In the past I’ve used miles and miles of hemp wick. I use to be a huge advocate and would spout off all the generic talking points.
“It’s better for you. It’s made from Hemp which is basically cannabis. You get rid of the nasty butane taste. It burns at lower temp so you save the terpenes. Lighters go straight to the landfill and this is better for the planet.
For those of you who don’t know. Hemp Wick is essentially a string made out of hemp fibers that is coated in beeswax. It’s basically like a super skinny candle that you light and use the flame from your wick to light your bowl.
Not all hempwick is the same. You will find some strings to be really thin, some really thick. I think it usually ranges from 0.5mm - 2mm’s in thickness. Some with a small amount of beeswax and some with a lot that tends to drip off when lit.
I’ve tried dozens of brands of Hemp Wick and most of them use the same marketing gimmicks to make you think their product is better than it is. Almost every brand will have the words “Organic Hemp Wick” in bold letters on their product. Which in most cases only refers to the hemp because you will usually see something like “Coated with 100% Natural Beeswax” which means the beeswax their using isn’t organic. And I looked it up, apparently its nearly impossible to produce legitimate Organic Beeswax. A lot of what is labeled “Organic Beeswax” isn’t actually organic at all but we don’t need to get into that...
Anyway I want to talk about some of the generic talking points I mentioned earlier. “It Tastes Better, gets rid of the nasty butane taste.” 1000% No. Most butane you’re gonna use from a lighter is Multi-Refined and doesn’t have a taste to it anyway. But the String you’re smoking adds hemp material to the flower you’re combusting. You’re literally adding a nasty string flavor to your hit and pretending you’re not…. “Mmmmm its better!” No its not.
“It burns at a lower temp helping you save all the terps.” While it does burn at a lower temperature, I can assure your none of your terpenes are surviving the 1500 degrees your wick is burning at. Most Terpenes have a boiling point under 400 degrees and don’t survive combustion anyway. Just think about how you light a bowl for a second. You hold the flame, either from the lighter or the wick to the top of the bowl until its lit then you pull the flame away. Right? Well because hemp wick burns at a lower temperature, it takes longer to light the bowl (from experience) which means you’re just inhaling more of the carcinogens from the string. Yummmm, string terps….. Also most people get those big rolls of Hemp Wick that last a long time, so for weeks and months it just collects dust that floats around because its sticky from the beeswax. Mmmmmm Dusty String Terps…
And the last talking point I used to shart out of my mouth is that “Ohh the plastic from the lighter is gonna end up in a landfill and the string is gonna be burned and gone” But if you have at least an IQ of 2 and ponder on that for a moment. You will realize the amount of time it takes to light the bowl with a lighter is almost identical to the amount of time it takes to light the hemp wick.
Stop Smoking String.