How to Smoke Shatter: Dab Rig, Pen, Bong, Joint, and What Not to Do
Last updated: · 9 min read
Short answer: the best way to smoke shatter is to dab it. Heat a quartz banger on a rig, let it cool to roughly 450 to 550°F, drop in a piece the size of a grain of rice, cover it with a carb cap and inhale slowly. No rig? A dab pen is the next best thing. In a pinch, break a small piece over a bowl of flower in a bong or pipe, or roll a thin strip into a joint. The one rule: never hold a lighter flame directly on pure shatter. It needs indirect heat. Direct flame burns it, wastes it and tastes like burnt plastic.
Shatter is the most common concentrate we sell, and “how do I actually smoke this” is the question we get most from people buying it for the first time. This guide covers every method that works, in order of how well it works, plus temperatures, how much to use, and how to store the rest of the slab.What shatter is, in one paragraph
Shatter is a cannabis extract made by pulling the cannabinoids and terpenes out of the plant with a solvent, usually butane, then purging the solvent off under vacuum. What is left is a hard, glassy sheet, amber to gold, that snaps like brittle toffee when it is cold and bends like taffy when it is warm. It typically tests between 70 and 90 percent THC, so a piece the size of a grain of rice does the work of a bowl of flower. It is sold by the gram or, on this site, by the 28-gram slab.Before you start: dose, handling and tools
How much shatter to use. Start with a piece about the size of a grain of rice, roughly 0.05 grams. That is a normal single dab. Two or three grains is a big one. A gram of shatter is somewhere between 10 and 20 dabs depending on how heavy you go, which is why an ounce lasts a long time. Handling it. Cold shatter snaps cleanly, so keep it in the fridge for a few minutes if you want clean breaks. Warm shatter turns sticky and stretches into strings. Use a metal dab tool, not your fingers, and work on the parchment paper it came in. If it sticks to the tool, chill it again. Tools by method:- Dab rig: rig, quartz banger, butane torch, carb cap, dab tool. Optional: a cheap infrared thermometer or a timer.
- E-rig or e-nail: the device, a dab tool, a charger. No torch.
- Dab pen: the pen, a dab tool.
- Bong, bowl or joint: what you already have, plus flower and a dab tool.
The 6 ways to smoke shatter, best to worst
1
Dab rig with a torch
Best flavour, best efficiency, the standard- Prep the dab first. Break off a rice-grain piece with a dab tool and set it on the tool where you can reach it. Fumbling with a hot banger is how people burn themselves.
- Heat the banger. Aim the torch at the bottom of the quartz bucket, not the joint, and heat for 30 to 45 seconds until the bottom glows faintly, then stop.
- Let it cool. This is the step everyone skips. Wait 45 to 60 seconds for a normal banger, less for a thin one, more for a thick one. You want the quartz around 450 to 550°F. Too hot and the shatter burns instantly; you get a harsh hit and a black, chazzed banger.
- Drop the dab in and start inhaling. Swirl the tool against the bottom so all of it melts off.
- Cap it. Put the carb cap on. It traps heat and lowers the air pressure so the shatter vaporizes fully at a lower temperature. Keep inhaling slowly until the vapour thins out.
- Swab the banger while it is still warm with a cotton swab. Thirty seconds of cleanup keeps every future dab tasting like the first.
2
An e-rig (Puffco Peak, Dr. Dabber and similar) or an e-nail coil on a regular rig heats the bucket electrically to a temperature you pick. Load the rice-grain piece into the cold chamber, choose a heat setting, wait for it to beep, cap and inhale. The advantage is that there is no guessing on temperature and no torch in the house. The drawback is the price and the cleaning. For shatter, use the low or medium setting; the high setting is for people who want a bigger cloud and do not care about taste.E-rig or e-nail
Same result, no torch, exact temperature 3
A dab pen is a battery with a small heated coil or ceramic cup on top. Unscrew the mouthpiece, put a half-grain piece of shatter directly on the coil with your dab tool, screw the mouthpiece back on, hold the button and draw. Use the lowest heat setting that gives you vapour. Coils run hot, so pens tend to taste a little flatter than a rig, but for a car, a hike or a concert nothing else comes close. Clean the coil every few sessions with a swab and a drop of isopropyl alcohol, and expect to replace it every month or two.Dab pen (wax pen)
Best portable option and the easiest for beginnersA “shatter pen” and a “wax pen” are the same device; the name just depends on who is selling it. It is not the same as a cartridge pen, which uses pre-filled oil.
