This has probably happened to you as well. You have been given the honor of lighting a beautifully twisted joint at a party. You hold it between your lips and light it. To your horror, you find out that it burns erratically and that you can’t get a good hit. Suddenly, all the partygoers (secretly) hate you a little. We have a few tips for you to avoid these kinds of blunders. Thanks to these simple tips, you’ll get an evenly burning joint that provides a pleasant smoking experience for everyone, including yourself.
DO’S:
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BE PATIENT
The single most important tip for ensuring an even, slow-burning joint is: take your time. For lighting a joint, you can learn a lot from cigar smokers. Lighting a cigar is a gradual and delicate process. It ensures a wonderful, relaxing smoking experience; the same should be true for a joint.
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LEAVE THE TIP ON
Many people twist the blotter at the end of the joint to a point. Smokers often argue about whether this is a good or bad habit. We are going to eliminate this problem once and for all. By twisting a tip, you get some thicker paper at the end of the joint. In this case, this is a good thing. This thicker tip burns a lot slower. This gives you a little more time to get your joint to burn properly and evenly. There is no greater disaster imaginable than when you see the top go up in flames when you light your joint. Usually this causes uneven burning and an unpleasant smoking experience from the start. The worst part of all this is that it happens so quickly that by the time you’ve extinguished it’s usually too late to start again.
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ROTATE THE JOINT SLOWLY
Don’t light the joint while you have it in your mouth. That way you can’t properly observe what’s happening at the tip. Usually this causes the joint to burn unevenly. Instead, hold the joint between your thumb and forefinger. With your free hand you can now keep a steady flame at the tip of the joint. Next, rotate the joint between your thumb and forefinger as you gently light it. This gives you the opportunity to light the entire tip of the joint. This way you get a balanced cone of fire and the joint burns quietly. Professional tip: remember that you do not have to hold the tip of the joint in the flame. Instead, try to keep the flame a few inches from the tip of the joint. The tip will still burn. It will be slightly slower, giving you more time to achieve an even burn.
DON’TS:
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INHALE WHILE LIGHTING
Many inexperienced smokers take a puff from their joint while lighting it. That’s probably because they’ve seen cigarette smokers do it that way. But when it comes to a joint, we recommend that you don’t pull on it or inhale when you light it. Again, if you try to light a joint while it’s hanging between your lips, it’s hard to see what’s happening at the end. On top of that, pulling the flame into the joint from the beginning often results in it burning quickly and erratically.
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INHALE BEFORE THE FIRE CONE EMERGES
A nice, hot cone of fire on your joint is the key to a successful burn. Again, just look at cigar smokers. In them, you’ll see that they wait to inhale until the cigar has a nice fire cone. If you start pulling on your joint too soon, it will probably turn out that the joint burns up unevenly or burns away completely at one end. It may even go out. Remember to take your time. Do not start inhaling until the fire cone of your joint is burning properly.
SMOKE IT!
That’s it! Follow the tips above and you should get a smooth, even burn from all your joints. Don’t forget that how a joint burns also depends on how it was twisted. For that, check out our blogs on proper spinning techniques. Have a great time smoking!
