Before the Titanium Nail, Hash Master Kut designed a system called the HMK Ti Curve Skillet. Besides its utilitarian aspects, Hash Master Kut and his sister are also a master glass glass blowers, so each of the pipes that they produce are a work of art.
The design is unique and I’ve likened them to something from a Dr Seuss garden, “schoomfling” along, with its proboscus hovering above the ground. Each pipe is also unique and highly artistic
Demand was so high at one point that they jokingly became known as HMK Unobtaniums. Here are some pictures to put things in perspective.
HMK Swing skillet design
HMK Swing skillet design 2
HMK Swing skillet design 3
HMK Swing skillet design 4
HMK Swing skillet design 5
Hee, hee, hee, we were fortunate enough to have HMK make a plain Jane model especially for us’ns at SPR, and donate it to us for testing, which we gleefully did.
HMK Swing skillet test sled
HMK Swing Skillet test sled other side
Convenient height for torch.
The way the swing skillet works, is that you rotate the #2 CP Titanium skillet to the side for ease of heating, and then swing it back under the intake bell when sufficiently hot. You then apply concentrate to the hot skillet, while drawing on the stem.
The wide stem spreads the vapors across your tongue, providing a fuller flavor than our own narrow stem skunk pipe design, and a feature I will copy on our next run.
The bell assembly fits into the body via a taper and terminates into a unique diffuser.
HMK Pipe with the bell removed, and showing the diffuser.
The handy knobs on both sides make it ambidextrous, so easy to pass in a mixed crowd. It is also large enough to do the job, yet petite enough to not waste condensed vapors on unneeded surface area.
The skillet provides enough mass to retain enough heat for two doses, making it handy for doubling down or sharing with a friend.
Operation by a novice is less friendly than the heated nails that came later, simply because you have a narrower slot to hit with the dabber, without bumping the skillet or sticking the dab to the bell, but nothing that would keep a average novice from catching on quick.
From an efficiency standpoint, at the time we tested it, it was the most efficient of the lot, including our own design, but since then we’ve tested a smaller quartz pipe. While smaller and more efficient, it lacks the flavor profile provided by the stem design of the HMK.
Petite quartz vaporizer pipe with HMK
We seasoned the skillet before testing, by heating to cherry red four times and cooling, so as to to build an inert Nitrogen and Oxygen alpha case. Once seasoned the taste was full bodied, with a splendid aftertaste.
From a portability standpoint, it isn’t designed to carry in your shirt pocket and draws a fair amount of attention when in use, so not a replacement for an e-pen if portability and discretion is paramount.
On the other hand, no e-pen I’ve sampled comes close to the quality of the dose delivered.
We liked it and gave it the following overall rating:
| NO | MEASUREMENT 1 through 10 | SCORE |
| 1 | Form | 10 |
| 2 | Function | 10 |
| 3 | Craftsmanship | 10 |
| 4 | Effectiveness | 10 |
| 5 | Novice operation | 8 |
| 6 | Efficiency | 10 |
| 7 | Taste. | 10 |
| 8 | Portability | 5 |