Metal Pipes have been the go to pipe for decades. Long before smokers were using glass pipes, metal pipes ruled the weed smoking communities. Smokers from the 60's and 70's used different forms of metal pipes to smoke with. That trend carried on into the 80's and early 90's, but then glass started to take over the market.
Why use a metal pipe for smoking?
The first reason is obvious, it will literally never break. You are going to have to drop your pipe out of an airplane before it will break. Some metal smoking pipes also come with lids which make it very convenient to transport in your pocket. After you smoke a bowl you can screw the lid back on, and stick the pipe in your pocket without fear of spilling the bowl. There are metal hand pipes with lids that actually have a hole in the lid to allow you to smoke a bowl while the lid is still on.
When using a metal hand pipe with a lid it's possible to just tap the bowl on something hard like the ground to shake up the bowl and mix it around. There really isn't a need for a pipe tool if you don;t have one. If you want to get old school, you can use one of your car keys to stir the bowl of your metal pipe.
Some of the early metal pipes were nothing more than plumbing parts pieced together to form a usable smoking pipe. Re-purposing parts, and pieces seems to always be the hallmark of the cannabis community. Their tends to be a lot for creativity in this community, and making pipes is no exception. As the years went on companies made parts specifically for making metal pipes. These pieces, and parts were more specific to certain designs and styles.
What kind of metal hand pipes are popular?
One of the most basic well known metal hand pipes is the sneak a toke a.k.a. The smokeless bullet a.k.a. The one hitter. This pipe is a cylinder shape with a lid on one end, and a rubber mouth guard on the other end. The lid will typically have a hole in it so you can smoke a bowl without removing it. These sneak a tokes come in many different designs and colors. The basic ones are usually anodized metal with a matching colored lid, and a black rubber mouth piece. Some of the more elaborate ones have engraved patterns in the metal which allows the silver color of the underlying metal to show through. The chamber that you load can vary in length, and you will need a screen in the end where the rubber grommet is. Without a metal screen you will be sucking up ash when smoking.
The standard metal hand pipe is made up of just a few pieces. There will be a bowl with or without a lid, an arm back piece that the bowl screws into, and then a middle stem, and then a mouth piece on the end of the stem. These are the kinds of pipes that you will see in convenience stores and smokes shops everywhere. They are cheap in price, but will last for decades if need be. Some of them will have graphics on the stem of popular pop figures. They can be adorned with anodized colors that are bright and vivid, or they can be plain silver color.
If you are old enough you will remember smoking bowls from a metal hand pipe with a chamber. The chamber can be made of plastic tubing, or multiple metal couplers that form the shape of a chamber. Back in the day tokers would put a bud in the chamber, and smoke through your stash. Once the stash was gone you would remove the bud and smoke it last. The point of this was to let the resins deposit on the bud thus increasing it's potency. To this day chamber metal pipes are every popular with the older crowd.
Novelty metal pipes are a popular subcategory of the metal smoking pipes industry. These novelty pipes will resemble everyday items. Some of the most well-known novelty metal pipes look like car cigarette lighters, highlighters, and a standard cigarette. With this type of metal pipe you are able to hide your pipe in plain sight. No one will know that you have a pipe, and you can keep your smoke seshes to yourself.
It seems that dugouts are as old as metal smoking pipes. The correlation between the two is that the cigarette bat in most dugouts is just a long skinny metal pipe. These metal pipes are painted to look like a real cigarette so that when you take a puff know one is the wiser. For an economical travel pipe, these bats are a great option for hiking, travel, camping, festivals, etc.... They won't break, and when you smoke it will just appear that you are smoking a normal cigarette.
In recent years magnetic metal hand pipes have become a popular alternative to standard metal pipes. These pipes are made of metal and will usually be anodized with bright colors. They are made in two pieces and fold in half. The way they are designed, when folded, one-piece acts as a lid over the bowl. The magnets are built into the middle of the pipe, and when unfolded the magnets hold the two pieces of the pipe together. This style of pipe comes in a few different sizes and is small enough to fit into the watch pocket of your jeans.
If you are big at festivals, concerts, and music events the bracelet pipe is something you should invest in. This pipe looks like a woven bracelet or anklet, but actually has a mouthpiece, tube, and bowl hidden inside it. You can match the color of the bracelet pipe to your outfit, and no one is ever going to know that you are actually wearing pipes. Due to the materials used in the construction of this pipe you will be able to use is for many years of enjoyment.
One thing that is different about metal pipes from glass pipes is the need for a metal screen. Without a screen in your metal pipe you will almost certainly inhale bits of what you are smoking. Pipe screens come can be made of different materials. The two standard materials are brass or stainless steel. Both work well, and everyone will have their favorite material of choice when smoking. Pipe screens also come in multiple sizes. The most common sizes are .50”, .65”, and .75”. If you don't know the exact size you need it is possible to cut down a larger screen to fit into a smaller bowl.
Here at Mile High Glass Pipes Online Headshop we know that the pipe of choice for many is still a metal pipe. The reasons are numerous, but the love is the same. We scour the world sourcing some of the most popular styles of metal pipes to make it easier for you to pick the right pipe for your next smoke session.