4
If the whole point is convenience, skip the slab and get a shatter cartridge. It is shatter that has been thinned into a vape-ready oil and loaded into a standard 510 cart, so it works on any cartridge battery. Nothing to load, nothing to clean. Draw slowly at a low voltage (2.5 to 3.0 V) so the coil does not scorch it. Carts on this site run $17 to $29 for a gram.Shatter cartridge
Zero effort, screws onto any 510 battery 5
Shatter cannot be smoked on its own in a bowl. It melts, runs through the hole and the flame burns whatever is left. The fix is to sandwich it in flower so the flower does the burning and the shatter vaporizes off the heat:Bong, bowl or pipe
Works with what you own; wastes some- Pack a bowl about two-thirds full of ground flower.
- Break the shatter into small flakes and spread them on top. Do not use one big piece; it will run.
- Add a thin layer of flower over the shatter so the flame never touches it directly.
- Light the edge of the bowl, not the centre, and pull slowly. Let the cherry do the work rather than holding the flame on it.
6
Two ways. Inside: warm the shatter slightly, roll a thin snake of it between two pieces of parchment and lay it down the middle of the flower before you roll. Outside: warm it, stretch it into a thread and wrap it in a spiral around the finished joint, then dust it with kief so it does not stick to your fingers. Either way the joint burns slower, hits harder and canoes less than you would expect. You will lose a good share of the THC to the flame, so this is a party trick more than a daily method.Joint or blunt
Social and slow; the least efficientDab temperatures for shatter
Shatter has no water in it, so temperature is the whole game. Terpenes start vaporizing around 300°F and THC around 315°F; above 600°F you are burning them instead. The sweet spot for shatter is a little higher than for softer concentrates because it takes a moment to melt.| Range | What you get | Torch timing (standard quartz banger) |
|---|---|---|
| 315 to 450°F | Max flavour, small clouds, may leave a puddle | Heat 30 s, cool 60 to 70 s |
| 450 to 550°F | The shatter sweet spot: full melt, good flavour, solid hit | Heat 30 to 45 s, cool 45 to 60 s |
| 550 to 650°F | Big clouds, harsher, flavour fading | Heat 45 s, cool 30 s |
| Over 650°F | Burnt taste, coughing, black residue on the quartz | Anything red-hot with little cooling |
Timings are a starting point. Banger thickness, torch size and room temperature all move them. A $20 infrared thermometer removes the guesswork.
Mistakes that waste shatter
Direct flame on pure shatter. In a bowl, on foil, on a hot knife: all of these burn it. Shatter needs indirect heat from a hot surface, never a flame on the material itself.
Dabbing red-hot. Dropping shatter on a glowing banger vaporizes it in a flash, most of it goes up as smoke you never inhale, and the taste is gone. Let it cool.
Eating it raw. Shatter straight off the slab is not decarboxylated, so eating it does almost nothing. To make edibles you have to bake it first: spread it on parchment at about 240°F for 30 to 40 minutes until it stops bubbling, then mix it into fat.
Touching it with your fingers. Body heat softens it, it sticks to skin, and you lose a chunk to your thumb every time. Dab tool, always.
Hot knives. The old method of pressing shatter between two stove-heated butter knives works, but the knives are far too hot, the dose is uncontrolled and it is how people get burned. A $30 dab pen does the same job better.
How to store shatter (and does it go bad?)
Shatter does not spoil the way flower does, but it does change. Heat, light and air turn it from clear glass into an opaque, sugary crumble (“nucleation” or “sugaring”) and flatten the terpene taste. It is still fine to smoke, just less pleasant.- Keep it in the parchment it came in, folded flat, inside an airtight container. Silicone jars work for short-term storage but shatter can stick to them once it warms up.
- Cool and dark. A cupboard is fine for a few weeks. The fridge is better for a slab you are working through over months; let it come to room temperature in the sealed container before opening so condensation does not form on it.
- Freezer for long term. Wrapped in parchment and sealed, shatter keeps well for a year or more. Same rule: thaw sealed.
