Give Your Virginias Some Elbow Room

I agree wholeheartedly. I am in the small bowl camp for my VAs and VaPers, but that by no means is set in stone dogma. MacBarens Virginia #1 is one that defies this for me. In a small bowl it is a nest of rattlesnakes in my mouth and otherwise flavorless. But, in a big bowl it opens up, and settles down the bitey bitey. However, I still use the "small bowl to focus flavor" argument in favor of having one on hand, but if it becomes bitey, I'd recommend switching to a wider bowl.

Yep, elbow room! Good call!

Good info. Good perspective, thanks mso489. I've often been tempted to move from the norm and smoke certain va out of a larger, wider bowl. You validate my feelings that I should try all my blends, in all my pipes.. screw pc

Excuse me while I go pull out all my hair.

Agreed. I smoke Virginias and VaPers and they all shine in my Savinelli KS Dublin shapes.

I've been having some great tasting smokes folding and stuffing that I learned, Gulp, on you tube. It allows for a looser pack and it's been working very well for me. It's simple, the bowl smokes down with few if any relights and I've been using all different size bowls. The key is having the right quantity of flake or I should say the right size flake plug. I know some of this may sound like old hat to you long time flakers but I've struggled a looong time with them and getting them to smoke like they ought to. It just proved to me, as it always has, that one is never too old to learn something new.

Ribbon or coarse cut VaPers seem to smoke better in smaller bowls and I'm developing a better approach to pairing pipes with tobaccos. For the longest time I just grabbed the pipe I thought I wanted to smoke a particular blend in as opposed to grabbing the right pipe to smoke the same. I spend more time prepping tobacco than I ever used to as well, this can yield surprising results and one needs to remember that nothing should be rushed when it comes to pipe smoking. Dip and go cube cut burley being the one and only exception as it relates to loading.
I apologize for not including the packing vid link. I got it off a thread here on flake smoking and it's no one off type video. It's an English gent who at least appeared to be very knowledgable and experienced in the perpetration. Perhaps someone can help me out with that one.

G.L.Pease, I read somewhere, said that he often enjoy Virginias and flakes in a large pot shape. I often use small pipes and cut flakes in half prior to drying, folding and stuffing.

Thanks for the info my friend! I will certainly try my VAs in a larger bowl.

On my desk is a massive Ropp Cherrywood stamped "Big Jean". It is my go to pipe for Best Brown, and other mild VAs. I have an unopened tin of Germain's Brown I'm almost tempted to drop in there, but I haven't quite convinced myself to crack the seal. In the mean time, that long, conical bowl is well suited to straight Vas. I even get some Wessex Campaign Brigade in there sometimes.

Does someone want to post a basic pipe to blend FAQ. I am all for experimenting once I have the basics down. Pipes are a lot more fun than cigars but are also more complicated when it comes to the reward part.

I am not dogmatic about it, but narrow chambers get Virginias and VaPers, unless they are bitey, and then I smoke them in a pot. My Balkans and orientals I smoke in average .75 - .8" apx sized bowls. And, the bolder twists and heavier nicotine blends like Nightcap, I like in a big fat pipe. The wider the pipe is, the cooler it smokes, because more air strikes the surface. The wider pipes don't smoke as long for me but opens up the blends.
I'm not sure what other people do. This is just how I do it. But, like I said, I'm not dogmatic. I will swap what I smoke in pipes depending on my mood.
Narrow chambers focus the flavors for me. Wider pipes dilute and open up the flavors. Average pipes just smoke about anything, ha ha. My narrow pipes smoke for a longer amount of time for me also. I think that there is a width x depth ratio that comes into play.

Good to know.....I am making a flake pipe. Cavalier. Its .75. 3cm deep. I am going to have to try the same blend in different pipes. This is interesting. I have some 3 yr old FVF that is smoking great.

One thing about smoking a pipe is always true, there are no hard fast rules that everyone has to follow. I generally smoke all my flakes in a group 4-5 sized pipe, however there are times when I will pull out my group 6 pipes( I own 2) and load em up with flakes and they smoke great. I love my Wessex BCDF, and Astleys no 109 in one of my 6's. I can get almost 3 hours of smoking pleasure in one of those puppies. Experimenting to see what blends do better in certain pipes is fun to me, I get a real charge when I find that magic combo.

...and sometimes it's just the way the briar makes a particular blend taste so good, size and shape be damned.