Category: Shisha Info

“Guilty” as accused

For those of us who love smoking the narghile, (all raise your right hand), working at the p.c. might be a problem. I know to change often the water and clean out my shafy with a good brush, but is that a rule for once in a while smokers? I’ve read recently that those who smoke once a week or maybe even longer in between MUST clean the whole hookah well. So the resins and dirt will not harden.
For those, like me, who will smoke at work, right next to the p.c. not as an actual laid back mediatative hookah smoke, but as more of a hands on session, we will not stop and clean the whole hookah every time, but… how long and how much is too much?
Friday I felt my last 3 bowls acting funny and sending smoke up the pipe stem, even though I had’nt put too much charcoal on the top.
I went into the near Loo to was the hookah. I found the water, though recently replaced was greenish, and the hookah shaft gummy with resins.
I cleaned the hookah ONLY after it had cooled off, or the water would have cracked or breaken the water bow, clay bowl, etc.
It had not been a long time since I’d smoked, but the AMMOUNT smoked neccesated having cleaning earlier. Right enough, after that, it was good smoking again.
Every time something like this : everthing is going smoothly and the a unforseen problem comes up.
It remeinds me that its like raising a child. You go even before birth for check-ups, couseling, man-woman birthing team coaching, the birth, going home, the growing, the raising, right education, clubs etc. All of a sudden at age 14 the nice little boy you gre is turning to criminal intrests (he gets a large money alowance from the parents).

The anology is similar.
You as a parent of this lovely hookah must go scrambling for an idea–why are tried and true hookah practices back firing?
If you don’t panic and thing things out, you’ll find the idea and how to fix it.
The other day for the first time, a clay head of tobacco flew off, and strew burning coals over our wood floor.
I scrambled for the coals and then tried to figure things out.
I have been using a layer of tissue paper to make a great connection betwen the clay tobaccco bowl, and the rubber grommet.
Guess what I forgot this time! The toilet paper, just a small ammount with a cross of 2 cuts to let it go well over the opening–not to leave over the top to stop the air connection, or too much t.p. tissue that might burn from a small piece of small falling coal.
About the scorched wooden floor, which I have done in a few places, Had mentioned the large pie tray with inner hole cut in with utility kniffe before.
This hookah bowl flew off.I think it was the fact that I had not added toilet paper and it fell of from vibration.
About the wooden floor, sooner or later I’ll attack it with an electric sander, and shellac it again a few times over!
hookah 1

“Salty Dog” (or) sick as a dog

A friend complained about headaches and  being really nauseous. Went to lay down.

A bit later I felt nauseous too.

Now, it¬† was NOT from too much nicotine , since I didn’t have any of those symptoms¬† which are a headache, yes nauseum, but I was noticing the taste of my premium shisha recently smoked was now tasting like charcoal. The other smoke I had before, using my favorite brand of recently found coals¬† was also tasting like charcoal!

The second I stopped smoking, the symptoms went away, but an hour later I still have the taste of coal on my tongue.

This post will be a work in progress in which I came to find out probably a few of the reasons why this hapened to us.
One resaon is “I should have known better”

Nicotine¬† stomach takes longer than that before it gets better, and I haven’t had that in 4 years.

Usually a kid’s first cigarette will do that to him.It must be the Lord’s way of telling us not to smoke ever a second¬† one!

At the cost of sounding hipycritical (I am), I know for a fact that at least  5-10 young  close relatives of mine smoke hookah.In the Arab countries  I know its widespread to smoke nargileh amongst the young. Keeps the hunger pains away too!

Haven’t been¬† to India or Pakistan, but they have the “Hubbly Bubbly” before any culture and kids smoke.

Back to the lousy batch of charcoals. I noticed a few coals out of a package of ten coals last week which were “Bad”.

I keep my coals in a plastic bag or two after unwrapping the  bag of ten.

For sure by keeping them unwrapped  they get bad.

