stupid question but i just want to see the opinions out there. what do u own more of... china or american? do u support american glass because of quality or economy? do most of us just buy china cuz its inexpensive? but it supports china (not america) and is cheap. not sure about all of u but even though i dont have a lot of money...i still have a conscience. i figure that if i spend my money here, it will stay here! your thoughts??
Its not china glass vs. american glass. China glass is bought in the US and fashioned into many different things, pipes and bongs included. The comparison is borosilicate or Pyrex vs. china glass. Schott is who sells borosilicate and has many subsidaries throughout the world that sells what you are considering to be "american" glass. In fact, the German/European Schott facilities have access to the higher grades/clarity of borosilicate glass because of there respective location to some of the cleanest sand in the world, but you can still purchase the glass made from it anywhere from Schott.
This^^^. I tend to avoid china glass because it is simply lower quality glass. It doesn't look as nice, it degrades faster, and it breaks more easily. I will, however, gladly buy a piece from outside the USA if its made of good glass, though I would prefer to stay within the US, just to support local blowers. Its also hard to find nice functioning tubes made of china glass, so if you want nice stuff, you usually have to get boro. I would even say that people should look for less expensive pieces made from boro just because it will probably last longer.
I Found a Great Article on CherryBowls.com http://www.cherrybowls.com/chinese-glass-vs-american-glass.html
Some companies import "boro" from china and then make pieces in the US, I believe Grav labs does this. China has a poor record of quality control so their boro is probably inconsistent or worse. Some companies don't even try to get boro and instead just use soda lime glass (soft glass) which doesn't have the same resistance to thermal expansion. And some companies just have pieces made in china or india and they import and sell. So the glass quality is probably poor, and the work/craftsmanship is poor as well. Glass is a mixture of compounds and so the formula that is used to make kimax, is different from simax, which is a little different from pyrex etc. Within the US and europe these standards are adhered to, in china....who knows?
I choose to use my time to find the best of the both worlds, american glass cheaper then china If yyou find the right glasslowers/right deals then you can most likely find american made glass cheaper then the china shit you see on websites/ headshopss. I have a pretty dope setup for the amount of money I spend.
If both recipes are the same and same quality ingredients are used, who gives a shit. Although, sounds like there’s some shit glass in China. I’d be willing to bet you, you can find high quality glass in China, if you know where to look.
You definitely can find good Chinese made pieces. Sure there's plenty of ones that suck but the ones that don't can be quite good and will almost always be much less expensive vs American made. At the end of the day you want something that looks good, functions well, is durable, and to get a good deal. I feel like in the majority of cases of American glass being better you're getting seriously diminishing returns in terms of money spent just to get that little bit extra quality that I doubt I'd really care much about really. If it rips good and won't break easily what more can it really do for you.