The Complete Guide to Cannabis Accessories

Walk into any head shop, or scroll any online glass store, and you meet hundreds of objects with names that explain nothing: sherlocks and steamrollers, recyclers and reclaimers, terp slurpers, carb caps, keck clips, dugouts and doob tubes. Some are thousands of years old in concept. Some were invented in the last decade.

This guide covers every kind of cannabis accessory sold today: what each one is, how to use it, how to look after it, and where it came from. Every type has an example, and the last column of each table shows where to buy it and what it costs. When we stock it, that is our price today with a link to the item. When we don't, it is the typical price online and the maker's own store.

Which accessory goes with which product

If you are not sure which product suits you, our guide to cannabis products explains every format, and choosing a product compares them on practical grounds.

Hand pipes

Where they came from

People were burning cannabis long before anyone made a pipe for it. The oldest direct evidence comes from the Jirzankal Cemetery in the Pamir Mountains of western China, about 2,500 years ago: wooden braziers that held hot stones, with cannabis residue rich enough in THC breakdown products to show the plants were potent. Around the same time the Greek historian Herodotus described Scythians throwing hemp seed onto red-hot stones inside felt tents. Neither is a pipe. They are heated stones and open braziers.

True pipe bowls come later. Two ceramic bowls excavated at Lalibela Cave in Ethiopia, radiocarbon-dated to around 1320 AD, tested positive for cannabis residue. Stone and clay “dagga” pipe bowls have been found with early settlements in southern Africa, and historians consider it likely that cannabis was smoked in pipes in East and southern Africa before tobacco arrived. In India the chillum, a straight cone of clay or stone, is closely tied to wandering sadhus, and Western travelers on the 1960s “hippie trail” brought it home. Its claimed age varies wildly from source to source, and no museum or scholar has pinned it down.

The glass pipe as we know it is American and recent. Bob Snodgrass began lampworking around 1971 while following the Grateful Dead, made glass his full-time trade around 1981, and is credited with fumed glass: borosilicate fumed with silver or gold, which shifts color as resin builds inside. He settled in Eugene, Oregon, around 1990, and the city became a center of pipe-making. The Corning Museum of Glass has since recognized pipe-making as an art form.

How to use a spoon pipe

1. Grind flower to a medium consistency; powder pulls through the bowl.
2. Pack the bowl loosely, enough to cover the bottom without blocking the airway.
3. Cover the carb (the small hole on the side) with a finger.
4. Light the edge of the bowl, not the center, while drawing gently.
5. Release the carb to clear the smoke from the pipe, then breathe out.

Steamrollers work the same way, but the open end replaces the carb. One-hitters hold a single small pinch, which makes them the easiest way to take a small amount. Glass gives the cleanest flavor but breaks; silicone survives being dropped but should never be cleaned with alcohol (see cleaning).

Bubblers

A bubbler is a hand pipe with a small water chamber: the portability of a pipe with some of the cooling of a bong. Use one exactly like a spoon pipe, with enough water to cover the bottom of the stem. Change the water after every session, because standing water turns sour quickly.

Water pipes and bongs

Where they came from

The English word bong comes from the Thai baung, a bamboo tube: a 1944 Thai–English dictionary already defines it as a bamboo water pipe for smoking cannabis. Merriam-Webster dates its first English use to 1971, and it is said (though not proven) to have come home with Vietnam veterans.

Water pipes themselves are much older. The hookah is traditionally credited to Hakim Abu'l-Fath Gilani, a physician at the 16th-century Mughal court of Emperor Akbar, but that story rests on a single uncited source, and Gilani more likely introduced the Persian qalyan to India; some researchers argue the water pipe began in Africa instead. Tobacco reached China around 1611, and water pipes spread there under the Qing dynasty: by about 1800 the city of Lanzhou alone had some 200 water-pipe workshops, making bamboo pipes for farmers and brass ones for merchants. The modern borosilicate bong, with its percolators and ice pinches, grew out of the American glass movement of the 1980s and 1990s.

