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AsMODus Silvanusa 70W TC Stabilized Wood Luxury Mod Review
The market for luxury vape gear is growing, but it is far from a large segment of the industry. A great many people buy vape gear when it goes on sale, with coupon codes, and/or enter giveaways as the only viable way to obtain more gear. However, there are Vapers that seek out fine, exquisite vape gear without regard for cost. The AsMODus Silvanusa is one such mod, except that it IS affordable. At $219.95 at Origin Vape, the AsMODus Silvanusa may not be for everyone, but it puts a superb stab wood mod in the hands of people that might never have afforded one.
The AsMODus Silvanusa is a very special mod, my personal favorite luxury mod, made with the highest quality stabilized wood, and although many vapers will see a high price tag, as a stabilized wood mod, it is very affordable. Each AsMODus Silvanusa is a unique, one of a kind, mod. I’ve been using mine for a while now, and in this review I’ll explain why I grown so attached to it.
AsMODus Silvanusa Review
If you browse Pinterest or visit vape expos looking for gorgeous mods, chances are you’ve seen the astronomical prices many stabilized wood mods sell for. For many, these mods are just fantasies. Something to lust for, nothing more.
To build an affordable stabilized wood mod for customers looking for luxury and superb quality, AsMODus teamed up with Ultron to design and build a beautiful, unique stab wood mod at a fantastic price point.
The AsMODus Silvanusa is the first single-battery mass-produced stabilized wood mod. The Silvanusa brings “stab wood” to the vape community without charging a small fortune. Stab wood mods are jaw-dropping and gorgeous, and in my Pinterest album for vape gear there are several dozen I’ve dreamed of owning. Every time I inquired about purchasing one I’m met with long wait times, small production batches that sell out instantly, and prices that I always find hard to believe. Yet, I still wanted one, and for more than a year I continued to inquire about availability, hoping that when the time came I would somehow find a way to buy one.
I recently learned that these mods that I inquire about, and that are always sold out in minutes, are referred to as “unicorn mods”. A unicorn mod is one that you want to be true, but all evidence points otherwise. If you spend a year trying to get one and never come close, you begin to doubt their existence and instead marvel at the Photoshop skills of some of the Pinterest users.
Stab Wood Mods are nearly impossible to find because there are groups of Vapers that purchase these mods through closed communities, and even these Vapers have to wait a long time to get theirs. For Vapers like me, and maybe you, these mods are pie-in-sky.
Stabilized Wood
So, what make’s Stabilized Wood, or Stab Wood, so damn expensive?
Stabilized wood that is to be used for stab mods is wood that has been impregnated with chemical stabilizing solutions. Once stabilized, the wood can be used with common wood working tools. The cutting, shaping and sanding of this ‘stab wood’ is like working with dense hardwood.
The purpose of stabilizing wood is to make it infinitely more durable and a lot less prone to warping or cracking than natural, untreated wood. The cost of a piece of stabilized wood compared to a natural, untreated piece is much costlier in the extreme.
The Stabilizing Process
What makes Stab Wood so beautiful?
Dry wood (lower than 10% moisture) is placed in a container with the stabilizing solution. It is then put under a vacuum, and high pressure is applied to insure that the solution penetrates the pieces of wood right down to the core. After the wood has been totally infused with the stabilizing solution it then gets ‘heat cured’. This curing process turns the liquid stabilizing solution into a solid.
Properly stabilized wood is very durable and less likely to develop issues in the year ahead. Stabilized wood is also easier to get a good finish on because the stabilizing process fills most, if not all, of the open pores and evens up the hardness of the wood.
But not all wood makes for superior stabilized wood products. Some wood responds differently to the stabilizing process. Wood such as Maple, Ash and Box Elder will get much heavier from the stabilizing process, sometimes more than doubling its weight. Other wood such as Redwood and Walnut will have a less weight gain and not get quite as hard after the stabilizing process. When stabilized, the wood is still much harder and more durable than the natural untreated wood.
Once the wood is stabilized the finishing process begins, and this is where the true art and craftsmanship comes in. There is more than one way to finish off a piece of stab wood, but the end result is wood that will last forever, and its pattern, grain, colors, and so forth are unique to that piece of wood, and to the artist/finisher that completes it. It is an expensive and time-consuming process, but once you hold a piece of stab wood, or a mod made with stab wood, you instantly understand why it costs what it did.
The Silvanusa does not have a simple stab wood plate like so many other mods. The Silvanusa is all stab wood and stainless steel. I knew immediately that the one thing AsMODus made sure of is that the Silvanusa would last generations.
The Silvanusa “Mod”
Before getting to the “specs” of the Silvanusa please note that stabilized wood is an organic product, and it is imperfect, and singular. Graining and imperfections on the Silvanusa mod add to the individuality of the mod. These imperfections serve to show the organic nature of the mod.
