Jamaican bamboo steam pipe bubbler

Lets talk about the Jamaican steam pipe bubbler, or Jamaican steam chalice

It is a bubbler made from bamboo, with a bamboo bowl, which is vaporized by holding a tin can with holes filled with coals over it for hits. I will put pictures up of the bubbler and the process asap, until then here is the inspiration for this, i saw it in a weed magazine but its online too!

https://thewikihow.com/video_lpFKTZ6WgYs

The first time I vaped weed was in 1979, when my best buddy came home from Jamaica with a steam pipe...
He told me his Rastafarian friend, Winston, wanted me to visit and be the guest of him and his wife in the hills of St. Mary...

I made my third trip to Ja in 1981, and found my way to Winston's house, way back in the woods and hills...They were happy to meet me and asked me to stay for a couple weeks.
Carmen, his wife, was a great hostess to me, and Winston and I hiked around the hills to where he had his apiary..
Winston was a good carpenter and build his wooden bee boxes himself.. He probably had more than 100 of them..

Winston and Carmen wouldn't smoke ganja, because they knew smoking was bad for you..
They had been steaming their ganja for many years...
Every morning I woke up, sleeping on the floor of their house, Carmen would be right there beside me,
with the steam pipe primed and ready to toke on...Talk about wake and bake; I was high before I ever stood up in the morning...

I had a very interesting time staying with them and Winston gave me a new steam pipe he made, to bring home with me...
I didn't use mine in Ja, so it would be clean when I came thru customs on my way home..

It was used quite a bit after I got back to the states..
None of my friends had ever heard of such a thing in 1981, and a few of them didn't even believe it would work until they tried it and got stoned to the bone...
We didn't call it vaporizing back in those days...It was called "steaming".

I dug my old steam pipe out of the attic about 5 years ago...
I've had to replace the tin pan and the bowl, because I had used it so much they had burnt down.
Here's a pic of my old steam pipe about 5 years ago, out in my yard by my campfire pit...

..
edit:
I should mention that Winston was a Jamaican of India descent. His ancestors had been brought to Jamaica from India several centuries ago as slaves or indentured servants..
Winston explained to me that the steam pipe (or vaporizer) was an ancient pipe that had been used for 1000 years in India...
Many of the old ones from India were much more ornate, especially the ones made for kings and holy men.
In Jamaica, Winston built his from bamboo, because it was the material he had available in abundance..
He had steam pipes stashed under rocks and in hollow trees everywhere that he might wander during his daily routine...
He also kept them at all his friends houses, because many of those Rastas still preferred to smoke spliffs or the chalice..
By doing this, he didn't have to carry this somewhat bulky pipe around with him, yet there was always one available when he wanted to steam. (which was frequently)
..

... yours seems simpler to use, more stable I can no longer smoke the ganja (62). I quit smoking 8 yrs ago. I got myself a decent vaporiser and love that I can taste the various nuances (they come out clean) compared to combusting. I still take my canna pills but supplement a couple of toots on the way

Neat as can be.

aw thank you Bud Green, for your personal touch. I was hoping you'd show up with that story.

That is definitely different shaped than the other one, is it a bubbler as well?

I love smoking next to a campfire, goes hand in hand. fire herb food

If by bubbler, you mean waterpipe, yes it is...

The large, horizontal piece of bamboo is filled with water..
The vapor passes thru the water..
This probably explains why the pipe has always been called a steam pipe...and the process of using ganja called "steaming"
The vapor appears to be "steam", when you exhale...
By the way, I added more info, as an edit, to my prior comment..

..

https://italsteamchalice.bigcartel.com/product/ital-bongo

You can buy them here. Shipped from Jamaica.

