The Beginner’s Guide to Concentrates, Dabbing, and Dab Rigs

 The Beginner’s Guide to Concentrates, Dabbing, and Dab Rigs

As cannabis has become legal for
medical and recreational use in various states over the past 20 years, there
has been a lot of experimentation and innovation in the ways marijuana is
cultivated and consumed. One of the most popular developments in the industry
has been the rise of cannabis concentrates.

Cannabis Concentrates

Cannabis grows wild almost
everywhere on the Indian subcontinent, and special strains have been specially
cultivated for use in the production of hashish for thousands of years. Hash
quickly spread throughout south and central Asia, and although considered haram (forbidden) for Muslims, hash has
been an undeniable part of Islamic culture for centuries.

Today, the most popular type of
cannabis concentrate is butane hash oil (BHO). BHO is a cannabis extract that
is made by pushing liquid butane through a holding container full of marijuana.
The liquid butane and the cannabis trichomes, which contain the THC and other
cannabinoids, are both nonpolar, so the trichomes are quickly dissolved into
the butane. The butane is then evaporated, and the resulting BHO varies in
texture and color depending on the specific methods used in the extraction
process.

BHO has a variety of nicknames
based on its consistency: hash oil, wax, shatter, budder,
crumble, glass, sap, sugar, honey, honey toast, honeycomb, comb, snap ‘n pull, erl, whip, ‘tane, the list goes
on.  BHO is consumed by smoking it either
in a vaporizer or by dabbing.

An emerging solventless
technique of producing shatter-like cannabis concentrates known as “rosin”
technology may soon become more popular than BHOs. Rosin refers to an
extraction technique in which heat and pressure is used to instantaneously
squeeze out the resinous sap from cannabis plant material. One reason for
rosin’s newfound popularity is that the process does not introduce any foreign
substances in the extraction process.

Dabbing Defined

Dabbing refers to heating a dose
of BHO or rosin, known as a “dab,” on a hot surface, usually a nail, and then
inhaling the smoke through a dab rig. When
the nail is hot, the concentrate is pressed against the nail using a small tool
known as a dabber. “Taking a dab” is the process of touching, or “dabbing,” the
dose of concentrate against the heated nail, producing a vapor which is
inhaled.

Dab Rigs

Dab rigs are a specific type of water pipe that
are used for smoking concentrates.

Like a bong, a dab rig is
not designed to catch anything on fire. Instead, it has a “nail” that gets
heated in order to vaporize the cannabis concentrate. Nails are made out of
glass, titanium, or quartz, with each type of nail having distinct properties
that affect the way dabs are vaporized. Nails are heated using either butane
torches or electric, temperature-controlled heaters known as e-nails. Always remember to let the nail and dab rig cool
completely before touching them.

Many bongs and water pipes can be
modified into a dab rig by simply placing a nail where a bowl would normally
be, although many dab rigs are optimized for smoking concentrates.

—

Woody Brown is a longtime
cannabis lover. He is the owner and operator of Woody’s Smoke Shop, an online
headshop with a wide selection of bongs, water pipes, dab rigs, recyclers, and
more. You can check out his website her: https://www.woodyssmokeshop.com/