Just Ramie:

[JeremyR]

Just got my ramie in!! Wow this stuff is different. Had a chance to recoil and wick my wife's t3. It's working good so far. Went in easy with a wet and twist on the end. Stuff doesn't swell so use enough.

Couple pics of the ramie

 

[dice57]

Yeah, Ramie doesn't swell, but it does firm up once totally saturated and broke in. I find it easiest to work with when wet with juice, keeps the fly away fibers in line. lol. Have fun J.!!

 

[JeremyR]

Yeah it wets down nicely and is easy to work with when damp. Doesn't get all floppy when wet like cotton or hemp. I threaded some through the coil dry then wetted it, not enough. Threaded some more through, still not enough, push a needle through the coil to make a tunnel and threaded another little piece in, just right. Over wicked the coil for the kanger t3 head with the cut offs and it's off to the races. Really clean flavor i only detected a slight flavor initially and it was actually a very good taste to the wick initially, the taste of the wick is very neutral. It was not washed, just right out the bag.

This is gonna be interesting to play with, thanks dice!

 

[dice57]

Glad you are enjoying the Ramie teaser. Just through in a quick horizontal dual on the Magma, pushed at 30 watts, and must say, pretty Damn fine vape.

What's nice about the Ramie, is it's easy to add or strip away more fiber to get the wick density just right. Well time to gear up for work, so will have to do the Magma Verticals tomorrow. We going Volcanic Magma tomorrow.!!!

 

[JohnnyDill]

So ramie is the next big thing, eh? -What happened to porous ceramic?

 

[dice57]

So ramie is the next big thing, eh? -What happened to porous ceramic?

Next big thing? That would be up to the vaper to determine. Ramie is a fiber that works. Porous ceramic was last years news, and before my vape time. lol. Still thinking dryer lint may be an untested resource , lmao.

 

[TheKiwi]

Hi all!

The time has come for me to appease my itchy fingers. I've been a organic cotton purist for the longest time. Recently heard about ramie and KGD, and I don't think I can ignore either anymore.

Question: has anyone tried both? How do they compare?

Also, do you need to boil em?

I'm particularly interested in ramie just because of the no-swell properties when saturated. I figure that would be HUGE for attys like the aqua and fogger particular when it comes to getting the amount of wick in the juice channel right. Any input would be greatly appreciated!


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[dice57]

No need to boil Ramie, but I did with a couple feet, used a water and VG bath, gently boiled for ~30 minutes. But only did that because I couldn't figure it out.

Have the Ramie in the Aqua, Rose, Russian, Taifun, and Magma, all vaping quite nice. Brought new life to my Aqua for sure. Have a fogger on the way, just couldn't help myself, lol, Aqua base with a huge tank, yeah, all over that. lol.

Ramie did take me the longest to figure out, compared to cotton or hemp, but once figured out, provides excellent wicking for all my builds, horizontal, vertical, we control the.... woops, wrong forum. But ya, liking this stuff, which is a good thing since I have 8 oz's of it. lmao.

 

[TheKiwi]

Ah thanks for the reply. I also noticed you mentioning in the various prep stages (in your earlier posts) the following
1) tear/cut out desired portion
2) get the wick wet with juice
3) get the fibers aligned

Regarding the fibers, it looks to me that the fibers are pretty aligned as it is. Is there a particularly special way of further aligning the fibers? Like combing it or smth.


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[dice57]

I just align everything nicely with my fingers, while wetting it with juice. And yeah, everything is pretty darn straight and aligned, but referring more to how I shape it for my build. No combing needed.

For through the coil want it round, instead of twisting it like one would cotton or hemp, I just start from the middle out, squeezing the ramie between my finger tips, while pulling to the ends, working the juice in as I go. Twisting it seems to reduce the wicking potential, keeping it straight like a bunch of fiber optic cables or fibers in a plant, seems to promote optimum wicking.

Makes sense since that how it occurs in nature. Least that's how I looked at the situation and how I solved my dilemma with Rami Fiber.

For vertical coils that I wrap around the outside, I form the ramie in the shape of ribbon that will cover the length of the coil, so one full wrap covers it from end to end.

