A slow learner

navypipe23 · Aug 29, 2016

So I've been a pipe smoker for the past year or so but am still very much a beginner. I've been reading the forums quite often since I began. I have two pipes currently...a mm cob and a briar gifted to me by a forum member. I'm kind of stuck on EMP and Nightcap but would like to open my horizons to the many other great tobacco blends...and trust me...I have a list

I don't get much pipe time except for the weekends nowadays with buying a house and a baby on the way, the first!! I was smoking the briar this weekend and finally got the tamping down correctly without having to relight and decided to try using a pipe cleaner periodically through the smoke as I used to just use one at the end when everything was finished. I had much less tongue bite, I could taste many more flavors in the tobacco, and everything just seemed right with the world. This makes me want to smoke more and try more blends. This may be a stupid question but for a shorter smoke is it okay to not fill the bowl? I was thinking more for the winter months when I'll be smoking outside in the cold PA snowstorms and such.

carver · Aug 29, 2016

This may be a stupid question but for a shorter smoke is it okay to not fill the bowl?

and this is only from what I gathered around and my own experience, Id rather use a smaller bowl that I fill rather than a regular bowl in which I only fill half.
Quick question: how often do you smoke ? You said you've started little over a year ago, and only smoked EMP and Nightcap.
Anyway, these two are English blends. Althought I love them, there are so many other blends to try out there.

What's your list like ?

dottiewarden · Aug 29, 2016

So I've been a pipe smoker for the past year or so but am still very much a beginner.

It took me about a year and a half and I was smoking at least twice as much as you! In fact, although I now consider myself a proficient pipe smoker there is still plenty to learn. To learn you must smoke, and that my friend is the best part.
Interestingly those two blends you are smoking are at opposite ends of the strength scale. Which do you prefer, and why?

jpmcwjr · Aug 29, 2016

Fill a bowl to any percentage that strikes your fancy.

carver · Aug 29, 2016

@jpmcwjr: really ? I read several times that lighting up a bowl half full might actually damage it.

Something about too hot too fast in the middle might cause cracks while lighting it up from the top lets the wood warm up progressively.

That's just what I read and I have never actually tried it, so really I know nothing, but would love to have more info on that.

navypipe23 · Aug 29, 2016

I generally smoke twice a week...once on Saturday and once on Sunday but am hoping to increase that whether it be more at my new home which has a very nice porch and shaded deck with a walk out basement where I will store my pipes and tobacco or whether I smoke to and from work which is about a 45 min drive. I used to smoke cigarettes and still occasionally smoke a cigar here and there but love the smell of a good pipe tobacco and the taste. I also find it much more relaxing and thought provoking. I think I prefer the nightcap for the stronger qualities it has. My list includes: Mississippi River, Orlik Golden Sliced, Frog Morton's Cellar, Haunted Bookshelf, Three Nuns and many more that I read about on here every day. I do prefer my briar pipe over my corn cob for now as I feel it tastes better...I also smoke them without a filter and sometimes some of the ash comes through on the cob.

pagan · Aug 29, 2016

With time you will get better, Iv smoked for about 14 yrs and still learn something new every week.

jndyer · Aug 29, 2016

Yeah, I am at something like 9 1/2 years and feel like I am just now starting to hit a good groove.

rfernand · Aug 29, 2016

Dunhill Flake, Peterson University Flake, or Peterson Irish Flake could be a fun departure from your current blends.

jpmcwjr · Aug 29, 2016

@jpmcwjr: really ? I read several times that lighting up a bowl half full might actually damage it.

Something about too hot too fast in the middle might cause cracks while lighting it up from the top lets the wood warm up progressively.

That's just what I read and I have never actually tried it, so really I know nothing, but would love to have more info on that.

Overtorching any bowl could damage it, but what you've cited above is pure horse pucky. Can you provide a link to the genius who wrote that??

Chasing Embers · Aug 30, 2016

Have smoked partial filled bowls for over two decades with no detrimental effect to the pipes. As to the OP, I've been at it since the Summer of '91, and still learn things from time to time.

carver · Aug 30, 2016

You guys have no idea how happy and relieved I am to read that. I've been wasting tobacco for 2 years, thinking that I must fill them every time. I'd have loved to smoke half bowls.
@jpmcwjr : I don't think I'll be able to find out where I read that. It's also possible that I misread something or confused, and that it got me thinking that way.

puffndave · Aug 30, 2016

If it still tastes good at the bottom fifth of the bowl and it's gone out, I just fire away. I never destroyed a pipe by taking anything less than a cigar torch to it, but I was successful at demolishing a cob by puffing too hard on it. I don't see how you can burn out your bowl without it getting hot enough, and you'll probably know when it gets there, and then you won't want to do anything other than let it cool down. When it's too hot to hold in your hand, then it's time to let it cool.
If you care about the rims, you may want to be careful not to burn them. Especially if your lighter burns butane, which burns hotter than naphta or matches.

cosmicfolklore · Aug 30, 2016

Half bowls are great, also filling to the top and smoking half now, half latter can be even better. Unlike cigars, relighting a half smoked pipe can be as near to nirvana as we can come in this lifetime.

In my shop, I will sometimes set my pipe down and return to it as I help customers throughout the day. But, the best smokes are always when I find a half pipe that I set aside and forgot about. Mmmmm...

carver · Aug 31, 2016

also filling to the top and smoking half now, half latter can be even better.

I haven't had lots of good experiences with that. To me it tasted like ash. I might have done something wrong, that's more than possible.

I have to say that, in fact, most of my 2nd half of most of the bowls I've smoked tastes like ash ...

jpmcwjr · Aug 31, 2016

Do you wipe out the bowl prior to loading? (I often rinse out the bowl under tap water, but many are chary of doing that.) Rinsing removes the most ash, esp. when followed by a paper towel drying.

puffndave · Aug 31, 2016

jpmcwjr, do you give the pipe time to dry out after rinsing it under the tap? How many days?

troutface · Aug 31, 2016

I hope Pease Odyssey is on your list, and maybe try McClelland No. 25 for a stab at Virginias.

igloo · Aug 31, 2016

It is okay to use the pick portion of you tamper to loosen that extra ash and poor it out before you finish the half of your bowl . I would take a paper towel and twist it in the bowl like a cork screw . This will remove all that loose ash after you finish the pipe . You will also end up a very hard cake . Rinsing a pipe under the sink could destroy that cake that protects the bowl . The only time I might use water is on a over crusty estate pipe . Then you have to find a proper place to dry it very slowly or you could end up with a cracked shank .

navypipe23 · Sep 1, 2016

@troutface they're both on my list now!!!!

A slow learner

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