Ya I had to learn from using them, But I'd love to hear from someone with more experiences with them. So far I got, fill the tube full. Then cup the top to exhale from filling and tilt your mouth so its not a complete closed. Taking in the whole tube and air. Works pretty well for me.
ok, here it is! first and foremost you absolutely must begin with a completely clean tm. Fill with water to the dot engraved on the side. Using the brass bowl (officially called the tester I think), again perfectly clean, with just enough material to fill the tube with smoke and clearing the ashes from the bowl. Make a perfect seal with your lips, light the bowl and draw slowly till the ash drops through the bowl, is the smoke is swirling as it's being drawn up, then you don't have a perfect seal with your lips. The goal here is to draw only smoke, not air mixed with smoke. So if you're still with me here & have the tube filled with just smoke and the ash has fallen through the bowl and into the water, it's now time to stop and exhale(because you should only have air in your lungs at this point). Then back to the tm and with another perfect seal, tm in a vertical position, draw quickly and with enough force to suck the water into your mouth, and draw the smoke into your lungs. When done correctly, you should achieve the same results with a third of your material used. The secrete is the fact that there is no carburetor to push the smoke into your lungs. all the water coming in is trapped behind the water keeping it from mixing with the smoke. The water will travel up the tube in a wall from the surface, but it sticks along the sides on the way up and there is not enough there left to make it to your lips if..... and only if...it's very clean, the water is filled to the proper level etc. etc. It takes practice to get it right, usually on a couple of times..... but it's fun to practice! I can't wait to hear how it goes! Have fun!
That is very interesting, I'll have to give it a try. We are actually working with a brass supplier to get the original bowl back. The new one only came about when the other supplier closed. The cap on these new ones and the screens are a little hard. Hopefully we will have them back in a couple months, depending on this supplier. We are working on reverse engineering one from before to get it exactly like it use to be. Would love to get this process down so I could put a little page on the website on ways to use the TM for people new to them.
One thing I wanted to add to my last post to perhaps add some more clarity.... and that's just that in comparison to similar devices(i.e. straight tube water pipes), except they have a carburetor and is used after filling the tube with smoke to allow air to help push the smoke into your lungs. However the difference here in this example the air mixes with the smoke and dilutes the hit. With the tm, the water keeps the air from mixing with the smoke so you get a hit of just smoke and not smoke mixed with air! I didn't think I explained that very well in my previous post. Have fun.
I first used a TM in the mid 70s. It was a Presidential. I also smoked just about every type of bong or water pipe known to man. A TM, especially a tall one, hits better than any other I have tried. No carb, no screen. I carried one in a gym bag with a 2 liter bottle of water for many years. I have probably owned at least 6 Presidentials since then, I think they hit a lot better that the shorter ones. The original ones were better, they had a larger diameter bowl with a shallower profile that seasoned nicely and held more than the current tiny 1 hit bowls. They also had vastly superior stems without the threaded brass insert. The brass insert invariably causes the stem to crack because the brass expands as it heats up. I I draw very slow at first and make it is well lit. Keep going really slow. As it finishes burning you abruptly draw heavily until you clear the tube. This draws a cool, moist, concentrated charge of smoke deep into your lungs. If you don't have the lung capacity you can always take a breath before you inhale the smoke.
I have found that seasoning the bowl and allowing some carbon to build up is better than a bare metal bowl. I have also found that it is better to pause BEFORE pulling the ash down. Observations from over 40 years of use.
