I thought it was just me, but all the Underdogs seem to be a little bit quiet lately. I know it is over here, but is the weather too nice to sit behind a computer everywhere else around the world as well perhaps?
Dave, I know you denied it the first time I asked you, but I think you really should re-evaluate your psychic powers buddy
I was getting ready to go out this afternoon, and was a bit annoyed when the doorbell rang just when I was trying to think of which stuff I needed to pack to bring with me when I noticed the mailman's van..
I didn't expect anything and I figured he just wanted to dump a package that was addressed to one of my not-at-home-neighbors, and I was almost a little shocked when I saw your name on the package that was handed to me. I don't know what happened exactly, but it got here in a good week or so and for some reason customs didn't even charge me for the regular fees this time. That is the first time ever I didn't have to pay any fees nor taxes when ordering from the USA, they must have missed it somehow.
Abluesymalhoe looks awesome anyway, it really is an amazing and odd kind of wood when you look at it up close. I have a survival knife with some pieces of mica on the handle that are made to look like olive wood, and I can detect a similar woven-fabric-like pattern in the lighter parts of the BM strange enough. I must take a good look at it with my USB microscope sometime soon.
The shape and size is just perfect for me. I always thought the old one was a little on the thick side for my hands, and even though this one is just a few mm thinner it feels way more ergonomic to me.
The new core looks very cool too! A bit slicker than the older one I'd say, not that there was anything wrong with how that one looked. I also noticed that the tube you slide the stems on is a little shorter then with my older UD, but I'm not sure, this may vary a little per unit perhaps.
I didn't have any time to try it out this afternoon, but I noticed a reasonably strong smell coming from the vape so I decided to turn it on straight away so it could dispensate a bit before I would use it in the evening. I left it on 11V for 3 to 4 hours and I can still smell it, but it's a lot less strong now. Not entirely sure where it comes from though. Does Blue Mahoe have it's own scent, could it be the beeswax, or is it just the leather bottom? It's not a smell that bothers me or anything and it is already getting very faint now after just a few hours of use and airing out, but I'm just curious if it could be anything else but the leather. It smells a bit salty to me, like seaweed or the ocean, that's the best way I can describe it.
Now the really important bits, performance:
I noticed this one has a very low resistance compared to my late little-bullet (thanks for that), and it performs about the same @ 1,8V lower than the old one. Heat up time seems a lot quicker, but the thinner shape and lighter wood may also contribute to that. Not much more to tell to be honest. I only tried two stems so far, but well, it's just awesome. As good as I can tell the air-resistance/drag is even less with the new one, and it seems to perform a little better when vaping at a lower temp/voltage somehow. But I need to do way more testing before I can be sure about subtleties like that, poor me
The caddy looks and functions awesome too, Underdoggette. Thanks for matching the leather on the bottom to that of the UD itself btw, I really appreciate little details like that
I decided to drill another hole in it to accommodate my favorite poker/stir tool. I think I'll insert a little piece of very thin brass or ss tubing in the hole so the wood won't loose it's shape over time from inserting the stainless steel poker I use.
I couldn't do a whole lot with the light this time in the evening so I'll shoot some better ones this weekend, but I wanted to include at least a picture of the beauties on dutch soil anyways. Thanks so much to the both of you, I couldn't be happier with my lovely new companions!