I appreciate your obvious knowledge on the subject, Herbivore, but as one of the previously mentioned folks who are new to the dab/oil world, I find it impenetrable. I'm sure SiC and SiN are synthetic nail-making substances, but other than forms of silicon, I'm lost. I'm not nearly familiar enough with the rest of the jargon to parse it. In a nearly identical thread around the same time, the question was also not really answered, but there were references to enails, which I guess are thermostatically-controlled dabbing surfaces? Sounds like a good thing to know something about.
As an absolute beginner (1 dab, at a friend's, ceramic nail of unknown origin), I want to find out what y'all started with & how it worked out for you? Why (how soon) did you replace it and what did you replace it with? What are you HOPING to end up with? If you only HAD $20/25/35 to get a nail, a banger, a bucket, WHICH banger/bucket/nail, and WHY THAT ONE? And what ONE THING do you feel you've learned the hard way, that you wish you'd known before your bought your first glass?
My first post, been reading like a fiend for weeks, still have HUNDREDS of pages to catch up on, but so glad to be here: in imminent danger of purchasing 1st oil/dab/wax rig & need to get it as right as possible the first time through. Finally broke down & registered to get involved in the many conversations I've become silently involved in, this being the one with the most push behind it.
Guess I mis-read the title as "Nails, bangers, honey buckets, etc FOR BEGINNERS"
Anyhow, thanks. Hi!
Greetings sir.
I understand that much of what I say may be very dense to the unitiated. I also appreciate your position, I only dabbed for the first time about 2 years ago, and I live in a location where NOBODY DABS. There is no oil here, there is no dabbing culture. I import everything I use and make my own concentrates. Rest assured that I came to dabbing more in the dark about the whole thing than you did
There is hope for all of us!
If you only have a very small amount of money to spare like you describe, then I recommend cheap ceramic nails for the tastiest option, maybe cheap quartz if you can't quite afford a domeless.com ceramic nail or similar with a carb.
However, for
absolute beginners who have enough money, in my view you should not waste your time with quartz or ceramic (especially not titanium!). Just get a SiC nail. Regardless of whether you intend to use torch or e-nail. You will not regret it, you should not need to buy another nail - it'll last forever with minimal care! Remember, quartz and even ti nails are gonna degrade/decompose over time through oxidation. Traditional ceramic nails can break over time quite easily too.
I have a Sapphire Halo, the unequivocal best nail on the market (but sadly not yet publicly available with no ETA) and I still regularly use my SiC nail when out and about - every dabber should have one. Better taste than anything but Sapphire IME, almost indestructible (unless dropped/thrown from a great height onto a hard surface while hot or something), huge thermal shock resistance (best torch nail ever hands down) which means that drastically fast changes from cold to hot temps are handled without problems - this is the Achilles' heal of quartz and even sapphire as they break from considerably less thermal shock. SiC also has the fastest and most even vaporization at the lowest possible temps of any material - including sapphire!
If you're absolutely broke on a bare minimum budget and absolutely cannot wait til you can afford a little extra for ceramic (no shame in that!) then I suggest cheap domeless quartz with a carb or cheap dome and quartz nail setup compatible with your rig. This is where I started out back when I had much less funds myself
If you are broke but can in any way afford a little more than the above quartz setup, get a cheap ceramic nail/carb. It'll taste much better and give more full vaporization/less pooling of oil.
For the record, I do not rate bangers above standard nail form factors. Still, for torch use they can be quite good and many like them! I would stay away from bangers with diagonal openings at the top rather than a flat rim that a carb can be left to balance on top of in use. I prefer to be able to leave my carb cap on top and not hold it in place to prevent a fall off the downward facing diagonal outer rim of the banger!
I find that quartz bangers on enails (this may not be relevant to you) have too much pooling/slow vaporization for my liking (and I've used a good cross-section of these, including quartz bangers that cost almost exactly as much as my sapphire halo!).
Hope this helps you in your search my friend
P.S. SiC is Silicon Carbide, it is a ceramic, not a silicone rubber or anything similar (silicone rubbers should never, ever be anywhere near the temps that we heat a nail to!). It is a very strong ceramic, the one used to make bulletproof ceramic plate inserts used in body armor to stop bullets. It should not ever oxidate from our intended usage, and even if it somehow did degrade from too much heat, the byproduct is a silica oxide layer. Silica oxide is also known as quartz
Silicone Carbide is so inert that when you degrade it from too much heat (a very difficult thing to do by dabbing!) it just gets a layer of quartz over it!
P.P.S If you need any further explanation on any of these, feel free to ask, happy to help you man
@grokit holy shit bro, for some reason I'd thought you'd been dabbing for ages! I look forward to seeing how you find dabbing
I may also have a cheap ceramic or ti nail thingie somewhere too.
I haven't really dabbed yet either!
