I don't know what kind of metal you guys are smoking from but brass doesn't let off some kinda fumes when heat is applied and our pipes aren't coated with some kinda oil when they leave here. If brass gave a taste, that means it's giving off fumes when heated. Impossible. I dare you to take a solid piece of brass, clean all residue off it with denatured alcohol and then heat it to red hot with a torch. Check to see if fumes are comming off it....none. Smell it. None. Myth busted.....These pipes don't transfer heat too much because they are BIG and SOLID. Never burns my little hands and I'm a girl. Even when passing with 5 or more people. You can drop it too and it won't break. It will also be here for the rest of your life or 10,000 years, whichever comes first. They'll have some historian lookin' at it in a thousand years goin' "this is a great artifact!" but he'll be looking at glass shards goin' "vat iz dis?" Deh ya go.....