Show Your Best Hole Patterns!

[rigor]

So I'm still wanting to try new techniques to possibly getting more flavor, even bigger clouds, and longer sessions. I'm really happy in regards to all these things when I smoke right now, but I tend to break things down into kind of science type experiments. I'm on the hunt for wanting to try to get as close to perfect sessions as possible, always. So I figure it would be good to see what everyone else is doing, in their quest for "perfect" sessions.

Please provide the following info, along with your pics:

Bowl type & size
What brand shisha
Standard or Heavy Duty Foil
Number of coals you use
Coal placement, how often you move, ashing, etc
Average length of session, other details, tips/tricks


I'll start:

Bowl Type/Size: Tangiers Small Phunnel
Shisha Used: Starbuzz, Fusion, Al Fakher, Layalina
Foil Used: 2 doubled up pieces of standard foil. Sometimes only 1 layer. Still trying to figure out if it makes much difference, or which I prefer.
Coals Used: Either 3 CocoNaras, or 3 quarter pieces of Exotica
Coal Management: Set 3 pieces in triangle pattern, only moving or ashing about every 20 minutes. When ashing, I rotate the coals so all parts of the bowl get used.
Average Session Length: About 1.5 hours overall. Generally Pattern #1 will give me just over an hour. Will get thick fluffy clouds. This is the pattern I had been using always for the first 2 months when smoking. I think this pattern shortens the shisha lifespan though, as flavor seems to fade off pretty quick right around or just after 1 hour. Pattern #2 is newer to me, and seems to allow the entire bowl to breathe easier perhaps, thus I've been getting longer sessions with it... about 1.5 - 2 hours. Clouds are still nice and big, but seems a little tougher to get them to be quite as dense. Not a huge difference, but noticeable. Draw on hose is slightly easier with Pattern #2 as well.

Packed Bowl


Pattern #1


Pattern #2 (after smoking, hence the foil is kind of jacked up)



Your turn!

[Voski]

I do something similar to your pattern two but without the center hole.

[Click]

I do something similar to your pattern two but without the center hole.

Ditto.

[ryno]

With AF in a phunnel, I use smaller holes. Usually 3 cirlces made with a thumbtack. If I'm smoking Tangiers, I use a toothpick and do rows across the whole bowl

[thehelios]

With a standard bowl, I use either 2 staples/mechanical pencil/pin and make small hole from the center and start spiraling out with holes about 2 cm away from each other, probably ending up with 15-20 holes.