teq

Having a minor bring it in would guarantee a refund.

QUOTE (briancl @ Feb 12 2009, 07:03 PM) Thanks for all the help. I mean I kinda bought this hookah on as an impulse, but when he said it was a mya, I automatically got excited and believed I was buying a quality product. There was no receipt though, should I still be ok? Even without a receipt, they keep inventory and sales logs. He can't deny selling it to you, period.

QUOTE (Scalliwag @ Feb 12 2009, 06:55 PM) I did some extensive reading on how tequilla is made and trust me I am not near patient enough to go down that road. If you have not read up on the subject it is very interesting. How long it takes the agave to mature, etc. Tequilla is cheap shit for what goes into it. There is agave wine that is seriously good shit as well. You can make tasty margaritas without as much kick to them. This is about as far as my patience goes when playing with alcohol: http://www.instructables.com/id/Shoot-the-...Skittles-Vodka/

QUOTE (briancl @ Feb 12 2009, 07:47 PM) QUOTE (K1024 @ Feb 12 2009, 06:44 PM) that bowl definetly isnt a mya bowl. look in the ash tray, it may be very hard to see but there should be a mya stamp also if the hose port unscrews it may very well actually be a mya, as they are the only ones with that feature, as far as i know. although if it doesnt unscrew that doesnt make the hookah not a mya. There are no etchings of any sort, when I was in the shop I asked the worker I was looking for a good hookah and he pointed to a few and said, just these few are myas. I mean I'm not too picky, but is 80 too much to pay for this hookah? For a generic Chinese pipe, yes, it is. You could buy two or three of those for $80.

QUOTE (Scalliwag @ Feb 12 2009, 07:42 PM) so my guess is it is from the agave plant tequilla is made from? SIGN ME UP!!! Exactly! Unfortunately, I'm not patient enough to try to ferment this stuff.

QUOTE (briancl @ Feb 12 2009, 07:39 PM) QUOTE (SimplexCoda @ Feb 12 2009, 06:37 PM) Im no expert but from the looks of it, its not legit. Also you said theres no markings that say mya anywhere, thats pretty much a dead give away thats it not. I haven't used it yet. Should I return it? I feel kinda ripped off that it's not a real mya. Definitely. If the shop was trying to rip you off, they deserve to have products returned to them. The other possibility(and this is very unlikely) is that the vendor they get their products from is ripping them off.

Seconded. The base looks Chinese by design. If you have yet to smoke from it, I'd take it back.

While making a weekly trip to Fresh and Easy, I went down the baking supplies aisle and came across agave. It's a liquid meant to replace sweeteners such as cane sugar, corn syrup, and honey. The viscosity is the same as honey, but isn't as sticky, which I found to be a plus for packing bowls. At $6 for 20oz or so, it doesn't come cheap. However, it definitely adds more flavor and body to the smoke than honey ever did.

QUOTE (FPSee @ Feb 12 2009, 07:06 PM) QUOTE (JDHarding @ Feb 4 2009, 11:36 AM) Nevermind. I found vegetable glycerine on amazon.com. Mods can delete this post if they wish. Does adding honey to the shisha make it a wee bit sweeter? especially after adding glycerin? It has a slight impact on taste, but does more for viscosity.

The problem with copper isn't so much the fumes it releases when heated, but the fact that it can oxidize easily. If you expose an oxidized metal to moisture, you're bound to get rust. Copper also has the additional property of turning your water green. If you need a material for a downstem, PVC is very resillient and won't impart or absorb flavor. Pyrex is the best option, but that's getting somewhat exotic. Most hookahs use brass, though.

Metal bowls are very tempermental to heat and will transfer heat all the way down to your bottle if you don't insulate it with a grommet. Make sure the bowl is deep, as most of your heat will probably be coming from direct contact with the sides, rather than the air passing through. As far as the tint is concerned.... I'm sure you've seen car windows that have a black, see-through film on them. They sell it in every color. And yes, any chemicals on the outside risk permeating the hose -- the same way the hose will start to rot away if you were to leave water in it.

Lacquer + PVC = leeching of chemicals into hose. I would use colored window tint and heat treat it, so it'll be flexible. As far as the handle is concerned, it would be a shame to build a hookah from scratch and use part of a premade hose. The only exception to this would probably be the bowl, in which case I would recommend picking up a clay bowl. It would be very sleek to integrate the handle into the hose, rather than just have it connect. If you're going to try the tint idea, you could wrap an extra layer or two of film over the portion designated to be the handle to stiffen it. If not, they sell translucent plastic tubes in all sorts of colors. Get one that's about 1/2" larger than the hose and throw a compression fitting on each end. For a pretty neat effect, you could puncture a few holes in that portion of the hose, so the smoke can swirl around the inside of the handle.

If they were US based, I might have more leverage, due to the fact that I did find phosphor deposits when burning a coal. Alas, they're in Belgium... slightly out of reach. Considering how badly the dollar is doing compared to the euro, they would probably laugh at the $10 spent on the box of coals. I could probably get them to exchange the rest of the box for either the naturals or the 40mm QLs, but shipping wouldn't be worth it.

This isn't the same company that makes your Belgian naturals, is it, mush? If so... I think I wouldn't feel like it was such a lost cause to write them an e-mail. You're probably familiar with them, but just in case, the website is BelgianCharcoal.com

Sorry to hear about your uncle. I wouldn't worry too much about the smoking. After all, the leading cause of death is life, so do what you enjoy while you still have time to enjoy it.