The times we did it the weed was wet down a little

And thus the steam

And when we went to the heat gun it was more optional but often easy to add some water

Dont know what the Rastas did as far as water but they are using fresh weed there

.....love the forced air of the heat gun its like one of those joint bottles you squeeze followed by a stream of smoke

Some other guys make one out of ceramic and coconut called a vapor or steam chalice which they sell out of jamaica by email

they have some videos on youtube

Also some for sale on esty

https://www.etsy.com/search?q=steam chalice


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Salutations Sertaiz,

Sertaiz said:

Lets talk about the Jamaican steam pipe bubbler, or Jamaican steam chalice

Click to expand...

If you'll allow me here's a question about this segment of the video:It's the exact instant when we can finally observe how this consumption tool operates, so my question is about exhaust gases expected to join the cannabic stream: why not separate those 2 paths as in the Lotus Vaporizer?? After all i'm ready to bet that thin metal sheets ain't too hard to find anywhere food cans are available - except i might find this vision a bit too rustik by my own standards. Yet i can appreciate KISS challenges.

Briefly put, am i wrong to expect a carbon-based exhaust to actually vilify its cannabic target? Please correct me as required!



The Lotus pipe converts stored (conduction) heat into radiative heat which then also converts as convective heat eventually, while keeping its associated conduction path at a fairly safe distance from noble molecules. Your topic also reminds me of the Vapocane, which also fails to address skin-burn risks, by the way...

Anyway what we got at the moment is a hand-made "post-Steaming" (*) accessory for the most part, e.g. its "coal" could be as well replaced with some "hot rocks" equivalent, though in absence of any fumes and much less toxic by consequence: "fumes" simply represents an undesirable feature no matter where you stand on earth, some way or another... Lets avoid it if we can help it!



To me "coal" is synonymous of carbon combustion, of which emanations may seem low but that's still contamination of the cannabic path by potentially toxic exhaust - only because it's convenient somehow.

That brings me back to the Lotus then, why not separate the paths: with a coal combustion heater sealed out of a consumer's lungs path. Then consider Hot Knives metal is little more than refined rock with a man-defined shape (and improved thermal conduction...), etc; does the challenge really need to limit a vaporist's conceptual toolbox to the cavern age??



Rocks are relatively low conduction materials, a lesser amount of metal would certainly prove more efficient by gaining an ability to carry around more temporarily-stored energy using a smaller contraption format. No need to get too close to fire, leave it away!

In addition that's the start of a "Packetized" pulse-mode design, just have a change of scale to account for an obvious lack of precision tools in a remote environment. Lets not remain stalled in time!...

So, i'm most confident there's no real problem finding glass even in the woods. Glass particles rudimentarily filtered by size would provide a porous heat-resistant layer to juxtapose with a complementary metal core. "Recharge" that Hybrid Core above fire and insert it above the bowl when ready.

No doubt this would work like a party-size consumption tool so beware that using only 0.75 g for my customized VG metal "chip" already supports an extremely extended applications range covering between mithridatism and intense neo-commotion effects that call for a chair (!)...

But other than that i'm confident the device's part above its bowl would benefit from suitable reconfiguration, nonetheless. The rest removes heat and particles in a traditional manner that provides a safety buffer, so why not!



IMO just drop any carbon-based exhaust if the situation applies. Think metal if that helps with fumes.

Good day, have fun!!

The exhaust fumes from once burned, fully glowing coals is very little and once bubbled, i dont mind it at all. not at all like butane fumes.
hookah pipes use coals as well

I used to vape bubblers with a piece of molten glass in my glass studio, and notice a taste difference. i do know what you mean.
It needed to be reheated every time though, as oppose to a tin of coals just needs a good blow and the coals are ashed off and ready to go, passed to the next.

Hi again Sertaiz,

Clean-burning butane results in H2O + H2O, that's (Inlet) Water and carbonic gas as found in soft drinks, which is one reason why butane can be found in kitchens: it's "food-safe". Purists will object this still ain't satisfactory enough considering there's also 15 ~ 30 ppm "impurities" coming from gas cans, while other people will reply this is no worse than standing on some urban sidewalks. In any case i'll let you describe coal combustion yet i still suggest other readers to separate coal fire from their cannabic path, quite similary to the Lotus scenario in such cases.