Sure at times I have twisted the wick, to get it through tight spaces an through the coil, but after I have it all position, I will untwist it and get all the fibers neat and aligned, taking care not to kink the fibers.

It's almost like working with epoxy clay or window putty, when shaping it into the shape I want. And makes it easy to add to or strip away fiber to get the perfect density desired. I always work from the middle out, easier to keep everything uniform.

 

[Blitzdonlife]

Thanks for the info on ramie fiber. I just got my order in from halcyon yarn, one ounce cost 7.58 shipped. I set up my Russian twice with it tonight, but both times it left a funky taste in my juice. It tasted like burnt cotton, but when I cleaned everything and rewicked with my usual cotton the taste was in the juice I took out/put back in. I'm guessing that means a ramie boiling is in my future. What ratio of vg/distilled water did you use in your boil, and for how long/# of times did you boil it?

 

[dice57]

Well I used tap water and brought it to a boil, then coiled the ramie into the boiling water and just poured VG on top of the coiled ramie. Being that VG is heavier than water, it sunk down onto the top of the ramie, reduced heat to a gentle boil, barely rolling, and let it boil for 30-40 minutes.

Drained it into a colander, and squished out the water. Did a few one minute micro wave treatments, turning it over after each cycle, on top of a paper towel.

Like I said, don't know if it did any good or is necessary, but it didn't do any harm. The treated fibers were as nice as the untreated ones. Haven't tried any untreated fiber to compare, but will try to remember when I re-wick the Magma, that will quickly tell me if there is any difference.

Speaking of the Magma, it has a drip reservoir that holds like 1.5-2 ml of juice. When empty I'll fill it up, and it's amazing to watch the ramie suck up about half the fill immediately. Can watch it travel up the wick and saturate the coils. Then I top off the lake, and have a great vape.

I am not a dripper, am a tank system rba kind of guy, but couldn't keep myself from buying the Magma by Paradigm, dual coil, can go Vertical, and has two 3 mm adjustable air intakes. Awesome rba. Only defense is that it's not a true dripper, more of a Crater Magma Lake Atomizer. Now we have an rla. re-buildable Lake Atomizer. lmao.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Other than 'pure taste (after boiling),' are people find ramey taste delivery superior in some way?

 

[dice57]

That would be a yes. More heat tolerant and out wicks anything I've used before, cotton, hemp, silica, SS mesh, xc116 or whatever that fraking ceramic wick was. Very pleased with it's performance on all my rba's, tanked and dripped. Although the nutty flavor of hemp fiber is great with some juices.

 

[TheKiwi]

Curious to hear whether not boiling it will result in some off-taste or poorer performance. Only reason I've been sticking to organic cotton so stubbornly is because of just how easy and fuss free it is


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[BJ43]

That would be a yes. More heat tolerant and out wicks anything I've used before, cotton, hemp, silica, SS mesh, xc116 or whatever that fraking ceramic wick was. Very pleased with it's performance on all my rba's, tanked and dripped. Although the nutty flavor of hemp fiber is great with some juices.

Ditto.........

 

[BJ43]

These are two of my favorite ramie setups on the taifun gt. Dual coil and single coil with ramie thru the coils and over the top. The over the top, I have been doing for years when I first got into cotton, the Chinese later called it a flavor wick.



Long time ago.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

...still not seeing anything about how taste / flavor is improved over other materials other than perhaps 'pure,' which I interpret as uncolored.

 

[BJ43]

...still not seeing anything about how taste / flavor is improved other than perhaps 'pure,' which I interpret as uncolored.

Pure = adds no significant taste to the juice.

Also, ramie is such an efficient wick that it can keep up with the coil and you get full flavor with no hint of over heating. This really shines at high wattage.

 

[Cool_Breeze]

Pure = adds no significant taste to the juice

= "uncolored" While wick performance in terms of juice flow, etc., may be improved, I'm not finding flavor produced significantly different from silica. Enhanced perception of juice flavor has been a hallmark of earlier alternate wicking materials such as cotton and bamboo as compared to silica. I'm not finding that with ramie.