Jap Coal Problem

[Interpol]

I usually use only one of the japanese coals at a time. I can't really comment on usage for a phunnel, but one usually always does the trick for me.

[RossH]

There is very very little smoke with even 2 coals. It might just be the Al Amir shisha. I know that it takes a while to heat up sometimes since it is wetter shisha. Edited May 28, 2007 by RossH

[symptom CY]

For a phunnel bowl you definitely want to use four of those coals at once. It sounds like a lot, but that's what does the job. Those coals don't burn so hot and that's why they're the best. It's also why they're the most costly to use...

[RossH]

Hey, Thanks!

So should I still use 4 coals for Tangier's since they don't need as much heat? And do I need to wait until all the silver is gone to use the coals or should it come off when I ash them?

[symptom CY]

Yes, you need four even for Tangiers. I think that's what he recommends, anyway. It's been so long since I've used them... can't afford to keep buying box after box when they only get you through 12 sessions.

I usually wait for most of the silver to flake off.

[Calcartman]

All i use are silver japanese style coals, and yes i can definitely say for any medium/large tangiers head you're going to want to use 4.
I use the small tangiers head, and i typically start with 3 pieces, shaped in a triangle for tangiers or any drier shisha i have (not that tangiers is dry, it just doesn't need much heat). The only issue is the time lighting 3 pieces (i use a propane torch).
Once those 3 start to get small i pop the fourth coal on.

For wetter shisha or when im lazy,
I take a bar of 4, and break it in half (so you have 2, 2 coal sticks).
Light those, and then place them on opposite sides of the bowl, and rotate.
then just light another single coal whenever you need it.

The trick with the bigger blocks is to rotate a lot more frequently (if its just me smoking i rotate after every few minutes, if there are more people sometimes i just rotate them with the hose.

Oh and always make sure to get all the silver off before putting it on your bowl, to avoid the coal taste.

On smaller bowls (the stock mya/standard egyptian) i usually use 2 individual coals, but i start by plopping the first one in the middle while i light the other one, and then the bowl is all warmed up and i keep rotating the two around the edge until they get small when i shove em in the middle again. Edited May 28, 2007 by Calcartman

[RossH]

Thanks for the quick replies! Ok, so I think I am going to try using 4 coals and make sure there is no silver on them when I put them on the bowl. That was another thing that made it bad, because every time I hit, I could kinda taste the melon a little, but it was mostly a bitter coal taste. Thanks for the info!

[symptom CY]

Wait, which brand coals are you using?

edit: Nevermind, you posted a link in the first post. Hmm... those are the best and should have the least taste. See how it goes with four pieces... Edited May 28, 2007 by symptom CY

[RossH]

Ok, so I just got through a bowl of the Tangier's F-Line Cocoa using the 4 coals. I was not getting very much smoke, so I tried poking a hole in the middle of the phunnel. That seemed to help at least with some of the suction problem, and it smoked a little better. I took the foil off afterwards and all the shisha was fully cooked, so I don't know why I didn't get much smoke. I still kinda feel sick from the sweetness of the cocoa flavor. When I smoked Hookah-Hookah shisha with the quicklites I got thick clouds of smoke, so I know it is either the brands of shisha I'm using or the coals. Maybe I should wait to smoke the Tangier's until I become more experienced with the Jap coals. Anyways, thanks for the help guys! I will try again later tonight or tomorrow and hope for better results. Edited May 29, 2007 by RossH

[Calcartman]

That sounds like you were pulling too much air and not enough smoke, in which case as i am not used to using a funnel bowl (yet, its on order), you may want to try scallis mod or maybe someone can offer advice for how to get the smoke to air ratio better?

[Officer Rod Farva]

It sounds like you have too little tobacco in there. The lack of hole over the phunnel allowed the foil to get sucked over the hole, clogging it. You poked a hole in it and the problem alleviated itself because you were drawing mostly air.