Hemp wicks have burst onto the scene in recent years, and now it’s hard to find a dispensary that isn’t offering this hippy-approved form of lighting up.
The general line is, “It’s better for you.” When pressed, it’s hard to get reliable information on exactly WHY it is supposedly better for you than a traditional lighter.
Below, we’ll discuss some of the pros and cons of hemp wicks vs. traditional butane lighters. We aren’t talking about kerosene or any other fuel types, as these are generally bad for your health and not common among stoners anyway.
Table of Contents
Hemp Wick Pro #1: Eco-Friendliness
As much as it pains me to type this, plastic lighters are undoubtedly bad for the environment. It’s painful because the humble Bic lighter has been with me my entire life, and every single time it seems to last months longer than I am expecting.
In terms of single-use plastics, the Bic lighter reigns supreme in terms of longevity, which is why it’s such a best seller at gas stations and head shops.
Longevity is also their greatest drawback: Each and every single plastic lighter ever used will sit in a landfill, on a beach, or in a ditch for hundreds of years after its relatively short (in the grand scheme of things) service life.
Hemp wicks, on the other hand, are made of natural hemp fiber and beeswax. Both will happily decompose in a matter of years, making hemp the superior option if you want to help keep the earth as clean as possible.
Hemp Wick Con #1: Still Requires a Flame Source
We humans love making jokes about the short attention spans of goldfish without realizing how short our attention span is relative to the length of our lives.
As such, many will extol the benefits of hemp wick as the environmentally responsible option without thinking twice about where that hemp wick is going to derive its flame source.
After all, a hemp wick is just a wick and, as such, requires an additional source of fire to light. This is often the same disposable type of butane lighter that the user is trying to avoid in the first place!
Fret not; this can be mitigated by simply investing in a quality refillable butane lighter. You can find these online or just mosey down to your local cigar shop, as refillable butane lighters are also their preferred ignition source.
Avoid torches and opt for a single flame if possible. Torches are designed to light big, thick, fat, moist cigars rather than delicate, dry-wrapped joints.
Hemp Wick Pro #2: Flavor-Friendly Temperatures
The hottest part of a non-torch (regular) butane lighter, the blueish area below the orange tip, will burn between 3,540°F and 3,590°F.
A hemp wick will burn anywhere between 2,546°F and 3,014°F.
What does this mean? Well, contrary to what many an untrained budtender will tell you, a hemp wick won’t inherently burn your premium bud at a lower temperature. 3,014 is still plenty hot to torch your terps and flavonoids same is the lower end of the butane heat spectrum of 3,540°F.
That said, if you are cognizant of how far the flame is from your bowl and are careful not to incinerate your plant material, then it is much EASIER to achieve a lower temperature light than it is with a torch.
This is simply because the median operating temperatures of a burning wick are lower than a torch, and the flame being non-propelled is easier to manage in terms of physical distance from your cannabis.
If you’re very careful, you can also light a bowl with a butane lighter. It just requires a very delicate touch and precision regarding how far from your bowl the flame is.
TL;DR, getting a lower temp burn going with a wick than butane is much easier.
In my flavor-obsessed opinion, low-temperature heating sources used in tandem with some high-quality organic hemp or bamboo papers result in the most sublime tasting experience.
Hemp Wick Con #2: Ash Generation
If you’re lighting up outside or not terribly concerned with making a mess, this is less of a point.
However, it is still worth pointing out that while a butane lighter produces zero physical waste (butane is converted into carbon dioxide, water vapor, and nothing else), the hemp wick will produce ash from the organic hemp material.
If you’re lighting up indoors or wearing a crisp white t-shirt, it’s worth being cognizant of the grey ash feathers that the spent hemp wick will produce.
Hemp Wick Pro #3: No Dangerous Heavy Metals
The misnomer is that butane gas is dangerous when burned while lighting up. That isn’t correct, as butane is actually very clean-burning.
However, the ignition source for most butane lighters is often not so clean. If your butane lighter is ignited with a flint wheel, it likely contains a pyrophoric metal alloy called ferrocerium.
Ferrocerium contains cerium, lanthanum, and small amounts of neodymium and praseodymium. When these metals light the butane gas, the convection process generated by the heat lifts these heavy metal particles up into the flame.
As such, when you first strike a butane lighter, the initial burn will produce a metal-infused flame, which you most definitely do not want in your lungs, especially over long periods of time if you’re a chronic blazer.
This can be mitigated to a degree if you light your butane lighter and burn it for a few seconds after the initial light before turning it to your bowl.
Conversely, many higher-end refillable butane lighters found at cigar stores use a metal-free electronic ignition source, making them much safer.
Hemp Wick Con #3: The Flame is Weak Compared to Butane Lighters
One of the reasons why butane lighters are so loved is because of their rugged versatility. They can be jumbled around in a purse or backpack, filled with lint, and forgotten for months or years, and then still be able to light up a joint on a rainy, windswept Portland side street.
This is because most butane lighters have some sort of wind protection, either in the form of a small metal wind shroud for the flame models or in the form of sheer high-pressure propulsion, as in torch lighters.
Hemp wicks are humble and don’t have any fancy tricks for combating even the slightest breeze. As such, they’re generally better suited for indoor use or use in an area with substantial wind blockage.
Okay Nerd, So What’s the Best Solution Then?
If you skipped right past this simply because you want to know what you should do, then no worries, that’s precisely what I’ve been leading up to.
There are many misnomers associated with hemp wicks and butane lighters. Neither is perfect, and that’s why, in my opinion, the best solution is a combination of the two. The pros of using an organic wick over disposable lighters are much more significant than any minor “cons.”
I have a cheap refillable butane “turbo” torch lighter made by Vertigo with an electric ignition. This way, I’m not inhaling heavy metals or producing extra plastic waste. Woohoo!
The turbos burn quite hot, however, so I also have a big ball of HempWick Handmade By Hippies (yes, that’s the actual brand name) that I keep at home for easy temperature modulation and maximum flavor from my water pipe.
I buy the freshest, most nose-pleasing flower I can find and try to maximize the flavor and effect I get from my investment. An easily controllable fire source and water filtration give me that unadulterated flavor I long for.
By combining a refillable butane lighter with an electric ignition source, along with an all-organic hemp wick coated in organic tropical wildflower blossom beeswax from Florida mangroves, I’m getting the best of both worlds in being sustainable and also flavorful as fuck!
Alas, I must admit that I also generally have a Bic or two stashed in my car or backpack. I’m not proud of this, and I understand it runs contrary to my health and the health of the plane. It’s a habit I’m trying really hard to break.
That said, I probably spend 70% of my time smoking at home, so the disposable butane lighters are there for 30% of the time when I’m out and about, and it’s windy.
Mother Earth is worth protecting, and I’m on the hunt for an electric ignition refillable butane lighter that isn’t a torch. It’s not easy, as 90% of butane lighters today are turbo (jet-style) torches, which generally cater to cigar smokers, where such a powerful jet flame is preferable.
That said, Dupont makes a hell of a sexy beast in its all-metal butane lighters with electric ignitions and single flames. They’re not cheap, but perhaps saving the earth in the long run and having a solution for life is worth it. Time to start writing to Santa.
