^Masstika....thanks for the advice. I must admit that my burning tastes are not equal to my oil tastes where purity is essential in both what I wear and what I make for others. I am well aware of the muddle that the big houses are putting out in all their products and I am not sophisticated enough to spend time meditating over my burner (I do practice medical qigong which involves significant time for meditation). I enjoy the larger scale smell I am getting with bakhoor, it brings light into my home and my senses. I live with my ninety year old father and there is often a great degree of pain for the child when they become the parent and the bakhoor does lift my spirits towards the sky.
What's on your burner today?
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masstika; absolutely! The Japanese definitely have a flair for ornate and/or classy packaging. Often, even when it's simple, it's done with a certain style and taste that I love. Adds to the overall experience, whether it's incense, records, stationary, etc.
Taha; I wish I could say! I'm not sure if you were asking if I could smell or see the Kyara granules, but I guess my answer would be the same- I, unfortunately, don't yet have experience with pure Kyara, on its own.
Man, your hang with AbuBakr sounds like it's going to be a fantastic session of aromatic indulgence. Have a great time!
Taha; I wish I could say! I'm not sure if you were asking if I could smell or see the Kyara granules, but I guess my answer would be the same- I, unfortunately, don't yet have experience with pure Kyara, on its own.
Man, your hang with AbuBakr sounds like it's going to be a fantastic session of aromatic indulgence. Have a great time!
Afwan Taleb...The Japanese incense ceremony - Kodo - was an important art for Japanese women in earlier times alongside the tea ceremony and flower arrangement. Nowadays men also practice the kodo, which consists of smelling six different woods that are placed on a mica plate over a burner. The wood does not even burn, it just heats up and releases the resinous scents and the kodo practicioner also listens to the sound of the wood as it expands over the heat.
I know that Baieido has classes teaching the ceremony in Japan and I have spoken to the folks at the Nippon Kodo store in New York about bringing a kodo guru there to offer lessons sometime. Whenever I'm in the neighborhood I pop in and ask them if the kodo mistress is on her way. I think that this year they will grow so tired of me that they will bring the classes to their store.
I know that Baieido has classes teaching the ceremony in Japan and I have spoken to the folks at the Nippon Kodo store in New York about bringing a kodo guru there to offer lessons sometime. Whenever I'm in the neighborhood I pop in and ask them if the kodo mistress is on her way. I think that this year they will grow so tired of me that they will bring the classes to their store.
I am burning khao yai chips now. This has to be the softest, smoothest, sweetest Oud chips I have ever smelled in my short career as an Oud adept and burner! not hard on the nose or lungs. Very light but powerful, I feel like I am sitting in a garden right now with florals and woods all around and the breeze brings with it a sweetness undescribed!
I have been trying to practice making a good Kodo cup but it is very difficult. Especially if you don't have a tutor and just looking at Video clips on youTube. For example, I can't figure out how deep to bury the charcoal, how compact to bat the ashes down and then the stillness of the mind and hand to make those incision in the ashes 
but when it works (...rarely) it's wonderful. Little additional detail about the game is that there are similar woods in those 6 selections and the aim is to guess which 2 match and pair together. Each mica plate is marked as a stroke on a sheet of paper and then you connect with a line between the strokes that you think are the same wood. Fumigateur, let me know if NK manages to get a Kodo Guru to come to NY. I might come up.
Separately, when you guys see a chip like these, do you think it is really resinated like that or is it adulterated and "treated". This is Indonesian Oud.
but when it works (...rarely) it's wonderful. Little additional detail about the game is that there are similar woods in those 6 selections and the aim is to guess which 2 match and pair together. Each mica plate is marked as a stroke on a sheet of paper and then you connect with a line between the strokes that you think are the same wood. Fumigateur, let me know if NK manages to get a Kodo Guru to come to NY. I might come up. Separately, when you guys see a chip like these, do you think it is really resinated like that or is it adulterated and "treated". This is Indonesian Oud.