- Never leave it in a hot car or a windowsill. Twenty minutes in the sun turns a clean slab into a sticky sheet.
What a dab actually costs
People assume concentrates are expensive because a gram costs more than a gram of flower. Per session it is the opposite. A 28-gram slab on this site runs $159 to $215 depending on the strain, which is $5.70 to $7.70 a gram. At 10 to 20 dabs per gram, a single dab costs 30 to 75 cents. Compare that to the gram of flower most people put through a bong in a night.Current shatter slabs, all 28 g: Kandy Kush $159, Budget Shatter $160, Black Diamond $160, Cherries Jubilee $175, White Fang $175, Grape Ape $175, Northern Lights $215. See all 39 on the shatter page.
Shatter vs budder vs diamonds: does the method change?
Everything above works for budder and sugar wax too. Softer concentrates melt faster, so you can run the banger a touch cooler and they are easier to scoop. Diamonds are the opposite: they are almost pure THCA crystal with very little terpene, so they need slightly more heat to vaporize fully and taste of nothing unless mixed with sauce. Shatter sits in the middle, which is why it is the concentrate most people start with.Frequently asked questions
How do you smoke shatter without a dab rig?
Use a dab pen, or break small flakes over a bowl of flower and cover them with more flower before lighting. A shatter cartridge on a 510 battery is the simplest option of all. Do not try to smoke pure shatter in a pipe or on foil.Can you smoke shatter in a bong?
Yes, as long as it is sandwiched between flower. Pack the bowl two-thirds full, spread small flakes of shatter on top, cover with a thin layer of flower and light the edge. Pure shatter alone will melt through the bowl.Can you put shatter in a joint?
Yes. Roll a warm thin strip of shatter down the middle of the flower before rolling, or wrap a thread of it around the outside of a finished joint and dust it with kief. The joint burns slower and hits harder, but you lose some THC to the flame.How much shatter should I use for one dab?
A piece the size of a grain of rice, about 0.05 grams, is a standard dab. Shatter is 70 to 90 percent THC, so one grain is roughly equal to a full bowl of flower. Start there and wait ten minutes before taking more.What temperature do you dab shatter at?
450 to 550°F is the sweet spot. Heat the banger 30 to 45 seconds with a torch, then let it cool 45 to 60 seconds before dropping the dab. Above 600°F it burns and tastes harsh.What is a shatter pen?
A dab pen, also sold as a wax pen: a small battery with a heated coil or ceramic cup that you load with a piece of shatter directly. It is different from a cartridge pen, which uses pre-filled oil.Can you eat shatter?
Not raw. Shatter has to be decarboxylated first, about 240°F for 30 to 40 minutes on parchment, before the THC is active when eaten. After that it can be mixed into butter or oil for edibles.Does shatter go bad?
It does not spoil, but heat, light and air make it turn cloudy and sugary and lose flavour. Stored sealed in parchment in a cool dark place it keeps for months; in the freezer, a year or more.What does good shatter look like?
Clear to translucent amber or gold, a smooth glassy surface, and it snaps cleanly when cold. Dark, opaque or gummy shatter is either old, was stored warm, or was not purged well.How much is a gram of shatter?
Bought by the 28-gram slab on this site, shatter works out to $5.70 to $7.70 a gram, which is 30 to 75 cents per dab. Single grams from a dispensary typically cost several times that.Is shatter worth it compared to flower?
If you dab, yes: it is cheaper per session, cleaner tasting, and there is no ash or smell of burnt plant matter. If you only ever smoke joints, flower is simpler and shatter mostly gets wasted in the flame.Why is my shatter sticky and hard to break?
It is warm. Put it in the fridge for five minutes and it will snap cleanly. Sticky shatter is normal, not a sign it has gone off.Shop shatter by the ounce
39 strains in stock, 28 g slabs from $159. Ships Canada-wide in plain packaging, 1 to 2 business days to dispatch. Credit card, e-Transfer or Bitcoin. See all shatter19+ only. Cannabis products are sold only to adults who meet the legal age in their province. Concentrates are far stronger than flower; start small and wait before taking more. This guide describes methods of use and does not encourage anyone to start using cannabis. Prices are current at the last-updated date and can change.
