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How does color changing glass work?

Discussion in 'Apprentice Marijuana Consumption' started by aedank304, Nov 6, 2009.

  1. I was wondering how color changing glass worked...If it was simply heat activated or activated by the carcinogens in smoke or what? If anybody knows and can help me out please let me know. Just interested in general im not a new toker but I thought this would be an appropriate place to post this question
     
  2. good question, i have wondered this too. What i THINK happens is that the resin just starts to slowly build up in the piece and it gets darker causing the colors to become more apparent... nothing complex or anything, and i base my hypothesis on my bowl, which starts to change a little bit and the colors become more pronounced as it builds a little bit of resin up, but after a thorough iso + salt wash, it goes back to its original color.
     
  3. that is exactly what happends the resin reacts with the glass causing it to change :smoking:
     
  4. A good quality color changing glass is heat activated. I got my piece in Amsterdam and when I bought it it was clear with long solid white and red streaks going through the pipe. I've used my pipe fairly often over the year and a half that Ive had it and now green and black lines have appeared going through the white and red stripes and you can see the beginning signs of bright green and white bubbles popping up everywhere. Also, in the bowl there's is an explosion of bright blue that is becoming increasingly more vivid.

    Its really a fascinating thing to watch as my pipe is turning into an entirely new piece! it gives me the incentive to use it as often as possible! :smoking:
     
  5. Hmmmm. so if it is simply the build up of resins because I too have noticed a good iso+salt doesnt completely bring it back but takes away some of the color even if the piece is spotless otherwise I wonder if it would work the same if I actually were to smoke tobacco out of my "tobacco water pipe" haha
     
  6. Its the heat. The glass reacts with the heat. Turning it different beautiful colors.
     
  7. It's not the heat, actually. Like Stoopid Toker said, it's the resin. :)

    Here's a decent description;
    :smoking:
     
  8. So if you clean the piece that has color changing glass, does the color revert back or will it just continue to change?
     
  9. Yeah the resin in your bowl causes the bowl to change to different colors or for the other colors to become more apparent.

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  10. Once you clean it, it will look the same as when you bought it since it's the resin that is actually giving the appearance of a color change.
    The glass doesn't actually change color at all, the black background of the resin just makes the fuming more visible. :smoking:
     
  11. i think its just some chemicals or substances in the glass change colors depending on the temperature.
     

  12. It doesn't have anything to do with temperature, actually. :smoking:

    Like I posted earlier in the thread (almost 2 years go, lol) the process is called "fuming" and it involves vaporizing different metals on to the glass (if I'm not explaining that right I'm sure someone will correct me.)

    That's why if you look at a color-changing (fumed) piece in front of a black surface it will kind of show you what it's going to look like when it's filled with resin.

    It's like... you've got some clear glass, but there's a light sheen of blue in it. When you fill the pipe up with resin, the light no longer goes straight through and it brings out that blue (or other color) sheen in the glass.

    And when you clean it, it'll go right back to looking how it did when you first bought it. :cool:


    Hope that makes sense. :smoke:
     
  13. I just got a new color changing little spoon pipe last week. I've been using it every day and it's already so cool looking. My first color changing piece. :)
     
  14. i have a color changing sherlock that has significantly changed colors, yet when i clean it, and all the resin out the color stays the same and just keeps getting darker and more purple next time i smoke out of it. if all color changing pipes were from resin build up then how come the color doesnt change back on some....?
     

  15. I'd have to say that I think you're either just not cleaning it well or not correctly remembering what it looked like when you bought it. :poke:

    I don't mean to doubt you, but that is what color changing glass is; fumed pieces. It's not like glass blowers are lying about how they do this stuff. :confused_2:
     
  16. Put a black piece of paper inside the pipe, and watch it change colors. All it is. I figured this out for myself when I was like 15. I can't believe many people think there is some chemical reaction taking place and it's physically changing the glass.
     

  17. My bubbler from San Francisco used to be yellow and now it's dark blue, but it stay's that color even if I clean all the resin out lol
     


  18. Well I suppose you must have a magic pipe then, sir. :p

    Colored pieces are fumed with varying metals. I tend to think that if your pipe still looks blue to you after cleaning it all out, you must either be looking at it on a black background or paying more attention to the blue fuming than you were when you first bought it.

    Color changing pipes aren't magic. Though I suppose yours might be. ;)
     
  19. Just thought I'd chime in, to mention that most color-changing glass is fumed with silver or gold and changes with residue buildup, and will revert when cleaned, however permanently color-changing glass is chemically possible. :)

    The mineral manganese dioxide has been used to change and reduce green/blue colors from glass, as over time it converts into sodium permanganate, a dark purple compound.



    Where I grew up, there are old houses where the glass has gone from what used to be a pale green-blue hue, to almost striking violet! I imagine that certain glassblowers who are familiar with such minerals may be able to reproduce something similar. :eek:
     
  20. It has to be heat, I've seen a brand new one start to change colors in my pocket just from my bodyheat
     

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