actually paid for itself.

 

[FlyingLow]

Which one do you use Inverted?
Do you note any difference between smooth and faceted?

 

[invertedisdead]

Which one do you use Inverted?
Do you note any difference between smooth and faceted?

I have a faceted clear sapphire and blue sapphire from 710gems, and a regular smooth ruby from constant gems, their very first release.

I mostly use the faceted blue sapphire these days cause I think it looks cool. I do think the performance is slightly better than the others too, but it's splitting hairs.

Haven't noticed much of a difference between faceted vs smooth - it's probably more important to have a good fit between the insert and the sidewalls of your banger. A 19mm insert fits nice and snug in a 710coils banger due to the 2.5mm sidewalls. This is even more important when using an enail since you lose out on most of the radiant heat that comes from torching.

I mostly do cold starts off sapphire these days. My good buddy @biohacker got me on the gem cold start and I haven't looked back. It takes longer to get going than quartz but the heat retention is so good you never really need a reheat if you get it right.

 

[FlyingLow]

Thank you. I know what I am shopping for next!

I keep pulling on my RIO more and more with cold starts... the only time I am using the enail w/SiC is when I don't have time to properly qtip.