I have to say that I really prefer Scented Mountain's "Highest Quality" sticks over Minorien's Fu-In Aloeswood. The fragrance is much deeper and more robust, and it lasts a long time. It satisfies my craving every time.
Masstika, I have no idea what to tell you about that piece of wood. Someone like Ensar, who spends a lot of time looking at wood and judging its quality, would probably be able to give you a good answer.
Masstika, I have no idea what to tell you about that piece of wood. Someone like Ensar, who spends a lot of time looking at wood and judging its quality, would probably be able to give you a good answer.
As I was burning some 80 year old Oud chips that I've gotten recently from Ensar Oud I was admiring the pieces of oud themselves when I came across this piece
I was puzzled about the hole. It looked like the holes made by a modern day drills as we've all seen done in Oud inoculation and how unlikely that would be with a piece of Oud supposedly this Old. So I did what any inquisitive mind would do so I've asked Ensar. He was kind enough to promptly reply and with his permission I am passing on his answer for our education
" if there were no holes, there would be no resin of agarwood. Which
is why artificial inoculation amounts to that -- making holes in the trunk.
It is an artificial imitation of a natural process. Wild wood is FULL of
holes, as is evidenced by the 100 year-old tree, where we have little
snippets of resin all in the shape of a hole. The only difference between
artificial and natural, is that the natural holes are almost never
straight, but they curve upward or sideways in the direction the insect or
critter felt like boring into the trunk.
I was chopping up some Borneo pieces recently, and found many dead worms
and insects inside, encased in hole-like crevices that they'd made inside
the wood. This is what triggers the resin, and without it there would be no
agarwood."
You see I never knew that. I had thought that the tree gets infected internally through the root system or through the air. And if through insects then the holes would be minuscule. I would have dismissed Oud that claimed to be wild if I have seen holes like these. I guess I need to reconsider
I was puzzled about the hole. It looked like the holes made by a modern day drills as we've all seen done in Oud inoculation and how unlikely that would be with a piece of Oud supposedly this Old. So I did what any inquisitive mind would do so I've asked Ensar. He was kind enough to promptly reply and with his permission I am passing on his answer for our education " if there were no holes, there would be no resin of agarwood. Which
is why artificial inoculation amounts to that -- making holes in the trunk.
It is an artificial imitation of a natural process. Wild wood is FULL of
holes, as is evidenced by the 100 year-old tree, where we have little
snippets of resin all in the shape of a hole. The only difference between
artificial and natural, is that the natural holes are almost never
straight, but they curve upward or sideways in the direction the insect or
critter felt like boring into the trunk.
I was chopping up some Borneo pieces recently, and found many dead worms
and insects inside, encased in hole-like crevices that they'd made inside
the wood. This is what triggers the resin, and without it there would be no
agarwood."
You see I never knew that. I had thought that the tree gets infected internally through the root system or through the air. And if through insects then the holes would be minuscule. I would have dismissed Oud that claimed to be wild if I have seen holes like these. I guess I need to reconsider
A fun combination of NK (Pure series) Grapefruit incense stick and Scented mountain Aloeswood stick. The combination of deep tone notes of the Agarwood mixing with the sweet sourness scent of the Grapefruit works very well in the morning to clear the air. Only draw back is the NK sticks burn much faster than the Scent Mountain ones, so the last 10 min. It's only Aloeswood smell. I had read that the reason the Incense sticks go off on their own is due to unbalance in the mixture of the stick between the base powder and other ingredients with high burn temperatures.
I must admit, that I've not tried anything too 'out-there'. Also, because I only have one heater, it's usually a combination of something on the heater, and a stick of something burning in the background.
I've done blends of things (all heated in the same dish, at the same time), but that's more parallel to a mukhallat than it is layering multiple oils on the skin, on-the-fly.
With 'layering' of incense, I sort-of think of it as similar to the recordings that've been made with multiple musicians, but using only one microphone, when the musicians are recorded 'live' (i.e. playing together, in the same room)... the challenge is to position the different instruments/vocals at different distances from the microphone to get a balanced mix. Guitars will be louder than vocals, but not as loud as drums, etc.
