Lighters vs Matches

[anotherbob]

Matches, but only because I enjoy the extra tinkering. If I’m using a lighter, it’s a zippo (but, again, I’m in this game for all the inconvenient steps involved with upkeep).

they are more fun to use. And weirdly I get as many comments on matches as I do on pipes. Wow that's so cool kind of comments.

 

[SlowDraw Tex]

I think you're telling us that we need pipes with built-in thermometers.

That will be what we have when we all drive flying cars and live in cloud cities. Actually that is a kinda cool idea…

 

[Mikepiper]

What I’m hearing is perfecting my pack will help and maybe for now getting a zippo or a butane lighter is a good idea. Do people have a problem with butane burning the bowl rim?

Butane won’t burn the rim more than any other soft flame source, but don’t pack all the way to the very top as tobacco expands on the char light, and wind is not your friend!

 

[Smokeybandit]

Butane won’t burn the rim more than any other soft flame source, but don’t pack all the way to the very top as tobacco expands on the char light, and wind is not your friend!

I will have to disagree, butane most definitely burned a couple of my pipe rims before switching to only zippo.

Huge temperature difference between a zippo and a bic lighter.

 

[Mikepiper]

I will have to disagree, butane most definitely burned a couple of my pipe rims before switching to only zippo.

Huge temperature difference between a zippo and a bic lighter.

That’s what great about this forum. Always people with more experience in different areas. I have never had that issue with any of my butane lighters but I am very careful not to touch the rim or pack the bowl too high. I used the butane zippo pipe lighter for a short time but found the flame to be uncontrollable, among other issues (mostly quality), but haven’t used the lighter fluid zippo version, which I know many people swear by. My current favorite is the DuPont line 2 with the pipe adapter - great control and great sound.

 

[MisterBadger]

I will add that my bias toward matches is largely because, when working in the guise of an 1890s farm bailiff in the presence of the visiting public, I have no other option for lighting my pipe if there isn't a lit oil lamp, candle or a fire to hand. And most of that time, I am outdoors.

 

[SlowDraw Tex]

I will have to disagree, butane most definitely burned a couple of my pipe rims before switching to only zippo.

Huge temperature difference between a zippo and a bic lighter.

I think there are ‘soft flame’ butane lighters that should work, but the torch butane lighters with the blue flame are definitely excessive heat sources for lighting a pipe.

 

[Smokeybandit]

I think there are ‘soft flame’ butane lighters that should work, but the torch butane lighters with the blue flame are definitely excessive heat sources for lighting a pipe.

I will never use a torch lighter on my pipes and soft flame only in a dire emergency.

 

[Wesley pipes]

when I had long hair once it got blown into my pipe ember. That wasn't fun or tasty.

Can almost hear Tommy Chong saying “ hey don’t smoke that man!”

 

[Wesley pipes]

I will add that my bias toward matches is largely because, when working in the guise of an 1890s farm bailiff in the presence of the visiting public, I have no other option for lighting my pipe if there isn't a lit oil lamp, candle or a fire to hand. And most of that time, I am outdoors.

Not to mention it’s pretty cool to see someone lite a pipe with a match! Adds to the mystique. When I was a kid I thought my grandfather was some kinda wizard or something, when he would lite his pipe with a match struck off the door frame, it looked like magic. Of course this was over 60 years ago and maybe people were easier to impress back then. We didn’t have a television until I was a teenager. Although an early 70s Philco was kinda amazing at the time, but we hardly ever used it, needing electricity to power it and all.

 

[Wesley pipes]

On very very rare occasion… I must admit, I have had A bit of match head get stuck in the ol beard, just sizzled out each time, but still not a fun experience.

If you look close you can still see a 6-7 Year old burn in my beard from a match head. almost center, that dark spot, before it thins the rest of the way down.

 

[Wesley pipes]

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Something about seeing one of these kinda post from you, then looking at your cat avatar, just to the left corner, makes me smile so big it hurts. Theres a couple times I said to myself… ” oh there’s that cat again, that one that has better pipes than you” little sh** like if muppets were real.

 

[TheOccasionalPuffer]

Forgive me for nerding out, it’s the engineer in me. For those that are tasting chemicals when you light your pipe, this might help.

For combustion to occur you need three items: oxygen, fuel (tobacco), and a heat source (matches, lighter, lit pasta, etc.). It sounds like some of you are trying to suck start a Harley.

The temperature range that matters

Most pipe tobaccos begin to pyrolyze and smolder (the chemical breakdown that produces smoke) at roughly:

• ~200–250°C (390–480°F): onset of pyrolysis
• ~300–400°C (570–750°F): stable smoldering combustion

That’s all it takes for the initial light. You’re not igniting the bowl like a campfire—you’re just getting the surface layers hot enough to start controlled breakdown.

For perspective:

• A match flame is ~600–800°F at the tip
• A zippo flame is -800°F
• A butane lighter is ~1,900°F at the flame core

So yes—both are vastly hotter than necessary, which is why technique matters more than tool.

What actually lights the tobacco

Pipe tobacco doesn’t “burn” like paper. It:

1. Dries at the surface (moisture boils off ~100°C)
2. Pyrolyzes (sugars, cellulose, and oils break down)
3. Smolders as oxygen feeds the ember

That’s why a proper charring light works—it raises the top layer just into that ~300°C zone without overheating the bowl.

Why overheating ruins a smoke

Once the ember creeps past ~450–500°C, bad things happen:

• Sugars scorch → bitterness
• Proteins degrade → tongue bite
• Bowl temp rises → wet, acrid smoke

This is why aggressive lighting or deep flame insertion wrecks flavor—even though the tobacco “lights.”

This was really informative. It’s cool to understand the science behind it a bit more.

 

[anotherbob]

Can almost hear Tommy Chong saying “ hey don’t smoke that man!”

you figured out the type of pipe at least.

 

[newbroom]

In the beginning I used matches. I would go to the dollar store and buy them by the thousands.
I had ashtrays full of spent matchsticks and dottle. I enjoy the whole nostalgia of lighting a wooden match to a pipe of tobacco, however, it's got drawbacks. Sulphur and so forth. Once that's burned off and all you have is the burning stick, well, that flame is nice and soft and somewhat controllable depending on the weather.

I have used lighters directly and I continue to use lighters, but I've been using them to light my hemp wick on a stick for years now. It can double as a tamper. It is soft, durable and controllable.