Knifers

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Knifers (also known as knife-hits, knifing, or blades, in The United States, England, and Canada hot-knives, in New Zealand spotting) is a method for smoking a substance, often cannabis, in which it is heated between two hot knives. Glass "knives" with coin-sized flat ends have been made for this purpose.

1 Origin
2 Method
3 Effects
4 Spotting

[edit] Origin

The origin of knifers is obscure, although some claim Gray's Harbor County, Washington, to be the true birthplace. New Zealand has also been claimed to be where knifers began, as this method of smoking is popular in this country, especially among students.

[edit] Method

Knife-hits are correctly performed using two, relatively thin-bladed butterknives (stainless steel is highly recommended for health reasons,) heated using a blowtorch with a pencil flame nozzle or alternately the elements from a stove. Since its original introduction as a method to conserve one's supply of cannabis, smokers have begun appreciating the advantages of taste and purity that knife-hits offer, similar to vaporizers, for a fraction of the cost. This had led to the development of "glass knives" or "wands," of blown glass or pyrex. These are shaped either like traditional butter knives, or rods with flat, coin-sized glass heads at the end. Glass is considered superior to steel as a heating element, mainly because of the "clean taste." The heating elements (knives/wands) are heated over the torch until the server judges them to be hot enough. If done correctly, the resulting "patty" of cannabis is brown-black and completely roasted. If it is done too cold, the patty will still retain yellow and green coloration, and a significant amount of cannabinoids will remain. If it is too hot, the patty will crumble into black, or even white, fragments. Using one of the heating elements, the server selects a condensed ball (typically .25 to 1.5 cm in diameter) of cannabis previously laid out on a convenient, nonflammable surface (a "serving tray"), and uses the heating element to lightly touch and lift it. An even more frugal way to do it is to use a safety pin or sewing needle and skewer the ball. The recipient will then hold the skewer in the opening of the bottle, or beneath his/her lips.

A "hooter," or in New Zealand a "spot-bottle" is the device used to correctly receive a "knife-hit." It is either a glass or plastic bottle -- almost all dedicated knife-hitters use glass, because of the tremendous taste difference -- cut or broken at the bottom. In the case of glass bottles, they are often heated over a torch or stove, and then dunked in cold water, or tapped out with a metal rod. The rough edges are then sanded down. If the knife-hitter has access to glass-cutting equipment, more spectacular results may be achieved, such as a Galliano-bottle hooter. Specific bottles may be used for specific purposes; a galliano bottle for "bang" and a hot-sauce bottle, the mouth of which is small enough to place in the nostril, for a devastating "nose-hit"! The hooter acts as both a funnel, chamber and burn-preventing device. Glassblowers have begun blowing complex and decorative "hootongs," but the basic principle is a regular hooter, with a second container (this closed at the bottom) which acts as the water-chamber, and a glass tube carrying smoke out of the hooter chamber, to the water chamber, the water chamber is then connected to the mouth piece; essentially it is a water-filtered knife hit. Better versions have corkable-carbs and ice-racks (like an ice bong.)

In South Dakota, predominantly the city of Brookings, the device used to receive a knife hit is known as a "Turbo Breather". The Turbo Breather is made of a 20 ounce, 1 liter, or 2 liter beverage bottle that has had the bottom cut off and inverted back into the bottle it came from. Before inverting the bottom portion of the bottle (usually the part below the label is used to this effect) holes are cut in the bottom and ice is placed in the top part of the bottle. This way the smoke is cooled as it travels through the Turbo Breather, making for a much smoother hit that is not quite as harsh on the lungs as a hit without the ice to cool it down. For a quick rundown, puncture 5 holes in the bottom of a 20 ounce bottle. Cut the bottom off just below the label. Put ice into the top part of your bottle and after turning your bottom piece around, stuff it into the bottle, holding the ice in place. The side of the bottom piece may need to be cut a little bit to fit it into the top part of the "Turbo Breather".

Solid to gooey hashish may be used to great effect with this technique. Using a safety pin or needle as a skewer, as in the technique mentioned above, one may place extremely small balls of hashish - .5 mm - 3 or 5 mm. "One hit knockouts" are virtually guaranteed if pieces bigger than 5 mm are used.

Opium can also be smoked in this method, as well as probably most other smokable drugs.

An effective way to do "knifers" is to use a frozen pint glass. Place the frozen glass up-side-down at the edge of a table so part of the glass is over the edge. Fill the glass with smoke and then quickly pick up the glass and cover it with your hand. The smoke will settle to the bottom of the glass so you can pour it into your mouth.

Another popular method of knife hits would be collect the residue that builds in the various smoking apperatices, and hot knife the resin it also delivers powerful effect. Especially if high grade marijuana is smoked to produce the resin.

Blade or Die is a version of hot-knifing where you do one hit after another without taking in any oxygen in between. The knives are reheated for the next hit while you are holding the current hit in.

[edit] Effects

The effect brought about by knife hits is usually felt immediately, and lasts for 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on tolerance, marijuana (or other substance) potency, and body chemistry. It is much stronger and more sudden than traditional smoking methods.

Many people also say that this method preserves the flavor of the hashish or marijuana, because it does not combust the material, but simply heats it quickly and does not taint the material with toxic butane. This is why doing knifers has been referred to as the "poor man's vaporizer."

[edit] Spotting

Spotting is the name given in New Zealand to what is known in other parts of the world as "hot-knifing". Some may consider these definitions identical to one-another but they have unique origins despite being the same activity. The terms Spots and spotting are native to New Zealand, but the technique is not. The main difference between hot-knifing and spotting is that spotting only ever refers to cannabis or hashish, while hot-knifing can (although rarely) refer to the use of this technique to administer other drugs.

This form of smoking is popular amongst low income cannabis users and experienced conniseurs alike, as it uses very little marijuana to achieve a palpable "high". The art of spotting requires very steady hands and in some cases an amount of trust in the knifer (known as a driver).

Some say that hot-knifing actually originated on Canada's northwest coast, among a group of natives known as the Haida. It was recorded by early explorers (1790's-1840's) that the Haida were in the habit of heating 2 of their war daggers in the central fire inside of a longhouse until red hot, then would place leaves of tobacco between the daggers, press them together, while another participant held a rolled up skunk cabbage leaf and sucked in as much of the resulting smoke as possible.

Cannabis resources (edit)