Sorry for bringing myself in this particular discussion but when I saw the picture of the filter I just couldn`t hold back.
Very important, as noted in the vapman manual: the filter should be rubbed off on a piece of cloth (pants) or paper towel after each use! Preferably when the filter is still warm and the residues soft.
Keep the filter clean and shiny at all times!!
One of the holy laws of vapman.
vapman
I clean the mouthpiece filter like René mentioned, and also dump out the herb and clean the bowl immediately after the last hit because I found that the resin would stick to the inside of the bowl if left there to dry.
Cleaning it after it was dry was a pain, but right after the last hit, the bowl is still warm and it cleans very easily with tissue paper.
I know it's easy to forget due to the effects you get right at session's end, but this is why my bowl looked so clean for so long...
After a while I sanded it with some 1500 grit sand paper, but now although it looks nice and stays clean, it doesn't look as purty without the golden layer
I'd like to say that you don't have to burn the Vapman to char it.
In my experience, just burning the inside (around the bowl) untill it's dark brown or just turns black is enough to harden the wood and make it pretty damn fire resistant. If you light it in flames, you went too far...
Look at my old Vapman - I swear it's over a year old and used almost daily. It has no charcoal even around the bowl.
If you look up some survival videos on YouTube where they use fire to harden the tips of wooden spears, you'll see that they don't burn it - this would make the spear brittle instead of stronger.
I experimented quite a bit with scrap wood before I got brave enough to point the torch to my Vapman.
The charring is supposed to make it so it doesn't get burnt to charcoal. At least this is why I came up with the idea, but each person does it however he likes it best.
I also think that charring is not for everyone and I have charred three of my friend's new Vapmans for them because they didn't want to do it themselves. If I wasn't there to do it for them, I would have recommended for them to buy the Classic/Mica instead because I don't like the way the basic looks without charring and oiling. But that's me being finicky.
The basic is still great for someone who wants to get a great price with the same functionality.
Sorry for the long post.