How to use a bong

1. Fill with water until the slits in the downstem sit about an inch below the surface.
2. Grind flower to a medium consistency and pack the bowl loosely.
3. Light the edge of the bowl while inhaling gently; the water will bubble and the chamber fills.
4. Pull the bowl out (or lift your finger off the carb, on bongs that have one) to clear the chamber.
5. Empty and refill the water after every session.

Beakers are the most stable and hold the most water. Straight tubes clear faster. Percolators (tree, showerhead, honeycomb and inline designs) split smoke into smaller bubbles for more contact with the water, and every one adds drag to the draw and another surface to clean.

What the research says about water filtration

Water cools and humidifies smoke, which is why bongs feel smoother. Whether it filters out anything that matters is a different question. The best-known lab study, by California NORML and MAPS (1996, revised 2000), found that water pipes delivered more tar for each unit of cannabinoid than an unfiltered joint, apparently because water traps THC more readily than tar. The cannabis tested was low-potency government supply, so it is not the last word, but it is the evidence there is. We would rather you know that than repeat the common claim that water makes smoke “cleaner.”

Bong parts, joint sizes and glass quality

Matching joints: size, gender and angle

Every removable glass part connects through a ground-glass joint, and a part fits only if all three of these match:

• Gender. A male joint slides in; a female joint receives it. A bong with a female joint takes a male bowl. The size number is the outside diameter of a male joint (or inside of a female).
• Angle. 45° joints are common on bongs and ash catchers; 90° joints on dab rigs. An ash catcher must match your bong's angle or it will lean.

How to spot good glass

Quality pieces are borosilicate glass, which expands about a third as much as ordinary soda-lime glass when heated and survives a temperature swing of roughly 300°F before cracking, against roughly 100°F for soda-lime. It is tougher, not unbreakable. (“Pyrex” on a label proves nothing: kitchen Pyrex sold in the US has been soda-lime since the late 1990s.) Retailers list wall thickness in millimeters; 5–9mm (about 0.2–0.35 inch) is typical of sturdy pieces. Look for even welds, cleanly ground joints, a base that sits flat, and clear glass without bubbles or cloudiness. Artist-made, fumed and sculpted work is called heady glass.

Dab rigs, bangers and nectar collectors

Where they came from

“Dabbing” means vaporizing a small amount of concentrate on a very hot surface. It spread through the 2010s alongside the rise of concentrates. The hardware evolved quickly: glass nails with domes came first, then titanium nails, then domeless designs, and finally the quartz banger, an open quartz bucket that won on flavor and is now the standard. Exact dates for each step are not well documented, so treat any “invented in” claim with caution. The electric e-rig arrived when Puffco unveiled the Peak at CES in January 2018: a temperature-controlled rig with no torch at all. The nectar collector, a straw-shaped rig you touch to the concentrate, was popularized in the mid-2010s by a company of that name, and the name became the generic term.

How to use a dab rig

1. Fill the rig with water just above the perc or downstem slits.
2. Heat the banger with a torch until it glows faintly, then let it cool. How long depends on the banger's thickness; many people wait 30–60 seconds, and an infrared thermometer removes the guessing.
3. Load a small amount of concentrate on the dab tool, the size of a grain of rice or smaller.
4. Touch the concentrate to the inside wall of the banger while inhaling slowly, and place the carb cap on top.
5. When the vapor is gone, swab the warm banger with a cotton swab so residue doesn't bake on.

Temperature matters

Hotter is not better. A 2017 study in ACS Omega found benzene levels rose sharply when the nail was above about 900°F, and stayed near background at lower temperatures, while some irritant compounds formed at every temperature hot enough to vaporize. No peer-reviewed study defines an ideal temperature; common guidance is roughly 450–600°F, with “cold start” dabs (concentrate loaded before heating) lower still. Carb caps exist precisely to let you dab cooler, and e-rigs and e-nails let you set the number. The researchers themselves recommended temperature-controlled devices over torches.

Nectar collectors

Heat the quartz, titanium or ceramic tip for a few seconds, wait briefly, then touch it to concentrate sitting in a heat-proof dish while you inhale. Electric versions heat the tip with a battery and a temperature setting, which removes the torch entirely. Never set a hot tip down on a table, a cloth or the dish's lid.