How about a metal version of the VapoCane?

Sertaiz said:

It needed to be reheated every time though...

Click to expand...

Evidently, each design comes with features we must be ready to assume!

Good day, have fun!!

Bud Green said:

The first time I vaped weed was in 1979, when my best buddy came home from Jamaica with a steam pipe...
He told me his Rastafarian friend, Winston, wanted me to visit and be the guest of him and his wife in the hills of St. Mary...

I made my third trip to Ja in 1981, and found my way to Winston's house, way back in the woods and hills...They were happy to meet me and asked me to stay for a couple weeks.
Carmen, his wife, was a great hostess to me, and Winston and I hiked around the hills to where he had his apiary..
Winston was a good carpenter and build his wooden bee boxes himself.. He probably had more than 100 of them..

Winston and Carmen wouldn't smoke ganja, because they knew smoking was bad for you..
They had been steaming their ganja for many years...
Every morning I woke up, sleeping on the floor of their house, Carmen would be right there beside me,
with the steam pipe primed and ready to toke on...Talk about wake and bake; I was high before I ever stood up in the morning...

I had a very interesting time staying with them and Winston gave me a new steam pipe he made, to bring home with me...
I didn't use mine in Ja, so it would be clean when I came thru customs on my way home..

It was used quite a bit after I got back to the states..
None of my friends had ever heard of such a thing in 1981, and a few of them didn't even believe it would work until they tried it and got stoned to the bone...
We didn't call it vaporizing back in those days...It was called "steaming".

I dug my old steam pipe out of the attic about 5 years ago...
I've had to replace the tin pan and the bowl, because I had used it so much they had burnt down.
Here's a pic of my old steam pipe about 5 years ago, out in my yard by my campfire pit...

..
edit:
I should mention that Winston was a Jamaican of India descent. His ancestors had been brought to Jamaica from India several centuries ago as slaves or indentured servants..
Winston explained to me that the steam pipe (or vaporizer) was an ancient pipe that had been used for 1000 years in India...
Many of the old ones from India were much more ornate, especially the ones made for kings and holy men.
In Jamaica, Winston built his from bamboo, because it was the material he had available in abundance..
He had steam pipes stashed under rocks and in hollow trees everywhere that he might wander during his daily routine...
He also kept them at all his friends houses, because many of those Rastas still preferred to smoke spliffs or the chalice..
By doing this, he didn't have to carry this somewhat bulky pipe around with him, yet there was always one available when he wanted to steam. (which was frequently)
..

Click to expand...

G `day BG

I still don`t understand how it works !?

A metal plate heated by coals vaporizes the herb then its pulled through a chamber with water ?

I don`t understand the steam component ?

Thanks for sharin

EB .

Elmer Bud said:

G `day BG

I still don`t understand how it works !?

A metal plate heated by coals vaporizes the herb then its pulled through a chamber with water ?

I don`t understand the steam component ?

Thanks for sharin

EB .

Click to expand...

The terps are boiling off as a vapor/steam. Same idea as today's vaporizers. Just rudimentary, but definitely "avant guarde" for the day

Salutations Elmer Bud,

Elmer Bud said:

I still don`t understand how it works!?

Click to expand...

Basically it's involving coal combustion in the inhalation path, or please correct me if proven wrong, but that's obviously not where the future awaits health-concerned cannabis consumers anyway.

Personally i'd focus on ways to keep that coal inside a device standing on my table, separate from some air-tight consumption wand, preferably glass or metal. Or just a DynaVap as it's supposed to work with such fires i think!

Elmer Bud said:

I don`t understand the steam component?

Click to expand...

It seems to me that's what i previously refered to as:

Egzoset said:

...a way to amplify... ..."CHEAT": just never care to mention the nuisance of combustion smoke)!

Click to expand...

My hope is that some day electro-magnetic Induction Heat shall retain Inlet Water benefits while rejecting all intolerable nuisance. Though as an ex-smoker myself i'll always oppose bigot prohibition dogma allowing any predatory government to target smokers only because they can.

