Cornering a bowl is an important sign that you're a competent stoner. It shows control, precision, and good manners when smoking in a group. Everyone who has ever toked knows that this isn't something that everyone instantly can do, sometimes you'll torch the bowl, sometimes you'll hit an area that's already been torched, but when you finally master how to corner a bowl, you'll never forget, just like riding a bike!
The important thing to remember about learning how to corner a bowl is that it simply takes practice, but it also matters when you're practicing. Sure, when you're home along toking it up you don't need to worry about saving greens for anyone else, but have you ever considered simply saving greens for yourself? I've personally found that cornering the bowl usually extends the life of the bowl, and gives me several fresh and potent hits, rather than simply one torched and heavy hit. In either case, if you're a regular at any group smoke sesh, you should practice at home, lest you accidentally torch the bowl in front of your crew. While you're a greenhorn your friends will totally understand, but after a couple sessions it's really time to shape up, otherwise someone may eventually call you out on it.
When attempting to corner the bowl, it's all about lighter placement in relation to your bowl, and which part of the flame you're trying to light the bowl. When using a lighter, most greenhorns I've seen will first try to corner a bowl by lighting a corner with the base of the flame coming out of their lighter, for those of you who remember trying this you know that the whole flame simply gets sucked into the bowl and it ends up torched. The idea is to guide the tip of the flame onto an edge of the bowl when you're inhaling for your hit, you have to gauge how your inhale will pull the flame into the bowl and how deep it will penetrate. This takes a lot of playing around with, especially depending on bowl size, drag, and your method of lighting the bowl.
Of course, while cornering the bowl is incredibly useful for group sessions and personal use, it's ultimately up to you. I will leave you with the advice that if you can't corner a bowl, eventually your friends might call you out, or simply stop throwing into the group stash, so it's at least a good skill to have in your arsenal.
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Do you corner the bowl, or just torch it and reload?