Glass is the base material for rigs, bangers and dabbers. It does not react with what is in it, it holds no smells, and you can see how clean or filthy the piece is.
Two kinds, two jobs:
- Borosilicate — rig bodies, percolators, adapters. Low thermal expansion, so it does not crack in normal use. Not for direct flame, though.
- Quartz glass — bangers and nails. It takes temperatures that would have borosilicate going soft.
A hand-blown piece gives itself away through irregularities that do not repeat: wall thickness varies, the maker's mark is engraved or signed, the colour shift never lands the same twice. Production glass is perfect and identical. Both are fine — you just pay more for one, and there is only one of it.
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