Yet, considering the promissing advantages of materials as Silicon Carbide Foam it would be retrograde not to valorize innovative emerging properties from suitable composite juxtapositions.

Good day, have fun!!

Elmer Bud said:

G `day BG

I still don`t understand how it works !?

Click to expand...

Howdy Elmer,

The steampipe is pretty much an outdoor use pipe...
Of course, in Jamaica most people outside of the cities don't spent much time indoors...

Winston and Carmen's house was far in the hills. There was no electricity anywhere near them..
Carmen had an old cast iron cooktop that used propane, but she preferred to do her cooking over a small fire outdoors..
The fire was almost always going, not large, but always embers glowing to start it right back up...

For the steampipe, some broken pieces of coconut shell (very hard wood) are placed in the fire and allowed to burn entirely..
The remaining red-glowing hot coals are then placed in the tin pan on top of the bowl... ( the ganja, usually quite fresh, is pushed down to the bottom of the 4 inch tall bowl..

A slow steady draw is needed to prime the pipe. What this does is draw the heat from the coals down thru the buds..
After a few draws, the heat is enough to begin vaporizing the trichomes.
You then continue to draw slowly on the stem, as the "vaporized" THC is drawn down through the water (which cools it)..
When all the THC has been "vaporized" you get no more "steam"
The buds are no longer green and fresh, but now brown and dried out...
So you just put in some more fresh green buds!

The steampipe definitely has a learning curve.
If you draw too slowly, not enough heat is drawn thru the buds.
If you draw too quickly, you will sometimes draw a small ember through the small holes in the pan which will ignite the buds, and then you are just smoking a waterpipe...
But practice makes perfect...

I believe the term "steampipe" is actually a misnomer, and the name was probably given to it because when you exhale, the vapor appears to be "steam"...

Winston had only rudimentary tools to make his steampipes, so he just used a nail to punch the holes in the tin pan.
At home I usually place a fine SS screen in the pan, which helps to keep embers from falling thru...

My house is way back in the woods and I have a large campfire ring in my front yard...
On a nice evening, it's enjoyable to sit around the campfire with friends and fire up some coals and teach them how to "steam"...

Thank you BG !!
knew you would come through.

i am all about outdoor living, and having a fire is one of my favorite things to do. It goes hand in hand with smoking and eating . I will build one soon. i used to vape a glass bubbler with a single coal held with two pieces of wood but that was no 4 inch bowl.

Hi again Sertaiz,

Sertaiz said:

...knew you would come through.

Click to expand...

Well, sorry i can't follow.

Sertaiz said:

...outdoor living, and having a fire is one of my favorite things to do. It goes hand in hand with smoking...

Click to expand...

In all honesty i find odd to associate health-wise lifestyles to smoking that implicitely involves self-poisoning (read "VILIFICATION") by inhaling hot toxic exhaust gases resulting from vegetal tissue combustion on top of that from burning coal!



Progress occurs when we can learn from historical mistakes and act on it, for example by removing the "CHEAT" part which is traded in exchange for some additional "kick" totally unrelated to cannabis, to be exact: just a chemicals soup never found in the sacred trichome glands of Mother Nature, i believe!

So much for "healthy ways" compatible with the goals of Health Canada.



What i'm saying is that it's still possible to burn coal outdoors at an affordable price and not self-vilify with it. If you enjoy the additional punch i associate with the hot exhaust gases then invest some hope in the juxtaposition of distilled water and IH technology instead. Time to walk out of the 2-dimensional imagery of our ancestor's ancient caverns.

Please consider a "Release/Transport Agent" can be "Potentialized" with additives other than TOXIC combustion WASTE which failed to be excluded from the cannabic/lungs path by design...

What comfort is that to know the additional "kick" one gets is only a consequence of someone else's inability/unwillingness to solve a problem inherited from cavemen.

Please, oh please! Think of the children...
Good day, have fun!!