Marijuana.com

tEh_rEn

I have 3 glass pieces that are suppose to change colour the more you smoke out of them. One of the pieces is a small glass pipe that I got from a friend that as completly blue when i got it, they recommended that i clean it and I did and now its completly see thru clear, basicly all the junk on the inside is gone, and now I will have to rebuild that build up to make the pipe blue again. Anyways my guestion is what causes the glass to form a build up? It is the smoke or ash? With my Bong I just recently got a nice ash catcher and it is keeping 95% of the ash out of the bong, which is good, it stays cleaner, however I am now wondering if I will see colour changes in my Bong? Also will running water thru the bong clean any build up? I change the water on my bong everyday before I smoke, it this cleaning up any buildup that i might have had? Just wondering, i really want my pieces to change cool colours and I am just wondering how that works.

Thanks

 

BongMan420

7. Color Changing Glass/Types of Glasswork

Color Changing Glass
A process known as 'fuming'; a glassblower allows the vapors of burning gold/silver/ alloys etc. to pass through the glass. This leaves some of the metal ions on the glass. These ions are colored but VERY lightly.

Now, as you smoke through a CCG (color changing glass) pipe resin/tar builds up. Resin/tar is a dark brown or black color. This puts a dark background to the metal ions which will begin 'showing through', and the color changes.

Techniques/Terms
I won’t get into how they do it but I will give you an example of what the work is called:

Color changers that are yellow and turn blue have been fumed with silver; so it’s called silver fuming.

Color changers that are pink and turn all kinds of colors, mostly gold have been fumed with 24kt gold; so it’s called 24kt gold fuming.

Deep blue glass that is see-through (non-see through is different) has been fumed with a metal called cobalt- so it’s called cobalt fuming. No color change with this type.

There are other metals that they fume with but these are the main ones.