Why? Same as shisha and marshmellows for that mater, or table salt. They will¬† readily absorb much moisture from the air!¬† You’ll see, that is why we put¬† some grains of¬† uncooked rice in with the salt, they absorb the moisture¬† that the salt in the shaker would.

I live  in a very moist area in a low mountain valley which keeps the moisture trapped.

And we see from the article brought down ,above that those charcoal briquettes are made with sawdust which is swept up¬† from the floor and can be quite filthy, and sodium nitrate (that’s found in instant soups and cured meats like salami, blogna,¬† some smokey links, authentically Kosher meat to draw out all of the blood ,which is forbidden to eat. Its got lots of sodium (Duh) in it, and after eating some of the above,even the¬† instant soup mix, I gain in one half day about 2 kilos, or 5 and a half lbs. from the water I drank¬† and obsorbs in the body tissues like a sponge!

So do not eat your charcoals.

Last week I ambled into our community’s general store and saw forthe first time a 2 kilo bag of¬† “Vegetable Coals”. I bought them with the¬† smoking in mind. From this article I see that it is termed ” Lump charcoal. It was hard to light, longer than¬† Jordanian¬† lemon wood natural coals I’ve used and enjoyed, which also take 2-3 minutes to light and make my wife crazy since I lit them on the gas range and smelled up the house.

Outside you’d need to put them into a low fire, or a portable small camping gas range to light the lemon type coals.

The vegetable lump charcoal took even longer to light and not thoroughly lit, either.

Here is a web page created by a particular company warning not to use quick lighting stuff. (Lets keep in mind that the facts here are to serve that firm’s intrests) :

http://virtualweberbullet.com/charcoal.html

Lets see if our coals use that for the quick lighting outer surface.

And what else is in the coals.

(See”hookah history” in that section here)

Gotta be  saltpetre in that charcoal they make!You know, the stuff in gun powder to make it explode.

Its NOT true that armies used it in thier food to keep the soldiers physical desires to a low level, cuz it doesn’t¬† effect male¬† sexual prowness.Might be someone’s excuse.

I’m doing some research online to find out just what’s in the quick lighting charcoals (coals) that most of us use.

Here is the running progress:

came accross this for charcoal briquettes which are more for cooking on the bar-b-que :

http://list.uvm.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0411b&L=safety&P=2974

Some fine ideas about quick lites
They mention potassium nitrate as what makes the sparks ignite

http://www.incensewarehouse.com/Burning-Incense-
3_ep_50-1.html

Rolland-Chinese name,no?
http://www.made-in-china.com/catalog/item999i132/Coal-Charcoal-11.html
Here I am going to turn you to Shishainfo which is “Shisha info”.
I had seen some of their work a few years ago, but they have up-graded and this website is more than amazing.
I take my hat off to them .
Read about their explanations for hookah set-up, hints terrific tips etc.
http://www.shishainfo.com/hookah-shisha-setup.htm
Here I urge you to read the short but sweet hookah-set-up pages at at ShishaInfo.com
http://www.shishainfo.com/hookah-shisha-setup.htm
I will re-iterate a few of thier tips and great points, and probably some of these are the cause of this happening to me for the first time in 3 or 4 years.
Store the coal in cool, airtight place, I do that, but its been madly humid here and maybe they absorbed the moisture?
Put your coals on the outside of the bowl .Moving them around the rim.”The center is the last place the coals should be put”. He or she mentions that the top will scorch and smell the whole sessiom up. Well, guess what I di tonight? I used Smoking-Hookah.com ‘s gigantic brown “Party Bowl” in which you can fit the state of Texas in, along with a slice of all the Michigan Upper Penninsula too. I use it so that I can putin a nice ammount, never tamped down, air flowing well, and below the surface of the tinfoil so that it will not cook and scorch.
“Center of bowl” last place to put the coal?
Well, I heaped them in the middle. Why?
Keep those coals around the outside rim.
They mention an idea I’ve never heard. Punch holes in the foil with a toothpick (done that before), 5-6 holes. Pretty small bowl there! Its mentioned that if the suction is too hard, add some more, with the nice addition here: maybe during smoking the holes got blocked and your shisha is going up the chimney.
Thats why I don’t use anything smaller than a small thin nail, but mostly use the metal sticker from the tongs which I took from the tongs after being lightly burnt when using the tongs to movethe coals and the metal sticker got in the way.
Its my favorite hole puncher.
I’ve noticed that with 3 tongs, of the same manufacturer, the sticker and tongs are exactly alike,but the tip of one sticker is more blunt and so the hole comes too big.
I use a lot of holes in the party bowl, maybe I should try just in the center or vice versa.
Which shows that when you (I) don’t use brains, experience will force me to find out the best way after messing up once.
Again, I will mention about the tiny or medium circular ash trays that go under the clay tobacco head.
The coals if round upon falling will prove that physics law of “a matter in motion will continue that speed and motion until its worn down by friction or gravity, or mommy’s white carpet”
I learned something in 7th grade science back in around 1966.

