u/introspectivereddit

So basically I bought a 3.5g of soft purely in order to cook out up for my own consumption so I didn't have to keep buying small bits from dealers and waiting for them to arrive (not to mention the frustrating variation in quality, and underweight rocks.

I cooked it in batches (1g each separately, twice, then the .75g twice). I found first couple batches turned out great, best cooks I've ever done so far. Rocks came out hard, dry and smoked nice and clean. I used .3g bicarbonate of soda to every 1g of gear used. With the 1st cook I got .73 of hard back. Bear in mind I was trying to get the highest quality product, not the best yield. So once the coke had reached the oil globule stage where a distinct oil blob was floating on the water I made sure to try and cook it further to get more bicarb and cuts out before shocking and whipping it. So far so good, it smoked well and whilst wasn't the strongest it was better than the pre cooked stuff I'd been getting on the street.

Because I received the soft in two 1.75 bags I cooked the remaining .75 soft in the leftover water from the first cook. I'm guessing there was still a fair amount of bicarb in because as I heated the spoon with just the leftover water first and then I added the coke it fizzed up a bit. I still added about a third of bicarb to .75, again it worked nicely, dense rocks that melted well and my yield was about .6 I think.

Here's where the troubles started to happen. Using the same water again (now been used for two cooks previously) I dumped another g of soft in after heating up the water slightly. Then added a little less soda as I wanted this batch to be stronger and purer than the last two (plus I thought there might still be soda left in the water), so I added .27 soda this time. I again melted the mix past the turtle shell phase so it formed a distinct oil globule, using light heat, slow and low style making sure not to boil the oil. With this cook I was determined to make it the best and as pure as possible, trying to burn out all the bubbles from within the oil, as I've seen in previous videos. It was taking a while so I think a couple, maybe 3 times I might have been impatient trying to extract the soda bubbles from within the oil glob, so I heated it a bit too far, causing the oil to sputter, however after letting it cool it always came back together into a circle.

Eventually I thought I'd cut my losses and shocked it with ice water, using a metal skewer that had been left in a bag of ice to "whip" the oil together till it hardened and became one big lump. One difference I noted here was the oil was a bit more reluctant to harden, taking longer to rock up and remaining sludgier for longer. When I took it out I was very impressed with my handiwork as it was extremely hard and dense (to the point where it was hard to break up into pieces. It weighed .9 which I found odd based on the weight of the last two I cooked being significantly lighter (all coming from the same batch). However I was not so happy with the strength. Although it melted fine and smoked fine I thought it was weaker and I needed to have bigger pieces to get high compared to the last two cooks.

Overall I was disappointed with my third cook, although it looked great I was wondering whether I'd messed it up by letting the oil get too hot about 3 times, causing it to sputter. Could this have meant the oil then mixed with the cuts left in the water that I was trying to cook out? Thus leading to a higher yield of .9 ?? I was very confused because almost every cook was identical.

Can someone please tell me what i may have done wrong? Should I have used fresh water with each cook instead of reusing the water left behind from the previous cook? Also I was really trying hard to remove all impurities from the oil once it had got to this stage, is that really necessary or as a beginner is it worth cutting my losses and just shocking the oil glob once it's clearly formed to the human eye? Another thing is the water around the oil didn't always turn clear like I've read it's supposed to, despite cooking it for some time after forming the oil.

Any tips and advice please help me out!

I know this group is called "cracksmokers" but thought I'd throw this one out there. Basically I've been doing heroin alongside crack pretty much daily for a couple months but I've recently found effects are getting less and less from both just from smoking em (I smoke both in the same glass straight pipe with stainless steel chore underneath).

So recently from a local (harm reduction focused) needle exchange I've procured some supplies to start injecting the h so it's more cost effective and doesn't mean I'm constantly smoking and also baiting myself up to my housemates I live with (who don't know about either but wouldn't be happy if they knew).

I've already used them to shoot up the h without any problems or negative side effects, and I was wondering whether anyone could help me out with any advice or tips on whether it's worth doing so with the crack I have. I have vitamin c and citric to break it down in order for it to be injectable. Just wondering what it's like in terms of effects IV Vs smoked, how much to put in a dose (hypothetically) if ordinarily I get 3 pipe hits from a 0.1 rock, should I use a 3rd of a .1 rock when preparing the dose for injections etc..

I've been casually chatting to AI about the best and least harmful way to vaporise a product in a glass stem pipe whilst being able to harvest the leftover resin that gets caught on the side of the stem after a while...

