General Question :)

[lefty2time]

Hello...first time posting on the forums here.

have a quick question.

Ive read that its best to poke lots of small holes...as opposed to a few bigger holes. Is this true.
I prefer lots of thick heavy smoke.

Second question..and the more important question:
for hole distribution...is it best to poke so many that the round coal doesnt cover them all?
I was always under the impression that all the holes you poke should be covered by the coal...otherwise the shisha would be drawing in cold air through the unblocked holes.

thanks in advance!

[mustang67n]

[quote name='lefty2time' timestamp='1325113648' post='534046']
Hello...first time posting on the forums here.

have a quick question.

Ive read that its best to poke lots of small holes...as opposed to a few bigger holes. Is this true.
I prefer lots of thick heavy smoke.

Second question..and the more important question:
for hole distribution...is it best to poke so many that the round coal doesnt cover them all?
I was always under the impression that all the holes you poke should be covered by the coal...otherwise the shisha would be drawing in cold air through the unblocked holes.

thanks in advance!
[/quote]

I replied in the chat aswell but...
I like small coals. You can get your thick heavy smoke either way. but i fell small holes keep the foil tighter and that just works better for phunnel bowls (almost all i use)

you want holes open. its best to cover teh entire bowl in holes. the airlfow is what you're looking for. Besides, it is good heat management to regularly move your coal around the bowl. if you only poke holes in one spot.. that wont really work well.

others should chime in aswell

[mustang67n]

oh. and welcome to the forum!

[lefty2time]

yeah man....good advice..

Tonight when i get home from work (such a stressful day) i'm going to do cantelope mixed with apple. I'll take your advice..and poke a crap load of small toothpick holes... i use the standard like round coal..i'll break it in half like in those pictures the guy posted....and wont cover the middle of the foil..i'll keep the two halfs of the coal on sort of the outside..and rotate them around so to get an even burn.

I'm either going to use warm water and add a glass of wine... or use cold water and throw in some chopped up fruit i have lying around the kitchen

[mustang67n]

awesome! let us know how it goes! I've noticed wine (or any aclohol) in the base adds a slight burn to the smoke. not like it's hot.. but like a liquor burn. I, personally don't care for it, but some do. I'd rather drink the liquor and smoke lol.

the fruit adds to it, especially if it blends well with the flavors you're smoking.

[lefty2time]

Ive smoked some at my friends place with wine in it once before and i didnt notice any burn....maybe because we used half a glass of red..WITH ice cubes.

BUT..
onetime we did half water half vodka..and wwwttfffffff it burned so bad. My lungs were on fire. I one time added two shot glasses of lime flavored vodka..and it added a bit of flavor...and it added a bit of burn too but not too much....definitely an amount i could handle.

[mustang67n]

right on. just do what you like. that's what's awesome about hookah. it's all about you and what you like/prefer. Everyone has their own methods and preferences but ultimately, everyone does it differently

[lefty2time]

Another question...ummm You know the standard tall hookah size...does it make a difference if you smoke from that or from the smaller like 12 inch tall ones?

[mustang67n]

not really. most important part is the diameter of the inside stem. Small mya's smoke just as good as massive egyptians if not better than some.

and really, any pipe CAN smoke great. as long as it seals. the diameter helps by making the draw easier. so you're not fighting the pipe to pull in smoke. I prefer to smoke out of tall pipes, simply because of the elegance of them. and if they're on the floor, the bowl and coals are in reach for ashing and i dont have to get out of my seat lol.

[Chreees]

Moving this to the proper section.

[antouwan]

first off, velcome to zis forums.

[quote name='lefty2time' timestamp='1325113648' post='534046']
Hello...first time posting on the forums here.

have a quick question.

Ive read that its best to poke lots of small holes...as opposed to a few bigger holes. Is this true.
I prefer lots of thick heavy smoke.

[color=#ff0000]It's really personal preference. When I started, I was under heavy influence of my cousins (they were my hookah source) and they were all about tine holes. [/color]
[color=#FF0000]After being around here, and all of the input from people like Eric (you'll hear that name quite a bit here) and some others, I switched to large holes - everywhere. [/color]
[color=#FF0000]After having done that, I've moved back to small holes - but not tiny ones. I use a T pin, which is used primarily by cartographers and the likes for all of their work with maps. It isn't a map pin per se, but rather a slightly thicker, more heavy duty, robust pin used to hold down the corners of a map to a cork board, or attach it to a wall.[/color]

Second question..and the more important question:
for hole distribution...is it best to poke so many that the round coal doesn't cover them all?
I was always under the impression that all the holes you poke should be covered by the coal...otherwise the shisha would be drawing in cold air through the unblocked holes.

