This should be common knowledge, but i myself went a long time without making the connection. So for the ones who haven't noticed this, when you smoke out of a pipe or light a cig, you are dosing up your lungs with this black shit....i'm not even sure what it is....but it looks very unhealthy.

Ever notice if you put a lighter flame on the bottom of a spoon, it quickly gets painted black....if you wipe it off with your finger, it comes off like thick black dust. Now imagine when your smoking something in a pipe....and you keep pulling in the flame, you are also pulling in massive amounts of this black shit. After making the connection...i came to the conclusion that most of your resin in a MJ pipe is this black shit.


Does anyone know what this black stuff is? How bad is it for you?

I believe it's carbon resulting from the inefficient combustion reaction.

so how bad is it for your lungs? I've read some sources stating that the plant material is much worse, but dosen't comment much on how bad all the carbon particles are for you. Some sources stating its not bad for you, but by looking at how short exposure paints things black with carbon particles, i would imagine that your getting alot of carbon particles in your lungs while sucking hard on a flame. It look really bad.....does it not gunk up in your lungs?

i once read it was because of impure butane ...

how do we get that stuff out of our lungs again ? :/

Well, it's basically soot. Any combustion reaction is going to produce this more or less, depending on efficiency. When you burn anything the smoke contains carbon, when you smoke weed, burn dinner, etc. It's bad for your lungs if you breathe too much, but the tiny amount from a disposable butane lighter is not going to kill you. Your cilia and lungs will clean it out naturally.

I think I learned this one about 6 months back. It is the flint burning off. Flick your lighter and watch the flame -- see the streaks at the tip of the flame? Watch them burn off over 3-5 seconds. Also you can flick the wheel of your lighter a few times without lighting it or tipping it downward, then tip it top down over a cherried bowl and tap. The wee flint pieces will fall out and hit the hot marijuana (or whatever) and spark. Rather looks like when the grower didn't stop using / wash out the fertilizer early enough, and it makes that crackling effect.

Well anyhow, that's what makes the black stuff (which is just carbon), from what I understand. Just burn it off for the first 5 seconds and your lighter shouldn't produce it anymore until you re-strike the flint. Now it might still produce some, I haven't sat there with a lighter for a couple minutes trying, but I do know it produces an extremely lesser amount, if any. What can I say, haven't had many chances for an opportunity to try -- not chasing smoke off foil so much these days and not too eager to start again!

Oh, the guy who told me this was actually the first person I met in real life who had also smoked DMT by his own accord (not at a party / festival, went and extracted it). He told me the flint/streaky stuff is significantly toxic, while the butane itself is relative harmless. You can taste the difference when pulling a flame through a bowl to clear it / take resin hits or something. Throat hurts more and you cough more when you haven't burned it off. Also seems to make me cough up phlegm if I don't burn it off and inhale it with the lighter lit for 2+ seconds.

the black soot is indeed carbon.


load a zippo with isopropyl alcohol. it provides primarily a blue flame, and no soot.
test it by heating the bottom of a spoon.

I noticed I only get black soot with flick butane lighters, any butane torch I've used always burned clean.

Its also because when flame is yellow, its not complete combustion of the butane, so it gives off carbon. With a torch, blue flame, means there's complete combustion, meaning hotter flame and no carbon byproduct

Interesting. Didn't know this. Always wondered why torch lighters made that loud noise -- I guess it the premixing of the fuel with air before burning so that it can completely combust. And quickly enough so that it is in a nice consistent manner, no wavy flickering flame action. Cool stuff, thanks for the knowledges!

Could you use isopropyl in a zippo....or will it evaporate too quickly?

it does tend to evap quickly, so daily refilling (if using it that often) is necessary.
I use 91% isopropyl alcohol in a zippo, serves as my alcohol lamp

What about the vaporgenie? Isn't it safer to use those instead of a pipe?

ofcourse it is. They just cost alot if you want a good one.

Also i'm a cigarette smoker, but switching to a nicotine vaporizer. My brother had one and let me hit it...it was pretty impressive, But you can get very shitty ones. He had the Blu E-cig, check it out at http://www.blucigs.com/ .all i know is i tried my brothers and it works great, and i have one comming in the mail.


JUST DON'T ORDER THE BLACK PACK, everyone seems to order it, and its always on backorder, you could wait up to 3 or 4 weeks if so.

hack it up if its cigs. i occasionally hack up black stuff from my lungs i since have cut down considerably to only bumming them off friends in social situations but its gaining its hold back on me i love smoking if only it was actually good for you.