TAKING ADVANTAGE OF ANVIL’S CONVECTION BIAS
The ANIVL herb chamber sits internal to the CopperCore oven surrounded by a ring shaped convection airflow gap. The herb chamber is further isolated by the slotting (or lettering on XL bowls) which acts as both an airflow inlet and a thermal break. The condenser tube floats on its Viton o-rings. This full surround “herb isolation” allows you to build up a massive heat reservoir in the CopperCore oven and copper thermal battery without overheating your herb during torching and boiling off all of your flavourful terpenes. But once its time to fully extract it is the stream of hot air generated when you inhale that completes the job. Since your ANVIL extracts your herb primarily by convection there are a couple of simple tricks that can really improve your experience. The first is to grind your herb to a more medium oriented, almost fluffy, texture. My Herb Ripper does an amazing job of this but there are a lot of great grinders out there. I personally prefer the stainless construction because, just with like the 316 stainless we use in the ANVIL vapour path, we like to keep everything Medical Grade. The second is to not overpack your bowl. While it is true that the herb will desiccate and open up additional porosity during heating an excessively tight pack will negate any airflow control effect. I personally don’t like having to pull on my ANVIL like its a MacDonald’s shake.
IMPORTANT TIP
Please do not pack the bowl with the herb sitting proudly above the level of the herb chamber. This can cause the the condenser to be pushed too deeply into the stem causing an airflow pinch point. Keeping the herb tamped below the edge of the bowl is the correct method.
ALAN KEY ADAPTOR FACILITATES HOT AIRFLOW ADJUST
The disc that is laser welded onto the bottom of every herb chamber is made of 416 stainless. We use 416 in this application because it is ferro-magnetic and has a strong attraction to magnetic bases. The original FOUNDERS edition herb chambers had a round hole installed to increase the sound volume from the SNAP discs . This hole was updated in the USERS edition from round, to hexagonal. The original idea behind the hexagonal hole was to be able to twist out stuck herb chambers that had become graunched (highly technical term) by the dissimilar metal expansions during heating. While this is still a great feature this hexagonal hole just became even more valuable. If you have an integrated stem installed in your ANVIL, in addition to rotating counterclockwise to remove the herb chamber, you can now rotate clockwise to adjust the airflow. Rotating clockwise will tighten the herb chamber against the oven, causing the whole assembly to rotate on the integrated stem o-rings, varying the airflow adjust position in the process. The key positions are shown in the top line of photos. Three 1mm holes for Mouth-to-Lung hits. Three 0.07” wide slots for big bong rips. In the centre picture you can see the slot beginning to peak out from under the thermal protection web. You only have the width of the slot to go from minimum to maximum airflow so adjust carefully to get used to the process. I recommend a bit of practice with the ANVIL cold to build up your skills. REMEMBER. To adjust airflow you must turn clockwise. If you turn counter-clockwise you will spin out the hot herb chamber.
Cheers
John