Vaporizers and 510 batteries

Where they came from

Vaporizers heat cannabis enough to release its cannabinoids and terpenes without burning it. “Eagle Bill” Amato popularized the idea in 1990s Amsterdam with his heat-gun-powered “Shake & Vape” glass pipe, demonstrated at the Cannabis Cup. In Germany, Markus Storz began developing a desktop vaporizer in 1996 and patented its detachable balloon; the first Volcanos were sold in 2000, and Storz & Bickel was founded in 2002. Portable dry-herb vaporizers became mainstream with the PAX in 2012.

The 510 thread, the standard screw connection on cannabis cartridges and batteries, came from the e-cigarette industry, where Joyetech's eGo line helped spread it around 2009–2010. Nobody patented it, so it became a universal standard. Why it is called “510” is unknown; every explanation you will read is a guess.

Dry-herb vaporizers: conduction and convection

• Conduction heats flower by contact with a hot chamber. Simple and fast to heat; stir the flower between sessions for even results.
• Convection passes hot air through the flower. More even heating, usually at a higher price.
• Many modern devices combine both. Grind medium-fine, and follow the maker's temperature guidance.

Getting the best from a 510 battery

1. Start at the lowest voltage setting and step up only if you need to. A burnt taste means the coil is hotter than the oil can soak up.
2. Use preheat (a low, short warm-up, usually 10–15 seconds) for thick or cold oil.
3. Button batteries usually turn on and off with five quick clicks; draw-activated batteries fire when you inhale.
4. Screw the cartridge on until it is snug, not tight; overtightening damages the contacts.
5. Charge with the cable that came with it, keep the contacts clean, and never leave a battery in a hot car.

Cartridge makers sometimes print their own voltage range; theirs beats anything general we can say.

Papers, cones, wraps and rolling gear

Where they came from

The rolling-paper industry grew out of the paper mills of Alcoy, in Spain. Bambú traces its paper-making there to 1764, originally making Bible paper, while Pay-Pay, also from Alcoy, claims 1703; which is truly oldest is disputed. In France the brothers Maurice and Jacques Braunstein founded Zig-Zag in 1879, and in 1894 introduced the alternating “interleaved” fold that makes one paper pull up the next, which is where the name comes from; the brand won a gold medal at the 1900 Paris Universal Exposition. OCB launched in 1918 from a Brittany mill dating to 1822, and RAW, unbleached and gummed with plant-based glue, debuted in the mid-2000s.

Materials and sizes

Papers are made from wood pulp (the most common), hemp, flax or very thin “rice” paper, which is mostly a marketing term for thinness. Most are glued with gum arabic from the acacia tree. Common sizes are single wide, 1¼, and king size slim. Wraps are thicker, blunt-style sheets made from hemp or natural leaf; check the label, because some wraps on the market contain tobacco or nicotine, and Mississippi dispensaries can't sell tobacco products.

How to roll a joint

1. Grind flower medium-fine and even.
2. Fold a crutch (tip) into a W or zigzag and roll it into a small cylinder.
3. Lay the paper gum-side up and away from you, with the crutch at one end, and spread the flower evenly along it.
4. Pinch and roll the paper back and forth between your fingers to shape a firm cylinder.
5. Tuck the edge without gum under the flower, roll upward, lick the gum strip and seal.
6. Pack gently from the open end with a pen or tool, then twist the tip closed.

Cones skip the rolling: fill in small additions, tamping each with a packing stick, leave a little room at the top, and twist shut. A rolling machine does steps 3 to 5 for you.

Grinders and prep tools

A grinder turns buds into an even, consistent texture, which burns or vaporizes more evenly than hand-broken flower.

• 2-piece: lid and teeth; you scoop flower straight out of the teeth.
• 3-piece: adds a collection chamber the ground flower falls into.
• 4-piece: adds a fine screen and a bottom chamber that catches kief, the loose trichome dust.

How fine to grind depends on use: medium-fine and even for joints and cones, medium or coarser for pipes and bongs (so pieces don't get pulled through), and medium-fine for dry-herb vaporizers. Several companies claim to have made the first modern grinder, and none of the claims can be verified, so we won't repeat them.