Because the smoky component of the ignited stick is almost always something I want in the background, my heater is usually (much) closer to me than the burning incense is.
I also don't bother 'layering' with sticks that are inherently complex with many different ingredients. Keeping each individual 'voice' simple (or as purely one-scent as possible) is what interests me.
Anyway. I've enjoyed hovering directly above some pure, white ambergris on my heater, with an aloeswood stick burning in the background.
Also; hovering above sandalwood on the heater and a stick of lavender incense (which I bought in Japan) in the background.
Crushed green Omani frankincense on the heater (5 or 6 feet away from me) with a stick of Kunmeido's Hosen (florals) burning in the background.
Palo Santo chips on the heater (a few feet away), and a stick of... actually, I don't even know what the incense is; he label contains only kanji (which I can't read), but it's floral.
...and a few others.
I'd been thinking what I'd like to layer with heating agarwood chips, and it came to me last week. I pass under a cherry tree while I walk through my neighborhood. The last couple of weeks, its blossoms (in full bloom!) have been putting-out an aroma that's got me smitten! I can imagine it being a fantastic mate with agarwood. Not sure if I can find an incense that actually captures that beautiful essence of sakura, but it's worth a try!
Here's the tree that I pass under:
Having said all of that... at the moment, I have a crushed stick of Tibetan Medical College's "Holy Land" on my heater. Plenty complex (and wonderful) on its own. No layering with this one!
I've done blends of things (all heated in the same dish, at the same time), but that's more parallel to a mukhallat than it is layering multiple oils on the skin, on-the-fly.
With 'layering' of incense, I sort-of think of it as similar to the recordings that've been made with multiple musicians, but using only one microphone, when the musicians are recorded 'live' (i.e. playing together, in the same room)... the challenge is to position the different instruments/vocals at different distances from the microphone to get a balanced mix. Guitars will be louder than vocals, but not as loud as drums, etc.
Because the smoky component of the ignited stick is almost always something I want in the background, my heater is usually (much) closer to me than the burning incense is.
I also don't bother 'layering' with sticks that are inherently complex with many different ingredients. Keeping each individual 'voice' simple (or as purely one-scent as possible) is what interests me.
Anyway. I've enjoyed hovering directly above some pure, white ambergris on my heater, with an aloeswood stick burning in the background.
Also; hovering above sandalwood on the heater and a stick of lavender incense (which I bought in Japan) in the background.
Crushed green Omani frankincense on the heater (5 or 6 feet away from me) with a stick of Kunmeido's Hosen (florals) burning in the background.
Palo Santo chips on the heater (a few feet away), and a stick of... actually, I don't even know what the incense is; he label contains only kanji (which I can't read), but it's floral.
...and a few others.
I'd been thinking what I'd like to layer with heating agarwood chips, and it came to me last week. I pass under a cherry tree while I walk through my neighborhood. The last couple of weeks, its blossoms (in full bloom!) have been putting-out an aroma that's got me smitten! I can imagine it being a fantastic mate with agarwood. Not sure if I can find an incense that actually captures that beautiful essence of sakura, but it's worth a try!
Here's the tree that I pass under:
Having said all of that... at the moment, I have a crushed stick of Tibetan Medical College's "Holy Land" on my heater. Plenty complex (and wonderful) on its own. No layering with this one!
The heater and stick sounds like a good way of allowing the incense to give off there true nature without one over powering the other. I burned some of agarscentsbazaar sandalwood cone and Hindi turabi sticks together and found that they somewhat complemented one another, just too much smoke. I have yet to try any Tibetan or Japanese incense, but plan on doing so soon.
There's a MASSIVE selection of incense from Tibet. I've tried tons, and probably haven't even scratched the surface.
Quality varies widely, so asking if Tibetan sticks are natural is probably like asking if oud is natural.
I'll say this; the good stuff smells (to me) completely devoid of synthetics.
Quality varies widely, so asking if Tibetan sticks are natural is probably like asking if oud is natural.
I'll say this; the good stuff smells (to me) completely devoid of synthetics.