8 matches later...

[ssjones]

In your screen name

 

[judcole]

Welcome Norton. Do not worry about how many matches it takes to light your pipe. Focus instead on packing method and preparing your tobacco. The lighting part will become easier once you have gained experience in packing your bowl.

+1

 

[nortonnewbie]

Al, i am a norton by birth and i do like norton motorcycles and hope to have on some day.

 

[philip]

Welcome, Norton.
You have some good advice here. You might also consider getting a pipe lighter. Until your packing and smoking technique improves, you'll still have many relights, but at least you won't have the evidence haunting you from the ashtray.
Also if you click your name in a post under your avatar you go to your forum profile. In the upper right there is an option to edit and you can change your display name if you want. That's my way of saying we hope you stick around with us long after your login name is obsolete.

 

[nortonnewbie]

Philip, no worries, i will be here for a long time. i am very impressed with the advice and friendship from this community. like last night's smoke was amazing, i used a lot of advice and only used two matches. started off by drying out my tobacco for about 30 min, packed more lightly, and had on great smoke sitting and talking with my wife while she had a cigar. i never thought i would find something like this that would be so chill. ::

 

[colcolt]

I think the constant relighting is what drove me from the pipe when I first started back in the mid 70's. I just got tired of doing that and unknown to me was that there was an art to packing but I knew noting of that-just push tobacco in, light and suck till you see fire and smoke. No telling how many matches I went through in a given smoke.
Norton-adhere to the advice here as it's a treasure trove of information. I wished computers had been more available back then and there was a forum such as this. I could have learned the proper way to pack and light and wouldn't have stopped the pipe after several months of trying. It's been only recently I've came back to it and am most thankful for the guidance and expertise there is here. Stick around and you'll learn a lot more than proper packing.

 

[daytonsean]

Ninja Scroll avatar?

 

[pipelotus]

In other news, might I suggest a lighter? Zippo has pipe inserts, and Bic lighters work just fine. I suggest this because when smoking with company, matches WILL get tedious. I've never noticed a difference in taste between my matches and my Bic, and the Bic works in breezes too.
Just another option if you ever get tired of matches.