Storage and freshness

Light, heat and air slowly turn THC into CBN and evaporate terpenes, and a four-year study found that light and room temperature drove most of the loss. Keep flower airtight, dark and cool. The industry standard for dried flower is a humidity range of about 55–65%; a two-way humidity pack in a sealed jar holds it there. Above that range, mold becomes a risk.

The most important storage rule has nothing to do with freshness: keep cannabis, and anything with residue on it, locked away from children and pets. A lockable box is the right choice in any home with children. Disguised “diversion” containers made to look like soda cans or food packages are sold online, but anything that looks like food or a drink is exactly what a child will open, so we don't recommend them.

Lighters and hemp wick

Disposable lighters became common after BIC launched its version in 1973. Hemp wick is hemp string coated in beeswax: you light the wick, then use the wick's small flame at the bowl instead of holding a butane flame there. Mississippi dispensaries may sell disposable butane lighters but not butane or propane fuel.

Cleaning

Resin builds up fast, spoils flavor and clogs airflow. A quick clean once a week (more with daily use) is far easier than a deep clean once a month.

• Glass: fill with 91–99% isopropyl alcohol and a spoonful of coarse salt, plug the openings, shake, then rinse thoroughly with warm water. 70% alcohol works, more slowly. Change bong water after every session.
• Silicone and acrylic: warm soapy water, or vinegar and baking soda. Never alcohol: it can make silicone sticky and discolored and craze acrylic.
• Quartz bangers: swab with a cotton swab while still warm after every dab. For a deep clean, let it cool completely, soak in isopropyl alcohol, and rinse. Never put cold liquid on hot quartz; the thermal shock cracks it.
• Grinders: freeze for 30 minutes to make resin brittle, then brush; metal grinders can soak in alcohol, wooden ones should not.

Smoke and odor

Ashtrays, personal smoke filters and odor candles round out the list. A personal filter is a tube with carbon inside that you exhale through; it reduces visible smoke and smell but does nothing for anyone's lungs, including yours. Remember that Mississippi law does not allow smoking or vaping cannabis in public places or vehicles, and landlords may set their own rules.

Extraction and kitchen equipment

A whole category of equipment exists for making your own infusions and extracts: decarboxylators that convert THCA to THC for cooking, countertop butter and oil infusers, rosin presses (popularized in 2015 when a grower demonstrated making rosin with a hair straightener), rosin bags, and ice-water hash bags. Mississippi's rules do not allow dispensaries to sell extraction devices, so you will not find these at any dispensary in the state. Home extraction with butane or other solvents is genuinely dangerous and has caused explosions and severe burns; never attempt it.

If you cook with cannabis at home, remember that homemade edibles have no lab-verified dose. Label them clearly, store them locked away, and never serve them to anyone else.

Risks, care and poison control

Accessories are tools, and they come with their own risks alongside those of cannabis itself:

• Burns. Torches, bangers, nectar-collector tips and vaporizer chambers reach hundreds of degrees. Keep torches off and pointed away from people, let hot quartz cool before setting it down, and keep everything well away from curtains, bedding and children.
• Broken glass. A cracked piece can fail without warning. Retire glass with visible cracks, especially near joints.
• Lungs. Smoke from any burning plant material irritates the lungs and airways. Vaporizing avoids combustion, but its long-term effects are still being studied.
• Sharing. Shared mouthpieces spread germs. Use your own, or clean between users.
• Batteries. Use the charger that came with the device, don't charge overnight on a bed or couch, and stop using a battery that swells or gets hot while idle.
• Residue. Resin and reclaim are concentrated cannabis. Keep used pieces, bong water and ash out of reach of children and pets.

Cannabis itself can impair coordination and judgment (never drive after using it), can cause anxiety or a racing heart, especially at high doses, and with heavy long-term use can lead to dependence. Our products guide covers these risks in more detail. If use has become a problem, the free, confidential SAMHSA National Helpline is 1-800-662-4357.

Common questions

What are the main types of cannabis accessories?