(the resin hits are always the strongest, cleanest hits for me, I'm not sure what the science is behind that but it seems as if the intense heat of vaporisation somehow purifies the hard further, creating a stronger and more pure end product that doesn't make me jittery like hits of regular rocks can do if I happen to inhale a slightly bigger cloud of smoke, for example)

Anyway here's what AI suggests, and it makes me wonder why no one talks about some of these alternatives when questions of what screen / filter should be used in a crack pipe:

Option 1: Drop-In Inserts for Your Current Straight Stem

If you want to keep using your current straight glass tube, you must match the inner diameter of the glass with specialized ceramic vaporization discs or pads. These function exactly like a sponge—soaking up the liquefied product in Stage 1 and vaporizing it in Stage 2—but they do not burn, degrade, or trap resin permanently like "chore".

Porous Ceramic Concentrate Pads: Look for porous silicon-carbide ceramic pads (such as the 11mm or 13.4mm options from VaporGenie). They fit snugly inside standard glass tubes and provide incredibly clean vaporization. [1]

Ceramic Flavor Discs: These are dense, inert porous black ceramic discs used for concentrate vaporization (available at specialty shops like Recommended Vape Supplies). They can withstand extreme torch temperatures and are cleaned simply by torching them until the old residue burns away cleanly, leaving zero ash behind. [1]

Are these good alternatives, and has anyone tried anything like this before? Thanks in advance for reading

Hi gang, been smoking on and off for about a year now, would appreciate a few tips on the best possible way to inhale that gets the most out of my product. I'm not necessarily talking about making it last the longest, I'm actually more concerned with getting proper bellringers every time.

Now, I use a straight glass pipe with a sort of hour glass shape at the top which acts as a bowl for my gear, meaning I can load my Brillo/gauze in without worrying too much about accidentally sucking it through to the other end. So I normally pack the gauze fairly tight so the crack (when it turns to oil), has enough gauze to run down onto but is still loose enough that I can pull through ok.

So onto my technique; I'm currently melting the crack into the chore before inhaling, often by lighting the sides of the pipe so there is no direct flame on the crack itself, although sometimes lighting it from above, again no direct flame on the crack itself. So far so good.

Then I put the pipe in my mouth after taking a couple of big inhales & exhales, when I start to inhale I have the top of the pipe facing upwards as I pull through slowly, then I try to light the top without putting a direct flame on the chore to prevent it from burning. Now, here's where the problems begin.

So the problem with using this 'gentle' 'slowly, slowly' technique, for me, is that it takes too long for me to do it one hit. Basically it burns so slowly that I don't have enough lung space to really take advantage of the long, slow inhale before I start to run out of breath.

This may seem silly to you but as I start to near the end of my breath, I start to panic that because I was going so slowly, not really inhaling deeply from the start, I haven't utilised the crack I've melted fully before I have to exhale, so then towards the end I try and inhale deeper and touch the flame on the chore, pulling the flame in with my breath. Then I'll sometimes take another few fresh breaths of air whilst holding the crack smoke in, eventually letting it all out after a few seconds when I can't hold it in any longer. I know for sure that there is more crack that can be utilized before it is burnt and useless and harmful to smoke, but I can't do it in one go.

Now here I would like some pointers on what I should do with the excess crack that's waiting to be smoked. Do I either

A) take another toke almost immediately after exhaling, picking up my lighter and more or less using direct flame now, as the 'momentum' I have previously achieved of using indirect flame but inhaling long and slow has gone, so I sort of have to start again, but not completely from scratch as the chore is obviously still pretty hot. I'll inhale for a bit but it doesn't feel like I'm getting much after the previous big inhale, so I'm definitely not getting a bellringer using this method

B) wait for it to cool down then light it up again, but this time being a bit more careful not to use direct flame, at least at the start, so as not to burn the crack that's previously been both melted and had high heat applied to it. I seldom go for this method as it really seems like a big waste, firstly I know I'm definitely not going to get a bellringer, so it seems like a wasted inhale and secondly I never get that much from it anyway

C) this is what I do most often; I simply load up a fresh rock into my pipe with the half smoked rock already in it and start the "low n slow" inhalation process again, hoping that the combination will give me a super smoke and will kind of exponentially increase my pleasure / enjoyment from the toke because it has the extra from the one before. Alas, this never seems to happen, only if I am particularly good with my inhalation technique and seem to almost accidentally get a big cloud cos I am very brave with how much I have taken in...

I guess I'd like to know what's my best option for achieving the fabled bellringer? I used to achieve it last year with what now feels like a very wasteful technique; basically putting probably the same size rocks but on top of a very small amount of chore, and then blasting the crack / chore with direct heat from the start whilst inhaling fast and deep the whole time (basically the opposite way to the slowly slowly technique). Inevitably I'd burn the crack and chore whilst leaving a significant amount of crack oil un-smoked, but I definitely used to get fat bellringers. I know I didn't use enough chore because I would always see oil running down the pipe during the smoke, and I would often harvest this oil/resin and again get fat bellringers.

So, gold medals to whoever has read this far, I can only conclude you have a similar problem, or are high on crack yourself and are doomscrolling this Reddit sub. Anyway, please direct any tricks, tips or opinions as to my conundrum in the comments, and thanks for reading