JackOutsideTheBox
Esteemed member
For those of you who haven't read it yet, I invite you to have a look at my GVG Upgrade/Mod that greatly improves the performances of the GVG.
Here I will go into the details of my perfected GVG technique which works with the standard GVG configurations, but especially great with my Mod.
If some of you are interested, I can also go into my mental preparation technique, process during the journey, and integration afterwards in a separate thread, as I found it to make a big difference.
Before I get started with the actual technique, I would like to share a few pro tips.
Pro Tips:
First of all, you need a good single jet lighter that you can hold in the most natural position possible. I've tried a few kinds, and the best by far is one with a long flexible tip that can be curved to have the flame pointed down while still holding your hand normally, and I cannot understate how much of a game changer this kind of lighter is.
I would also like to share a pro tip to simplify dosing and storing spice. I found that melting it into a silicone chocolate tablet mould to turn it into a solid "bullion" was far easier to handle than fluffy powder, so I strongly recommend doing that. You don't lose material to the storage container and it is much less finicky to store, weight and load it, just break a piece off, pre-heat the pipe, remove the top, drop it in and let it melt into the liquid pad.
The Technique Itself:
When ready, get into position and very slowly pull with the tip of the outer cone of the jet flame (the outer, more transparent one) barely touching the ceramic filter vertically, wave it a bit around the ceramic filter without touching the glass to heat it evenly and reduce the risk of it cracking (glass cracks when heated unevenly, or when heating up or cooling down too fast, but is otherwise relatively stable).
Keep breathing normally with your nose while doing that step to avoid being out of breath too soon or overfilling your lungs with air. This sounds more complicated than it is, it actually is extremely simple, you can use your mouth to create a slight negative pressure that continues to introduce airflow while you breathe normally through your nose, it is the same technique you would use when smoking a cigarette. Note that, counterintuitively for smokers, pulling harder doesn't make it go hotter, and doesn't generate more vapor, but the contrary, so you want to pull slowly.
When the ceramic filter starts to become red, which should happen fairly quickly but not instantaneously if you are doing it right, you can stop waving the flame and try to keep it well centered on the filter, start inhaling a bit faster, you will see the ceramic filter glow more intensely, make it glow as much as possible and keep it for a few seconds until you see the GVG fill with vapor. Some suggest to adjust the temperature by moving the flame closer or further from the ceramic, but I would suggest to keep the flame barely touching and adjust the temperature by adjusting the inhalation speed, I never burned spice with a GVG anyways.
When the GVG is completely opaque, full of dense vapor, kill the flame and inhale faster. The timing for killing the flame is something you perfect with practice, it mainly depends on your lung capacity, but the aim is to barely manage to completely clear the pipe.
The inhalation speed is also something you perfect with practice, but in essence you want to inhale at the same rate as the vapor is being produced, fast enough that you inhale it all before running out of breath, but not so fast that you cool the whole system down and introduce excessive amounts of air, you can see it from the density of the vapor inside the device, you should be inhaling as fast as you can without the vapor becoming any less opaque, this is how you know you are at the perfect rate.
With my upgrade/mod and this technique, you can clear the entire dose in a single hit, but unless you've already fully broken through and find yourself completely unable to operate the device, I strongly recommend repeating the process a second, and even a third time. Hold each hit in for as long as possible, and do take a few seconds to breathe between hits to avoid running out of breath.
Godspeed!
Here I will go into the details of my perfected GVG technique which works with the standard GVG configurations, but especially great with my Mod.
If some of you are interested, I can also go into my mental preparation technique, process during the journey, and integration afterwards in a separate thread, as I found it to make a big difference.
Before I get started with the actual technique, I would like to share a few pro tips.
Pro Tips:
First of all, you need a good single jet lighter that you can hold in the most natural position possible. I've tried a few kinds, and the best by far is one with a long flexible tip that can be curved to have the flame pointed down while still holding your hand normally, and I cannot understate how much of a game changer this kind of lighter is.
I would also like to share a pro tip to simplify dosing and storing spice. I found that melting it into a silicone chocolate tablet mould to turn it into a solid "bullion" was far easier to handle than fluffy powder, so I strongly recommend doing that. You don't lose material to the storage container and it is much less finicky to store, weight and load it, just break a piece off, pre-heat the pipe, remove the top, drop it in and let it melt into the liquid pad.
The Technique Itself:
When ready, get into position and very slowly pull with the tip of the outer cone of the jet flame (the outer, more transparent one) barely touching the ceramic filter vertically, wave it a bit around the ceramic filter without touching the glass to heat it evenly and reduce the risk of it cracking (glass cracks when heated unevenly, or when heating up or cooling down too fast, but is otherwise relatively stable).
Keep breathing normally with your nose while doing that step to avoid being out of breath too soon or overfilling your lungs with air. This sounds more complicated than it is, it actually is extremely simple, you can use your mouth to create a slight negative pressure that continues to introduce airflow while you breathe normally through your nose, it is the same technique you would use when smoking a cigarette. Note that, counterintuitively for smokers, pulling harder doesn't make it go hotter, and doesn't generate more vapor, but the contrary, so you want to pull slowly.
When the ceramic filter starts to become red, which should happen fairly quickly but not instantaneously if you are doing it right, you can stop waving the flame and try to keep it well centered on the filter, start inhaling a bit faster, you will see the ceramic filter glow more intensely, make it glow as much as possible and keep it for a few seconds until you see the GVG fill with vapor. Some suggest to adjust the temperature by moving the flame closer or further from the ceramic, but I would suggest to keep the flame barely touching and adjust the temperature by adjusting the inhalation speed, I never burned spice with a GVG anyways.
When the GVG is completely opaque, full of dense vapor, kill the flame and inhale faster. The timing for killing the flame is something you perfect with practice, it mainly depends on your lung capacity, but the aim is to barely manage to completely clear the pipe.
The inhalation speed is also something you perfect with practice, but in essence you want to inhale at the same rate as the vapor is being produced, fast enough that you inhale it all before running out of breath, but not so fast that you cool the whole system down and introduce excessive amounts of air, you can see it from the density of the vapor inside the device, you should be inhaling as fast as you can without the vapor becoming any less opaque, this is how you know you are at the perfect rate.
With my upgrade/mod and this technique, you can clear the entire dose in a single hit, but unless you've already fully broken through and find yourself completely unable to operate the device, I strongly recommend repeating the process a second, and even a third time. Hold each hit in for as long as possible, and do take a few seconds to breathe between hits to avoid running out of breath.
Godspeed!