Hand pipes, bubblers, water pipes (bongs), dab rigs and nectar collectors for concentrates, vaporizers and 510-thread batteries, rolling papers, cones and wraps, grinders, storage containers, lighters and hemp wick, cleaning supplies, and smoke and odor control. There is also extraction and kitchen equipment, which Mississippi dispensaries may not sell.

How much water should go in a bong?

Enough that the slits in the downstem sit about an inch below the surface. Too little and the smoke isn't cooled; too much and water can splash up into your mouth. Change the water after every session.

What size bowl fits my bong?

Match three things: the joint size (10mm, 14mm or 18mm; 14mm is by far the most common), the gender (a female joint on the bong takes a male bowl), and on ash catchers the angle (45 or 90 degrees).

What temperature should I dab at?

No study defines an ideal temperature, but hotter is not better: a 2017 study found benzene rose sharply above about 900 degrees F. Common guidance is roughly 450 to 600 degrees F. A carb cap lets you dab cooler, and an infrared thermometer, e-nail or e-rig removes the guessing.

What voltage should I use for a 510 cartridge?

Start at the lowest setting and step up only if needed; a burnt taste means the coil is running hotter than the oil can keep up with. Use preheat for thick or cold oil, and follow the cartridge maker's own voltage range when it gives one.

How do I clean a glass pipe or bong?

Fill it with 91 to 99 percent isopropyl alcohol and a spoonful of coarse salt, plug the openings, shake, then rinse well with warm water. Never use alcohol on silicone or acrylic; use warm soapy water instead.

Can a Mississippi dispensary sell accessories?

Yes. The Medical Cannabis Act allows licensed dispensaries to sell equipment used to ingest medical cannabis to registered cardholders, and the Department of Revenue's rules list pipes, bongs, rolling machines, grinders, papers, trays and jars. Dispensaries may not sell butane or propane fuel, extraction devices, tobacco products or vaping products that do not contain cannabis.

Does a bong filter smoke?

Water cools and humidifies smoke, but the best-known lab study (California NORML and MAPS, 1996, revised 2000) found water pipes delivered more tar per unit of cannabinoid than an unfiltered joint, because water traps THC more readily than tar.

Sources

1. Ren et al., The origins of cannabis smoking: chemical residue evidence from the first millennium BCE in the Pamirs, Science Advances (2019)
2. Herodotus, Histories 4.75 (the Scythians), Perseus Digital Library
3. UNODC Bulletin on Narcotics (1961): dagga pipes in southern Africa
4. Philips, African smoking and pipes, Journal of African History
5. Hinduism Today: the chillum and Shaiva sadhus
6. Eugene Weekly, The Glass Menagerie (Bob Snodgrass)
7. Corning Museum of Glass, Pipemakers' day has finally come (2019)
8. Merriam-Webster: bong
9. Bowers Museum: Chinese water pipes
10. Gieringer, Marijuana research: waterpipe study, MAPS Bulletin (1996, revised 2000)
11. Meehan-Atrash, Luo and Strongin, Toxicant formation in dabbing: the terpene story, ACS Omega (2017)
12. Leafly, Dabbing cannabis concentrates with quartz
13. MG Retailer: Puffco unveils the Peak smart rig (CES 2018)
14. Storz & Bickel: company history
15. Sensi Seeds: Eagle Bill Amato
16. Zig-Zag: brand history
17. Collectors Weekly, The unfiltered history of rolling papers
18. Phoenix New Times: RAW rolling papers
19. Ganjapreneur: rosin-making a year after the hair-straightener video
20. Borosilicate glass: thermal expansion and shock resistance
21. Zamengo et al., Cannabinoid degradation during long-term storage (2019)
22. ASTM D8197, water activity specification for dried cannabis flower
23. Mississippi Medical Cannabis Act, Miss. Code §§ 41-137-1 to -67 (current text, reprinted in 2026 HB 1753)
24. Mississippi Department of Revenue, medical cannabis dispensary rules (35 Miss. Admin. Code Pt. XI)
25. SAMHSA National Helpline
26. Poison Help (HRSA): 1-800-222-1222 connects to your local poison center

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Cannabis affects individuals differently. Consult your healthcare provider regarding cannabis use. Mississippi MMCP card required for purchase; must be 21 or older.