When to Tamp?

Hi old red, and welcome to the forum. Glad you're here and that you're one of us. asking questions is exactly the way to go, because that's how we all learn. As to tamping, there are varying schools of thought, with some telling you to tamp firmly, others lightly, and so forth. I'll tell you how I do it and recommend you give my way a try. Pretty soon someone else will tell you his method, and I recommend you try that as well. Try different techniques, different tobaccos, different pipes, etc., because that's how expertise is built. Now here's the deep, dark secret of tamping: do it anytime you feel it needs it. Experience will tell you when to do it. Here's my take: when I feel that the cherry (the glowing portion of the tobacco that you can't see,) is giving signs of wanting to go out, I tamp down a bit. That sometimes encourages it to catch again and keep going, and other times just puts it out. Then relight, and keep going. Eventually your experience will tell you when to tamp. Just sip slowly. Your pipe should always be on the verge of just going out. That gives you the coolest and best flavored smoke.

Again--welcome to one of the worlds most enjoyable hobbies, and again, feel free to ask questions. You'll get a million answers, and these, coupled with your own experience will make you an expert.

A young man in my pipe club made and excellent point that I tend to keep in mind while smoking. If you start to notice that the taste of the tobacco gets muddy, like it is muted or "softer", then when you tamp the ash down it gets more oxygen to the combustion and slightly compresses the flakes to push the oils from the tobacco in front of the cherry to release more flavor. I am not sure if the science is exact, but it seems to be true.
Just remember that it's a tamp, not a ramrod, ha ha. I see some guys really compress the tobacco, instead of just crushing down the ash gently. However, I have some pipes and some blends that I tend to pack loosely on purpose, for different reasons, and giving a little extra pressure tightens the pack some to keep the fire going.
Tending your fire is up to your personal style of smoking. I know a guy who never uses a tamp, and he has been smoking for longer than I've been alive, which is quite a while, ha ha. And, I know guys who are constantly stirring and crushing. I may tamp three or four times depending on the pipe and blend. However, a light ribbon cut in a tall narrow chimney may get tamped about a dozen times. It just depends.
I hope this helps.

My little take on tamping as Eric said there is no right time to tamp, that being said tamp on a 45 degree not flat pushing gently the tobacco on the sides in contact with the hot spot in the middle. That's the way I do it.

Those were great explanations! I really don't have anything to add except piggy back on the experience thing. There's no right or wrong, you will know when its time to tamp, but if you don't, its no big deal. Just relax and enjoy your pipe and tamp when you feel the need.

I typically tamp after my charring light to begin with. I can usually tell while im smoking when it needs to be tamped. The smoke usually things out a bit and the draw is a bit loose. By tamping I dont mean "push down hard with your tamper" I usually just use the weight of the tamper itself to do the work, maybe just a bit more pressure and that seems to work well for me. Once I get about half way down the bowl I usually dump a bit of the ash out then do another tamp and Im good to go for the rest of the bowl. Good luck and happy smoking.

Sometimes I tamp if I feel like it is going out which is lightly on the top. Other times I lightly tamp while taking small puffs to essentially stoke the cherry back up while I am holding the pipe in my mouth. Other times I just tamp to even the ash out before I relight. So at least 3 different ways or reasons.

I don't worry about tamps, or relights. It really is a feel you get when it might be needed, and if you miss it, it goes out just relight. No big deal, no worries, just good smokes.

Generally a lit bowl likes to be tamped. As above, when the tobacco under the cherry becomes "out-of-touch" or too far away from the cherry, the pipe starts to go out. Tamping puts the cherry back in touch with the tobacco, and presto, you once more have a burn that can be smoked. Not tamping at this point means the pipe will go out. Tamping is easier.
In the last year I've all but stopped using pipe tools to tamp, using my fingers instead. With a little caution I don't get burned, and my finger is more readily available than picking up a pipe tool. One place where you have to be careful, and when I actually got burnt, was just after the initial light, when the tobacco blooms upward. Though the pipe appreciates being tamped at this point, the temperature is very high. Other than that as the bowl is in progress, the burn is less hot, and fingers tolerate that lesser heat easily.
The fingers you use to tamp will get dirty, especially under the fingernail, however, and that is a tradeoff.