When you have friends over for some friendly cannabis consumption your stash can take a big, expensive hit. Given the price of herb these days you want to make sure you get the most out of it no matter if you’re smoking alone or it’s party time. But how best to do that without seeming like you’re withholding? One answer is cornering. When we suggest cornering to customers at our Denver headshop and then explain what it is, it turns out that a lot of people are subconsciously doing it already.
But whether you’ve been cornering for years without knowing it or you are completely unaware of what it is, we think you’ll benefit from the following tips designed to help you corner in the most effective way.
First Things First, What is Cornering?
As we mentioned, what has become known as “cornering” is something a lot of veteran stoners have been doing for years. Our experience, however, tells us that most people are unaware of this weed-saving technique and for that reason, we’ve decided to bring together this brief guide explaining what it is and how best to do it.
In short, cornering means that you only apply fire to a portion of the bowl – a ‘corner’ if you will – rather than sparking up the entire bowl at once. Why would someone do this? Because the act of lighting the entire bowl is actually a pretty wasteful one. You tend to spark up far more weed than you need to, leaving a lot of it smoldering pointlessly long after you’ve removed your mouth from the mouthpiece.
Cornering, on the other hand, ignites just a portion of the herb in the bowl, thereby providing enough smoke to get a useful hit but not causing a lot of collateral damage to the rest of the weed in the bowl.
Popular Cornering Techniques
Holding the flame away from the herb
When you stuff the flame directly into the herb in the bowl it’s going to light everything from the rim to the screen. What a waste! A better idea is to hold the flame at such a distance that only the tip of it touches the top of the loaded bowl. You’ll get your hit and there will still be plenty of herb down inside the bowl for others.
Tilting the bowl to the side
A lot of unconscious corners we talk to at the pipe shop use this technique without thinking about it. All you do is tilt the bowl away from the flame a bit so that the flame only comes into contact with one side of the bowl. Classic cornering.
Using a hemp wick
The lighter is one of the main culprits when it comes to wasting weed. The reason cornering is even necessary is because of the lighter’s tendency to ignite everything in its path and then some. So it would make sense to replace the lighter with a less high-impact means of ignition. That’s exactly what the hemp wick does. The flame generated by the hemp wick is more modest and can be used to target a particular part of the bowl more accurately than you could do with a lighter.
The Benefits of Cornering
Cornering is a good habit to get into for any number of reasons, including:
To conserve expensive herb
Every time you or someone else pulls the heady glass away from their face and the bowl continues to smolder away, the expensive herb is being wasted. Cornering enables you to stop this wasteful practice and make the herb you have last longer.
To stop inhaling byproducts of lighter combustion
Every time you use a butane lighter to ignite your herb you’re getting more than you bargained for when you inhale. We’re not going to get into all the potential dangers of inhaling butane fumes but they are many. But you can minimize your exposure to them either by using a hemp wick or by employing one of the other techniques we listed above.
Restores a sense of calm to the communal experience
Passing around bongs or glass pipes is a communal experience of the highest order. But if everyone waiting for a hit is anxious, fearing the bowl will have been burned through by the time it reaches them these feelings undermine the sense of shared experience. Cornering allows you to slow things down and savor the moment.
Saves something for the last in line
This is directly related to the previous point: Nobody wants to be the last person to get a hit off the bong. Usually by the time the water pipe reaches the end of the line all that’s left are charred scraps and a harsh, throat-scraping non-hit. Cornering helps ensure that even the last person gets a decent hit.
Get in Touch With 710 Pipes
If you’re looking for new bongs, pipes or smoking accessories, check out the 710 Pipes online head shop. You can also stop into our brick-and-mortar headshop locations in Northglenn or adjacent to Denver University. We’re here seven days a week.