Want to learn how to dab your concentrates?

According to Statista, cannabis concentrates sales have been on the rise, and aren’t coming down any time soon. There’s good reason for it, too: not only versatile, the THC content of concentrates is unmatched. With THC concentrations above 80%, they’re one powerful hit.

Dabbing with a torch is a fairly easy way to vaporize your concentrates and get started in the world of dabbing. However, it can take a bit of time to learn how to use a dab torch properly, especially if you’re dabbing for the first time.

That’s why we created this simple guide to introduce you to the world of dabbing, and show you how to get started.

What Is Dabbing?

In the world of dabbing, a “dab” can be any kind of concentrate or cannabis extracts, like wax, rosin, sauce, and shatter. “Dabbing” is the act of heating up the dab enough to be vaporized and inhaled. Since the dabs are so highly concentrated, they can provide a stronger, more immediate effect than dry herbs, and often contain higher terps than dried flower.

One of the most common ways of doing it is with a dab rig and a butane torch. A dab rig is a water pipe with an attachment, called a nail or bucket, used to vaporize dabbing concentrates. Although you can also vaporize your concentrates with nectar collectors or electronic devices, dab rigs are excellent at cooling off the vapor, allowing you to take denser hits.

How to use a dab torch, step by step:

Here’s how to use a blow torch to vaporize your concentrates:

Step 1: Set up your rig

Start by setting up your rig and gathering your tools. Besides your torch, you’ll likely need your dab rig filled up with fresh water, a nail or banger, a carb cap, a dab tool (dabber), and your concentrate. Mount the nail into the dab rig, and get your concentrate ready.

Butane torches can heat up quite quickly, so make sure you have a solid and flat base to safely place it away after using it. 

Step 2: Heat up your banger

Now that your dab rig is set up, you can turn on your torch, and aim it directly at the base of your nail. Remember that, unlike a normal lighter, the hottest part of the flame from a torch is the tip of the inner cone of the flame. You’ll want to aim that cone to the base, moving it around to heat it up uniformly.

Once the nail is red hot, turn off your torch and wait for about half a minute for it to cool off. Waiting for less than half a minute will give you a hotter and denser hit, while cooler nails will give you lighter, more flavorful hits.

Step 3: Take a dab

As you let the nail cool, you can use your dab tool to grab a bit of concentrate about the size of a grain of rice. 

Carefully mount it on the hot nail, cover it with your carb cap, and slowly inhale through the mouthpiece. Most carb caps can be rotated while used to control the airflow and vape the whole concentrate more efficiently and uniformly.

For beginners, it’s usually better to vaporize smaller quantities at a time, to inhale through the mouthpiece until the lungs are at half capacity, then remove the carb cap to inhale fresh air until the lungs are full, then exhale.

Step 4: Repeat

Now you can either take a break or grab your torch again to get ready for the next dab!

Step 5: Clean up

It’s always a good idea to finish each session by cleaning your setup. Isopropyl alcohol and a q-tip work great to clean titanium, ceramic, or quartz bangers. 

Simply soak the cotton swab in alcohol, and use it to thoroughly remove any leftovers from the inside of the banger. You can also use alcohol to clean and disinfect your dab rig, although a specialized solvent will drastically cut down the time and effort spent cleaning your pieces.

Dabbing without a torch

Not everyone has a butane torch laying around. Luckily, there are a few alternatives to dab if you don’t have hot torches around:

1. Buy e-nails 

E-nails are the easiest and most convenient alternatives to torches. Instead of needing external heat, e-nails heat themselves, allowing you to simply load them up, select your temperature, and take a dab.

With dab nails, you can easily choose between low and high temperatures to target specific terpenes and easily customize your session.

2. Dab with vaporizers

Nowadays, most dispensaries have a wide variety of vape pens at affordable prices. Many carts are packed with live resins, making any pen a dab pen.

You can take dabs directly from the cart, or attach it to your bong or dab rig with an adapter to get cooler hits.

3. Mix it with dry herbs

If you’re out of quartz nails and butane torches, you can always smoke dabs by pairing them with dry herbs. Simply pack a bowl or roll a cigarette while mixing your concentrates along with your herbs. 

You can spread your concentrate across rolling paper, sandwich it between two layers of ground herb, or heat it up slightly to evenly spread around your herbs.

4. Eat it

You only need an oven to make your concentrate into delicious edibles. Take into account the kind of concentrate you’re using when infusing dishes with it. Different concentrates will have different properties depending on the extraction process.

Once you’ve decided which concentrate you use, you can decarboxylate them, and use them to spice up your dishes.

Final thoughts

Ready to take your first dab? Go to Grasscity and check out our butane torch and dab rig collections, and take a look at our extractors to make your own concentrates.