¬†by mentioning the rolling round charcoal which will continue to roll until it burns the floor a bit, or the rug a lot, or someone’s pants for too long. Known fact. Did you ever see a coal drop and not do damage? Rare!
In researching for this post I heard about “the Lord Charcoal.” com. which has a coal that is not round and hence will not roll.
http://www.bernardsformalwear.com/Charcoal%20Grey%20Stroller.htm
(wrong this is the “Charcoal Grey Tuxedo” April Fools.)
Here is the real info and link:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Mens-Lord-Taylor-Charcoal-Gray-Suit-48L-Pants-40-33_W0QQitemZ200120435387QQcmdZViewItem
alright,I couldn’t resist.
Here you see it from the Hookah Forum com

http://www.hookahforum.com/index.php?showtopic=696
(I see good old Malthazar is doing research and benefiting world-wide shisha smokers of all race and creed alike!)
Have used lemon tree woods an natural coals which I’ll bet have at least some compressed sawdust in them, but they are round at one side and flat on the bottom.

Which is were my grocer’s wisdom comes into play.
As I loathe the tiny ash trays sold, and would rather sacrifice beauty for pragmatism, I bought a 8 or so wide aluminum foil pie tin. I didn’t want to make the inner hole too big, so I took my own pee-wee tray and wanted to trace its inner hole on the foil to cut.
You can’t believe my suprise when I found the inner round circle marked groove already on the 8 small piesections and my original as tray were exactly the same circumfrence!
99% of the falling coals are captured and 100% of the ash.

And finally especially for fire prevention as hookah smokers alike.
“Who is wise,? he who sees what is being born”.
A SMART person knows that coals burn, and will be careful, but a WISE person knows that when the coal falls in his lap ,or on the family heirloom $23,000 Original Persiam rug he’d better buy a quick plane ticket to Timbuktoo or Kalamazoo!

Hookah 1

Hookah Club

So you bought a 200 gram can of that sheesha you smoked at the local hookah lounge, and found after one smoke that you don’t care for it. You might have 185 gams left.
Or maybe you are going on summer vacation and you DO love that sheesha brand, but you have you’re tennis racket, balls, books, clothes and a whole supply of sheesha stash left over. You’ll come back in September but can’t leave anything in the university dormitory.

Here’s an idea for you and friends at anytime of the year.
You can make a local hookah club, or university club. Upload the club online and each person who wants to get rid of some sheesha type, or a few clay tobacco heads, or bought theirself that “special dream hookah,” can trade or sell for something else.

Maybe your best friend said that “Abu Shukrey” sheesha ” is the best premium sisha on the market”, as all companies say about every shisha brand they sell. You found out that “Abu Shukrey” is actually an “Abu Ali” sheesha .

I’ve mentioned “Abu Ali” stories a few times. Arabic is one of the richest languages in the world! Okay, with the advent of T.V. and multi-modern media, so is the “American” language with its idioms being born with each season’s hit Television program.
I was born and lived in America until age 17. 1970 moved.
There are 37 years of slang I’ve passed on.
In Arabic the idiom “Abu Ali” is “Father of Ali”, or the “first born son of Ali”, and 497 other meanings!

