Discontinued The Okin by D.M. Pipes

[grokit]

I can't wait to try mine but I know I will soon. Not gonna put my whatever through my okin, it's gotta have the kgb for its inaugural session. For now I will just stare, handle and marvel. Soon my precious!

 

[sasNW]

Would it be possible/easy to light a charcoal on a campfire? I'm hoping my okin will be here before my first climbing trip of the year in a week and can't wait to use this beauty around the fire!

 

[VegNVape]

Hey @sasNW - I don't see why not. If you can locate one of the charcoals carefully enough at the edge of your campfire in a position where it will receive enough heat, & then maybe move it with tweezers to place it in the Okin?
A torch will definitely be much faster & more reliable, but a campfire sounds natural & organic - it would be fun to try.

Well, I couldn't just take a photo of the charcoals now could I? . . . .

 

[AJS]

Literally....had a dream last night that someone sold me their Okin and I got to try it.
Who would've thought I got to try this bad boy out in a dream!
May I be so bold to add that I still remember the flavor....very nice.

I'm guessing the blue dream made me dream Okin.

 

[Dan Morrison]

Literally....had a dream last night that someone sold me their Okin and I got to try it.
Who would've thought I got to try this bad boy out in a dream!
May I be so bold to add that I still remember the flavor....very nice.

I'm guessing the blue dream made me dream Okin.

Hahaha, this is so great!!

 

[IAmKrazy2]

I got an email from Dan the Man! Lucky 46. Maybe even before the end of April? Very excited.

 

[Dan Morrison]

I am working on them now! Hopefully done by mid April... but I like to build in a two week buffer because it always seems that things take twice as long as I think they will, haha.

 

[IAmKrazy2]

No hurries and no worries Dan, I will be stoked to get it whenever it arrives. Good things sometimes take time.

 

[Dan Morrison]

The Okins design is all about aging gracefully, so I thought it would be cool to see how an Okin looks after some time in the field.

I made this Okin just over a year ago. It was one of the final prototypes, and it's been my personal Okin ever since. One thing that's different here vs. the production models is the lack of patina on the steel tip. Here you can see how the patina naturally forms.

It's gone through a lot of abuse (on purpose, mostly). I like how some of the battle scars remind me of moments...camping trips..good times with friends..

I must have dropped the damn thing more than 100 times by now.. sometimes in water.. and it's A-OK. Box sleeve still fits great!

Looking forward to year 2 with the Okin.

 

[The Stranger]

The Okins design is all about aging gracefully, so I thought it would be cool to see how an Okin looks after some time in the field.

I made this Okin just over a year ago. It was one of the final prototypes, and it's been my personal Okin ever since. One thing that's different here vs. the production models is the lack of patina on the steel tip. Here you can see how the patina naturally forms.

It's gone through a lot of abuse (on purpose, mostly). I like how some of the battle scars remind me of moments...camping trips..good times with friends..

I must have dropped the damn thing more than 100 times by now.. sometimes in water.. and it's A-OK. Box sleeve still fits great!

Looking forward to year 2 with the Okin.

That's cool to see! What's the yellow stripes wooden thing in the fifth and last picture used for?

 

[Dan Morrison]

That's my drill holder. It's actually made from brass.

http://www.grobetusa.com/brass-handle-pin-vise-3-1-8-oal-0-to-028-capacity/

I'm pretty sure this is it. Mine is vintage and says France on the side. The one from Grobet is...I think..made in Italy, same dimensions.

I thought about including these with each Okin, instead of making a drill out of wood... advantages being that I don't have to make them, heh, and you can swap out different drill sizes....

I may still do this, but I'd have to get a bulk deal on them to make it worth my time.

Interestingly, the charcoal drill is one of the most expensive pieces of the whole Okin... the drill bits I get from Viking tool company in the U.S., and they are not cheap... but they are vastly superior to the cheap Chinese bits. Just a little interesting tidbit, heh.

 

[grokit]

I'm settling down to try my okin, but I forgot/can't figure out where the instructions are, for drilling the charcoal at least. They're not in the original post, is there a website or a sticky/best-of page or...

 

[Dan Morrison]

I'm settling down to try my okin, but I forgot/can't figure out where the instructions are, for drilling the charcoal at least. They're not in the original post, is there a website or a sticky/best-of page or...

Here ya go! http://imgur.com/a/B4z32

It's more towards the bottom of the album.

 

[grokit]

Thanks @Dan Morrison, and bookmarked
I can't believe I didn't have that "favorited" already!

edit: that woks really well, I'm ripped

It took quite a few empty pulls to start getting vapor, the charcoal was about 1/4 spent by the time it started producing. But once it did, I got 3-4 really nice rips off a loosely-packed bowl; I think I'll pack it a bit tighter next time. I think I did well with the charcoal, here's a picture of it after:

I love it!
This vape definitely has a signature

 

[Dan Morrison]

Another Okin takes it first flight!

 

[grokit]

It's not just the intriguing signature and incredible hand-craftsmanship,
the ritual of using it is what makes this vape truly unique

 

[pakalolo]

It took quite a few empty pulls to start getting vapor, the charcoal was about 1/4 spent by the time it started producing.

