When I first heard about earwax, shatter, and the entire concept of dabbing, I was pretty much instantly sold on the idea of getting my THC in a very strong, pure high without much of the other plant matter that you typically smoke when just smoking raw marijuana by itself in a bowl or joint.

There are many of us here at Weedist that are fond of the dabs and wax in general, but I was recently turned on to a much better way to smoke wax and other full melt concentrates that make for a much tastier, stronger, and overall cleaner smoke.

For the last year or so, I’ve been dabbing using a quartz nail and glass bong; using a pretty standard metal dabber tool, I always just took the wax straight up and caught as much as I could on the end for my dab. Even if I had the blond and crumbly kind of wax, I always just dabbed it straight up as it, even if it was a bit of a pain to get it to stick to the end of the dabber.

However, a friend I work with turned me on to the concept of simple flashing, and it’s changed my dab game forever. Flashing wax is extremely simple and takes just a few seconds to turn your wax into a much cleaner, stronger product.

To flash your wax, first place it on a non-stick surface; an oil slick pad is definitely the best way to go (review coming soon), but a glass dish or even most dinner plates should work just fine. Then, simply take a lighter and hold it over the wax for several seconds. A basic Bic works just fine, but tends to get pretty hot and burn your hand after just a few seconds; use a small torch if possible.

This is where the craziest part of the process reveals itself; when heated up, even the best wax will start to purge butane out by creating little bubbles that will start after about the first 5-10 seconds. The bubbling is actually excess butane coming out of the wax! A majority of wax will still have some trace amounts left over, so this process not only creates an easy material dab to with, but actually makes a much cleaner dab, too.

After the bubbling stops, you’ll be left with a much more liquid-like substance then before, which is now much easier to pick up with a dabber tool. You can now either dab or even spread it onto a joint or blunt for a much stronger raw bud session. I’ve now tried this with many different kinds of wax and the results are always just a bit different. Like anything fun, I definitely recommend experimenting and messing around until you get something that you just can’t help but dab!

That’s really all it takes to take your wax and turn it into something more closely resembling shatterglass (or shatter for short), which when made (and subsequently purged) correctly will already have the excess butane taken out of it. Basically, this process turns basic wax into shatter.

For any big fan of dabs, this is a must-do process that only takes a few seconds and makes a world of difference.