I bought a piece off my dealer a couple weeks ago, because he's from Hong Kong (foreign exchange student, just finished high school in the US but he's coming back for college next year). I was really happy with it, it's a nice bowl. However, I just realized today something that really grossed me the fuck out. I thought when I got it that the bowl was painted brown. Turns out, the entire bowl was completely covered in resin, since he hadn't cleaned it in 2 years. It's a nightmare to clean. Most of it's out now, but some is still there. I'll post pics in a bit, once it's completely clean, but here's a pic of it when I first got it: Yep, that's all resin in there, not paint. Named it Green Lotus, btw, because he had named it Penis Bowl (lol, it does look kinda like a sex toy or something), but I wanted to change the name when it changed hands.
If you want to clean it, grunge off works the best. Just pour it in a tray or bag, and leave the bowl in there for a day. No effort at all, and it will be sparkling clean. Grunge off is not your typical bong cleaner, it actually has enzymes in it that dissolve the resin and tar. If you don't want to spend the money on that, let it soak in iso alcohol (99% works the best) for a day or so, then put some salt in the piece along with alcohol, and shake the shit out of it for as long as your arm can handle. It also works really well if you heat the iso before pouring it in the piece, although I tend to avoid this as heating up 99% iso alcohol scares me a little.
trust me bud, iso alcohol is the way to go. i've heard bad things about heating up your pipe too much or doing other shit to it. alcohol is cheap as fuck (not more than like 5 bucks), you just put some in a tupperware, put your pipe in overnight, then scrub it with some toilet paper, pipecleaner, whatever, run some water through, presto.
oh shit, sorry for triple post (too lazy to edit)... you should save some of that resin and spread it on your joints, it's a nice little addition to normal joints.
Yeah if I want to clean a bowl I'll scrape it good then soak it in alcohol. Supposedly you can then take that alcohol and let it evaporate and smoke the shit that's left, but we've never tried it. It's not supposed to be any more harmful cause all the alcohol evaporates but ehh.
A lot of people do it. It's not supposed to be any different because literally all the alcohol evaporates and all your left with is straight resin. I've smoked a resin ball here and there when a peice breaks or something, but I've usually got green on me so I don't bother.
i've tried the leftover alcohol from pipe cleaning....WITHOUT salt, just the stuff the pipe sits in for awhile........with how messy the whole process is it's just really not worth it......totally doable tho. and just to throw it out there.........you just don't boil glass.......obviously you can but there are much easier/safer ways.
1st off, that black shit that collects in your piece is NOT resin, it's tar and other left over gunk that the plant matter left behind. Resin is the trichromes or crystals that hang off the buds. Next, to clean my pieces I use Orange Chronic or Dragon Piss from http://www.vaporstore.com/products.php?cat=20 they both work really well, but I think Dragon Piss works slightly better. With Orange Chronic you get a 16 oz. bottle for $18 shipped where as Dragon Piss you get a 4 or 6 oz. bottle. They will both clean your dirty glass piece in about 2-3 mins. Just drop your piece in a ziplock bag, pour some Orange Chronic or Dragon Piss in, close the bag, then shake it around vigoroulsy for about a min to a min and a half, then take ya piece outta the bag and run hot tap water over it. The thing will come out looking brand new like you just bought it from the headshop.