We discussed this during beta testing. I was shortening my charcoals by a mm or so to avoid this. Dan was getting better results with the full length and decided to stick with it because after all, it's easy to shorten them but you can't make them longer.

It's not just the intriguing signature and incredible hand-craftsmanship,
the ritual of using it is what makes this vape truly unique

Exactly right.

 

[Dan Morrison]

@grokit , Hell yeah! Thanks for sharing. Your charcoal looks like it burned great to me.

The 'dead pull' effect is different for everyone, as Pak says.

For myself, I think that I might spend a bit more time getting the ember going, by blowing on the end, before the first pull. And also that my first pull is probably longer than most. Within the first pull I can feel the transition between no vapor and vapor, and I'm usually set to go on the second pull.

But it will be different for everyone based on how well the charcoal is glowing before the first pull, how long and fast your first pull is.

Also, any air gaps in the seal between the charcoal and metal tip will decrease your ability to draw air through the charcoal and reduce heat up time significantly, so that's one last variable to watch for.

Anyhow, so pumped on seeing all these new first impressions!

 

[grokit]

For myself, I think that I might spend a bit more time getting the ember going, by blowing on the end, before the first pull. And also that my first pull is probably longer than most. Within the first pull I can feel the transition between no vapor and vapor, and I'm usually set to go on the second pull.

This pretty much outlines what I was thinking for my my next, "more full" bowl, so good to see that I am on the right track. @pakalolo's idea of trimming the coal is interesting too. I agree you can really taste the difference when the vapor starts, it's quite noticeable (but not in a harsh way at all). I dumped the avb and it looked good, very even and complete extraction. The bowl is bigger than it looks! I'm still skimping on good material but I will certainly be giving this another go, probably this evening before I run out again.

 

[AJS]

Any more experiences now that some people have had time to learn how to use their units well??
I'm eager to hear!

How much you guys packing? Over .1 seems a bit extreme for me when it comes to vaping, I like to keep consumption quantity down.

 

[VAPEHUNTER]

Last night I had one of the best sessions ever with my Okin. It's funny how the number of holes and the spacing makes such a difference. Two holes and the charcoal won't stay lit, four holes and it seems a little too hot. Three holes properly spaced seems to be the perfect amount of heat and air flow.

After last nights session I thought to myself, it's been a while since I've oiled my Okin so per Dan's suggestion I rubbed it on my face.

So to the few of you that poses an Okin, what's your preferred way to "maintain" your Okin?

You guys did read your maintenance instructions didn't you

Have you rubbed your Okin on your face lately?

 

[grokit]

Any more experiences now that some people have had time to learn how to use their units well??
I'm eager to hear!

How much you guys packing? Over .1 seems a bit extreme for me when it comes to vaping, I like to keep consumption quantity down.

My second bowl went pretty much as expected. I spent a bit more time getting the coal going, and the vapor came quicker. I packed it fuller and got more out of the bowl as well, about six solid hits.

So yes the bowl is on the large side, but since you're also consuming a piece of charcoal, and they don't grow on trees (lol I couldn't resist), you might as well get as many hits out of it as possible.

Also it may be possible to douse a charcoal and re-light it to finish a bowl later; this would be great but I haven't tried it yet. Since the okin is 100% convection the hits would still be waiting.

Sounds like more testing is required

 

[AJS]

Thanks for the reply guys!

You could even start with the screen further away from the tip, for a lower temperature, and then slowly push the stem down into the metal tip as you are vaporizing. It acts sort of like a push-pop, pushing the material and the screen closer to the charcoal and raising the temperatures. You can really sneak up on the maximum before combustion so you can get the most out of your herbs.

Is this still a thing? Can you just slide the stem up and down in the steeltip/bowl in order to slide your load closer?
Or do you move a screen up and down like a Log?

I was thinking about putting little tiny grooves into the blackwood tip, to denote "stops" at standard intervals. So that you can achieve some level of consistency. You could tell people that you mostly vape on the 3rd interval or something... I could fill the grooves with any colour you wanted, Or a gradient of colours..flag colours..whatever. I could even do glow-in-the-dark resin.. Could be neat? Thoughts on that? I think it gives the piece a nice hint of colour... and would give the buyer a simple way to customize their piece, I always enjoy little personal touches like that.

This seemed like such a good idea!!

 

[The Stranger]

I missed the post about putting notches in the wood, that does sound like a really sweet idea.

I've seen this glow in the dark blue resin used in wood before and it looks so sweet! I'd pick that no doubt if you ended up doing them.

 

[Dan Morrison]

@VAPEHUNTER - For a point of reference, I have oiled my personal stem perhaps 4-5 times in the last year.

@grokit , I do, on occasion stamp the charcoal out after a couple hits and re-light it later. It definitely works, but I prefer the one charcoal = one session method, it's more efficient to come up to temperature once rather than twice.

@AJS , The "push pop" idea died, the current design of the Okin doesn't allow for the stem to be pushed up further into the steel tip. I found that breath control was much more reliable for temperature control. However, I would like to re-visit the idea in future vaporizer project..because I do think it would be neat to be able to adjust the bowl on the fly.

The idea with the notches was back in the early days of development, so it has since passed as well.

Great hearing everyones thoughts!