The Silvanusa uses the GX70 chipset that outputs 70W of clean power using a single 18650-battery. A full suite of temperature control technology assures excellent vaping with Nickel, Titanium and Stainless Steel. (I only spent about an hour with TC coils, but the TC tech was fluid and easy to get to and use)
Resistance range of the Silvanusa can fire down to 0.08Ω resistance and up to 3Ω. Wattage adjustment is done in .10-increments and you can fine tune your way to a sure-footed vape in seconds.
Choosing an AsMODus Silvanusa
Each Silvanusa has such a unique color and unique grains and burls, and labelling them “green” or “red” just doesn’t cut it. The Silvanusa’s that are in stock at Origin Vape are labeled by letters.
When I ordered my AsMODus Silvanusa I knew I wanted a piece of stab wood that was more ‘green’ than any other color. I chose the letter ‘H’ on the chart, for a mod with green in the wood. You would have to visit another universe in order to buy one just like mine.
The Real World Report
CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGEThe AsMODus Silvanusa comes in a wooden treasure chest. Lift the latch on the chest and you’ll find the Silvanusa sitting in the box along with a user manual and warranty. The Silvanusa is slightly larger than an iStick 30, but heavier because of the gorgeous stab wood the mod is totally encased in. Lift the mod out of the chest and feel the rich finish. Look at it under a light in order to see the magnificence of the stabilized wood in all its glory. I could stare at it for hours and still not discover all its secrets.
The stainless steel parts of the Silvanusa are the top, the bottom, and the front side. The battery inserts on the bottom by unscrewing the battery cap. The top features the silver-plated ‘510’ spring-loaded connector, and a black laser engraving of the AsMODus logo. All the stainless steel parts of the mod are screwed together with small hex screws, giving it somewhat of an industrial design. The front side of the Silvanusa features the fire button, laser engraved with a SAS logo. Further down is bright easy to read display that throws up all kinds of information; ohms, voltage, battery icon and percentage, power/TC mode, wattage or temp, and even a puff counter.
The buttons have a solid, but sure-footed feel and action. The quality of the vape, while dependent on the atomizer used, felt genuine and sincere. CLICK FOR LARGER IMAGE
Since the AsMODus Silvanusa is small, I tried various sub-ohm tanks to find the right one for the job. It does output up to 70W so the field is wide open on the tank the user can choose, but I wanted something that fit the look of the mod.
Most of my tanks are black finish tanks, and the black looked fine on the Silvanusa. However, because the top, bottom, and front side is fine matte stainless steel I tried a few stainless steel tanks to see how they looked. Simply put, the stainless steel “color” really made the mod pop.
The tanks I wound up using exclusively with the Silvanusa are the SMOK Minos in stainless steel and the SMOK Baby Beast, also in stainless steel. Don’t get me wrong, the black tanks looked really good, but the stainless steel? Even better. The whole setup looked more like industrial design, a timeless, elegant look, yet with an apocalyptic futuristic edginess look seen in movies like 12 Monkeys or The Matrix.
Recommendations?
Going in I knew this mod is not on everyone’s wish list, nor does it need to be. The AsMODus Silvanusa is a luxury mod, it’s special, and again, one of a kind. While its appeal is definitely geared toward Vapers that love stab wood mods, no one should walk away thinking the Silvanusa is “all stab wood” and little else. The GX70 chip, and the craftsmanship of the mod’s inner workings are just as high quality as the stab wood itself.
Stab Wood fans know that the $219.95 price tag for the AsMODus Silvanusa is a fraction of the price of other, small batch stab wood mods. The biggest selling point to me is that the quality of the stab wood, with the inner mod being as good, or better, than the small batch runs I’ve seen at vape expos and conventions. AsMODus and Ultron didn’t take shortcuts with the mod to produce this “affordable” stab wood device, and that’s something you’ll know the minute you pick it up.
All in all, the AsMODus Silvanusa stab wood mod is for Vapers that have long waited for a stab wood mod they could afford. You can settle for a mod that tacks on a small slab of stab wood to the front side of a mod, or you can spring for a mod made of stab wood.
Tom McBride
Available Now at Origin Vape
Grade: A+
“Stab Wood mods have never been this affordable. Beautiful, one of a kind, the Silvanusa screams both quality and craftsmanship. For anyone that has ever wanted to invest in a real stab wood mod, this is the one I put my money on. I don’t regret my purchase at all.”
AsMODus Silvanusa Features and Specs:
- Joint venture with AsMODus and Ultron
- GX70 high performance chipset
- Spring-loaded silver-plated 510 connection
- VW/VV mode (power mode) regulated in tenths for precision
- Mechanical mode – acts like a mech mod
- Temperature control mode for nickel, stainless steel and titanium
- Reads resistance down to 0.08Ω up to 3.0Ω
- Micro USB charging port
- Requires a single 18650 battery (sold separately – use only high-rate cells)
- Packs a wallop for its small footprint
- High temperature alarm function
- Short circuit protection
- Low voltage warning
- Stabilized, natural maple wood
In the Box:
- 1x Wooden Chest
- 1x AsMODus Silvanusa
- 1x Warranty Card
- 1x User Manual