Also its what’s called “stop pulling my leg”, or “don’t bull shi me”. A grandiose , blatant hashish dream. The Arabs also speak in exageration but THEY know that.
If Achmad tells Feiysal that he will deliver his package before lunch time, Feiysal knows that he’ll see the package in 4 days time maximum! Not bad. We take them literally to their word.

The MiddleEast mentality is really more than the Middle East, of course .The North African countries (like Darfur), Iran, Khazakhstan, Cyprus, Greece, Israel,Turkey, Afghanistahn, Georgia, the former south-east Soviet Republics, and more.
So we are not blaming the Arabs here, who gave us mathmatics, Spain! and added a gigantic bulk of knowledge to the Western World’s culture as fearless sea fearing travelers to the known world, and emmancipated many of the African people on the continent. (They were dragged away in chains but let’s blame “the Whitey’s ” for that.) I am not white by the way.

There actually are many local shisha clubs, born out of hookah lounge smokers, students at a particular school ,university, or local community.

(1) So don’t trash your stash, trade with your hommies.
Barter that older hookah for sheesha, or (2) give it to the poor at “Goodwill” ,”Salvation Army”, or “Bnai Brit”!

And that gives me an even better idea!!
(3) Do they have “Cake Walks” at your Church, or “Best Lokshun Kugel” contests at the local synogog? (I can’t spell Greek).
Why not have a bring your own sheesha party at your place of worship ? I’m not being sacriligious, but its a better idea.

Anyone with the money can buy wheat, eggs,sugar,yeast and milk to bake a cake or noodles for the lukshun kugel.(Don’t forget the onions Ima).
Its not so easy to buy shisha, and its for sure a bit more expensive.
So have that “sheesha barter-trade night”.

(4)You can make a “bring your own shisha” party at the local gym .Each person will donate at least a 50 gram closed pack to a common worthy cause .

(5) Or promote Herbal non tobacco, non nicotine, no tar Herbal smoking sheesha.

“Black Label” brand, “Soex” brand, or made at home herbal!!
It will be healthy and a big hit .
hookah 1

“Pipe Dreams”

A pipe dream:
A perfectly clear clay tobacco-shisha bowl? Not yet invented (except for the semi clear acrylic bowls which cost a big $ bundle and break easily too).

So, how to tell if you smoked all the shisha in the bowl?
I guess its up to experience.

1) how much did you pack?
What is usually for you a half-hours smoke? 40 minutes went buy and your tongue is feeling fuzzy-you are long ago finished and if you have a good burning coal, you are getting plain heat and ashes taste.
2)did you pack loosly or too tight?

If tight it will burn for sure, mostly at the bottom.

3)type of shisha being smoked.

Al-Fakher, Al-Ouns ,Al-Qemah,Roman,Fumari,Afzal are loooong ongoing good smokes.
15 grams lightly packed of Al Fakher,Al-Ouns,Al-Qemah,Roman will approximately smoke 45-60 minutes.
The same ammount of Al-Waha, Al-Sultan, El-Nakhla,El-Basha
(same company) will smoke 20-30 minutes lightly packed.
If you have been going on longer, its a burn!
These are just a few hints.

4) when you’ve finished smoking EACH time look at what is left over.
If its ash, then next time don’t smoke that gram ammount too long. Or get a bigger bowl.
The gigantic “party bowl” which I mainly use is big enough for 30-35 grams, and since its bad to add shisha up to the top where it touches the foil and will burn, I still have room left over.
http://www.smoking-hookah.com/Products/Accessories/Giant-party-clay-bowl.asp?agent_camp=10540001

I always check the remains of any bowl to see if its over burnt. There should be left a bit of lightly cooked shisha at the bottom remaining.Throw it out!

With so many shisha brands out there herbal and regular, each company brand has its own burning time.
It depends mainly on how much glycerine is in the mixture.
You’ll find Nakhal is a dryer brand. The premium brands are dripping and smell so good even before you put them in the bowl!
hookah 1