Keeping the Bowl Lit

The method I used is - a brief charring light followed by a gentle tamp down, repeat (again with a gentle tamp down). Then I hold the flame to a bowl as I take a couple of long draws. That should give you a nice even burn to start with. After that, it is just a case of practice to get the pace and strength of the draw right - keeping it lit without the bowl over heating.
One more thing - when I first started smoking a pipe I, like many others, learnt from the net rather than from another smoker. Because there are so many warning about being careful not to over pack the bowl with tobacco, I was actually going to far the other way. Packing the tobacco just a little firmer helped keep the pipe lit.
Hope that helps and I'm sure others will offer hints & tips.

I've found that if I pack it to the consistency of the fleshy part of my hand and tamp it regularly it stays lit. Good luck!

The method I used is - a brief charring light followed by a gentle tamp down, repeat (again with a gentle tamp down). Then I hold the flame to a bowl as I take a couple of long draws. That should give you a nice even burn to start with. After that, it is just a case of practice to get the pace and strength of the draw right - keeping it lit without the bowl over heating.

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+1
Especially: Then I hold the flame to a bowl as I take a couple of long draws
Got to get a good fire going in the beginning.

One more thing to look at. Next time you have trouble keeping the second half of the bowl lit, dump it out and check to see of it's damp. Some pipes can allow condensation and tar to build up, soaking the tobacco in the lower part of the bowl.

If you have the ability to experiment with pipes, I say smoke the same tobacco in as many of your pipes as you can.
Sometimes (for reasons unknown to mankind) a certain tobacco and a pipe will just click so well together that it's almost impossible to know why. The cut of the tobacco, the way the pipe handles the burning temp of that particular blend, etc. Some things just go together.
Good luck!

As I learned from members of this forum, don't forget to tap out your ash occasionally. The layer of ash on top of the tobacco caused me to relight many times after the first half of the bowl. I'm enjoying smoking a lot more since I started empting the ash.

Many new smokers do not pack tight enough or dump ash enough. You would probably be amazed at how tightly I pack my cube cut flakes and they burn great. After packing make sure there is good amount of resistance on the draw, too loose means you will have to relight a lot. Also when you relight carefully use the pick of tour tamper and loosen the ash, tilt the pipe gently and scrape out the ash. It is difficult to keep pipe lit with a boat load of ash in it. Let us know how you make out.

Someone change MikePhillips's "Member" to "Ash Tapper" lol
Tap that ash. :rofl:

I to smoke flake tobacco (Virginia flakes). Try hand rubing the flakes a little and at the top of the bowl rub out out the flakes even more. This thin top layer will act as kindling. Also, you are using a butane lighter which burns hotter than wood matches or fuel lighters so you should have too much trouble lighting you pipe. Finally, ensure that you are not packing the bottom of your bowl too tightly, use a charring light and dump your ash at least two or three times through the bottom of the bowl. Your pipes engineering may be too restricted in your drafts. Read Rick Newcome's book "In Search of Pipe Dreams" for guidance about pipe engineering and opening up your pipe's draft. Good luck.

If you are not dumping your ash before halfway tru the bowl, it will take a relight but won't hold it mate. When you find that it won't stay lit for you, just take a second and dump the ash. Dollars to donuts that's your trouble.

I've been having the same problem as brdavidson, and after reading these posts I'm definitely going to be "tapping that ash so my pipe will stay lit." This is double-entendre nightmare!! Really hoping this will help as the relights are frustrating!

I've also been experimenting with dumping my ash halfway through a smoke, and it's been working great. But I try not to stir around what's left in the bowl too much because I've received hot ash in my mouth on many occasions.
Regarding "tapping dat ash", this is what came to mind :mrgreen: http://www.tapdatashtray.com/

Nice to know I'm not the only one who pokes the ash a bit before dumping. I find that i have a tendency to burn deeper in the middle than the edges, so I'll pick out the ash in the middle and use the tamper to even out the surface again before relighting.
Also, if I've been burning along for a good 20 minutes or so, I'll usually tamp a little bit again just to see what direction this bowl is heading.

Practice, practice, practice. Also, if you have a lot of different pipes they will smoke differently and you might need to learn a new rhythm for each pipe.
Overall you want to:
- have the tobacco dried out a bit (should neither feel wet nor dry to the touch, be springy, not crumble when pinched between fingers)
- make sure you don't pack too loose. The ember needs to progress through the tobacco while smoking. If you are using a 3 step fill method, the individual layers might not necessarily touch and you will lose ember between these layers quite easily. I found the easiest way to get a nice consistent pack is to take out a little bit more from a tin than you think fits the bowl, spread it on a sheet of paper ("dissect!" , I.e. really take the strands apart), let dry for 10 minutes. Then I create a little packet of tobacco, and twist that whole packet into the bowl (rotating). As the packet was a little more than fits the bowl you will have strands sticking out on top. Those I compress down until it fits just beneath the rim. Tuck the ends in.
- get a good even light across the whole surface. I.e., the whole surface glows and the charred surface is flat (no hills and valleys).
- only tamp when your smoke gets faint in the draw. Tamping has to be done sparsely and carefully, it's super easy to extinguish the ember when tamping down!
- keep a steady rhythm, depending on the blend, something like a 2 seconds draw every 8 seconds or so. It's okay for the pipe to go out if you rest it for a while. Some good blends you can rest the pipe for two minutes and its still burning, those are the exceptions.
I almost never have to re-light a pipe once its started. It's really a matter of experience I think to learn when to tamp, how hard and long to draw, how dense to pack, etc. and see how the pipe reacts.