I came across this thread a few days ago, and it sparked a thought...a mental note for the next time I sat down with pipe in hand.
After reading the feedback and hints of my fellow pipe smokers, I realized that my tamping method bordered on amateur level mainly because I never really thought about applying any kind of "method" to it. Charring light aside, I would smoke until the fire went out, jam it down, and re-light. I would probably have to re-light 7+ times through the bowl, not counting the char. There wasn't much finesse to it.
As a result, I noticed that instead of leisurely smoking, I was often "chasing the smoke", puffing away in a vain attempt to keep it lit, which as everyone knows results in hot smoke, a hot mouth, a hot pipe, and a generally unsatisfying smoke. Sometimes I would get a real nice one mixed in there which would remind me as to why I started with pipes in the first place. Or the first half of the bowl would be good, but would end off bad, or the reverse...but rarely was it good the whole way through.
It always left me wondering if that's just the way it was, or more likely, what I was doing wrong. I kept coming back to the initial packing of the bowl or the tobacco type, flavor, and/or condition, wondering if I was keeping it too wet or too dry. No matter how much I kept fiddling with variables, the result always seemed to be about the same.
Then I saw this thread, two things in particular stood out: drawing in while you tamp, and ONLY letting the weight of the tamp push down the tobacco and the ash, do NOT push it down. Those are two things I NEVER did, tamping was strictly for a re-light.
So full pipe in hand, packed as I have always done so, after the charring light and initial tamp, I set about to try out the principles above. I made an attempt to puff slowly, waiting at least 3-5 seconds in between, not panicking when I saw the volume of smoke decrease. But when it did start to, and sometimes even when it wasn't decreasing, but just felt like "the time", I put in my Peterson Sherlock Holmes crystal tamp, and let only its weight push the baccy down, while drawing in air...and I would usually move the tamp around to different areas of the bowl. And low and behold I would see the smoke increase.
And damned if I didn't make it through a WHOLE bowl without ever having to re-light. Not to mention, the smoke and my mouth was much cooler since I wasn't "chasing the smoke" since I realized that even if it looked like it was going out because of the decreased smoke, I'd more than likely be able to recover it with the new tamping method...and every once in a while, blowing a little air into the stem to loosen the baccy plug and get some air directly to the embers.
So in the end, it was a much more enjoyable smoke, ALL THE WAY THROUGH the bowl, with limited bite and more flavor. Thank you everyone, and this is why I sought out such a forum in the first place!