[color=#ff0000]Preference again, however I believe that it's universally accepted that you should poke holes evenly around the entire surface of the bowl/head. Anything else just seems gimmicky, in my opinion. As vendetta previously stated, the main thing with hookah is airflow. You want to have the right balance of hot and cool air to achieve a proper balance, and to have the head last long enough to use most of the tobacco. If you're covering all of the holes with coals, you're going to kill your intake, which in-turn will kill your ability to draw, and therefore your output. i.e. less smoke.[/color]

thanks in advance!

[color=#ff0000]no problem![/color]

[/quote]
[quote name='lefty2time' timestamp='1325116169' post='534055']
Ive smoked some at my friends place with wine in it once before and i didnt notice any burn....maybe because we used half a glass of red..WITH ice cubes.

BUT..
onetime we did half water half vodka..and wwwttfffffff it burned so bad. My lungs were on fire. I one time added two shot glasses of lime flavored vodka..and it added a bit of flavor...and it added a bit of burn too but not too much....definitely an amount i could handle.

[color=#ff0000]I've done this once before. I would never advise anyone to emulate my tomfoolery in this instance. wwwttfffffff is an appropriate expression here.[/color]
[/quote]
[quote name='lefty2time' timestamp='1325117392' post='534058']
Another question...ummm You know the standard tall hookah size...does it make a difference if you smoke from that or from the smaller like 12 inch tall ones?

[color=#ff0000]I was not aware of this standardization which you speak of, I can only assume you mean "average" or something of the sorts. I would say around 30" for egyptians and about 26" for syrians. MYAs and other chinese pipes are of another galaxy. [/color]

[color=#FF0000]As previously mentioned, it's really all about diameter and airflow. If you can achieve this in a smaller pipe, awesome. It is less common, however, to get this with a smaller pipe, not so much due to their stature (or lack thereof) but rather because they are (completely generically speaking) chinese pieces of junk that really serve no other purpose but novelty or as an attempt at making a quick buck off of some kid with cash in his pocket that has no clue as to what he's looking for. [/color]

[color=#FF0000]That being said, there are some decent, smaller, shorter pipes to be had. I have a MYA bambino which is a respectable pipe despite only being about 10" or so. [/color][color=#ff0000]You really just have to know what to look for.[/color]
[/quote]

[vendetta_revived]

[quote name='antouwan' timestamp='1325140914' post='534092']
first off, velcome to zis forums.

[quote name='lefty2time' timestamp='1325113648' post='534046']
Hello...first time posting on the forums here.

have a quick question.

Second question..and the more important question:
for hole distribution...is it best to poke so many that the round coal doesn't cover them all?
I was always under the impression that all the holes you poke should be covered by the coal...otherwise the shisha would be drawing in cold air through the unblocked holes.

[color=#ff0000]Preference again, however I believe that it's universally accepted that you should poke holes evenly around the entire surface of the bowl/head. Anything else just seems gimmicky, in my opinion. [u][b]As vendetta previously stated[/b][/u], the main thing with hookah is airflow. You want to have the right balance of hot and cool air to achieve a proper balance, and to have the head last long enough to use most of the tobacco. If you're covering all of the holes with coals, you're going to kill your intake, which in-turn will kill your ability to draw, and therefore your output. i.e. less smoke.[/color]

[/quote]
[/quote]

Hey! I didn't state anything!

@OP: I poke 3 rings of holes which are smaller than toothpick sized holes (btw, you described toothpick sized holes as *smaller*, which makes me wonder, what do you normally use to poke holes that you'd describe as big?), but bigger than thumbtack sized holes when I am using a phunnel for tobacco that is NOT tangiers using a big safety pin, and I poke lots of holes all over the bowl using the same pin when I am smoking from an egyptian bowl. For tangiers, I do 3 rings of toothpick sized holes poked all the way to the bottom of the bowl.

I quite don't understand the science behind it, but for me, tangiers seem to work better with bigger holes and other tobaccos seem to work better with comparatively smaller holes.

By the way, I don't add anything to the base. Just plain water, as it's the only thing that allows me to get a crisp, clean taste of whatever tobacco I am smoking.

[mushrat]

many smaller holes. coals can sit wherever they want and you can have free holes.

[lefty2time]

Took all your guys advice last night. Worked out great.

Thanks to all for ur tips etc

[littlec]

Many small holes UNLESS you are smoking Tangiers then you want big holes pushed all the way to the bottom.

If you're doing a fluffy pack with your tobacco lots of small pin prick holes is best, but if you're doing a firmer pack I would add a few larger holes evenly space that are pushed down to the bottom of the bowl. On an egyptian bowl you want to push holes from top to bottom over the holes in the bowl if you're doing a firm pack. That's how I do it not everyone will agree but these methods have served me well.