I think a great thing about pot is that I can use it to make mundane tasks fun. The vacuum sounds louder. Driving is smooth sailing. Just moving in repetitive ways can be fun if my body is relaxed enough. Getting to the point of being relaxed and capable of doing stuff can be a tough balancing act. It is often far too easy to just take one more hit and then – stuck on the couch.
One of the routine tasks that I had to do the other day was one of my least favorite, cleaning my piece. Not only does it leave my hands smelly and sticky, it takes time and effort and caution to do correctly. The worst part – not being able to smoke the piece for several hours while it dries.
As things happen, it was late and I was bored. I decided that I was tired of working hard to pull hits and wanted to clean Littlefoot. The significantly details about Littlefoot as far as cleaning goes – a big chamber, a long pipe, and thin glassed. Littlefoot, like in The Land Before Time, is a brontosaurus. The shotgun is the tail and the mouthpiece is...the mouth. More details on this piece, and others, later
Cleaning bowls is tough. Making sure the water is the right temperature, the right chemicals and tools need to be available. For a long time I used only Bling, a combo of liquid and sediments that worked well with smaller pieces. As my collection of gear grew, so did my resources. Pipe cleaners were used for a while, toothpicks became a staple for scraping resin, I tried using salt as an additional scrub.
Typically, when I clean Littlefoot, I run hot water through him and then use some Bling. Once some of the resin has softened, I'll use toothpicks to start picking away resin from the bowl or mouthpiece. I will let the bowl fill with water, plugging all holes, and then shake loose anything that I can. I'll drain, add an abrasive like salt or Bling, refill with water, and shake again, repeating as necessary. I also use rubbing alcohol to clean bowls and it works really well to freshen scents. Sometimes, if I have a large enough container or a small enough bowl, I will fill that with a solution and shake that with the piece inside of it.
One problem that routinely develops as a result of Littlefoot's shape is that salt drains down into his feet and doesn't easily come out. In addition, his legs are hourglass shaped. I usually have to rock sediment out of him using water to lubricate the process. This time, instead of salt, I tried using baking soda as my scrubbing agent. The results were similar but left a strange aftertaste.
After 20 or so minutes of cleaning, I usually have resin on my hands and Littlefoot is only looking marginally cleaner. The souls of his feet stay dark and the top of the chamber stays dirty because the water level doesn't rise enough. His tail and neck stay pretty clean, but he gets dirty again at the mouth. The underside of the bowl has dingle-berries that are parallel to the glass and impossible to remove.
Why I don't boil bowls: One time my friend, I'll call him Simple Matt, offered to clean my bowl Snackpack by boiling it along with his. At the time, I was a relatively new smoker and had no techniques for cleaning developed yet. Well, he got stoned and forgot to remove the bowls from the uncovered pot of water. After maybe 20 minutes the water had evaporated and the bowls were simply sitting on a very hot surface. To make matters even worse, in his frantic scramble to remove the bowls from the empty but hot pot, Snackpack was dropped, splitting in two.
What do you think is the best way to clean pieces, whether they be bowls, bongs, pipes, steamrollers, slides, one-hitter, or anything else you have. Any recommended products or processes?
Good luck and smoke well.
-XY
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