Any Advice? Killer Tongue Bite

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ukparagolfer

Lurker
May 1, 2018
43
132
UK
EDIT: Fixed Capitalization in Title (See Rule 9)

So I always have a smoke on my way into work which is a 40 min drive.

Problems I got is wicked tongue bite. I've tried tamping more. Tamping less, drying tobacco.

Still get it. Anyone got any advice?
 
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cstrat1985

Lurker
Nov 16, 2020
13
59
Morning UKparagolfer from over here in France,

What I would say is try and slow it all down. First off make sure you pack your pipe correctly sure you know how to do that already but for me the 3 step method works well. Secondly make sure to do the charring light then a very light tamp spread that ash nicely. Once your main light is completed this is where I often used to go wrong, puffing way to strongly and way to often.

I tend to try and breath in through my nose whilst taking a puff on the pipe at the same time, helps moderate the draw and burn so you are drawing at that perfect point. To strong its an inferno and secondly to little so it doesn't combust at all. Other people like to use the analogy of sipping a whiskey just about getting that nice equilibrium. Its not all about massive mouthfuls of smoke you will find as you go you can achieve however much smoke you like by the controlling of your smoke. In turn taking it steady like this will reduce tongue bite and you will learn when to ease off the draw when the 1st signs of bite start to arrive.

Smoking to quickly will make it burn to hot, causing vaporization and that condenses in the bottom of the bowl causing problems with burning the rest of the tobacco and cause a lot of frustration and tongue bit if you puff to hard to try and keep it going.

Hope this helps a little I am a newish piper for about the last 5 years, think having calm practise smokes away from the wheel will also help you refine your smoke so then you can apply it to when you drive, walks, whatever.

Happy piping.
 
Mar 1, 2014
3,646
4,916
So I always have a smoke on my way into work which is a 40 min drive.

Problems I got is wicked tongue bite. I've tried tamping more. Tamping less, drying tobacco.

Still get it. Anyone got any advice?

People dramatically underestimate how much volume of air you move in a large "puff" and how little air you actually need to move in order to taste the tobacco.
Just holding the stem in your mouth you'll still taste the smoke even if you're not consciously drawing on the pipe.

Just running some rough calculations and wild guesses, I'd say an average person's mouth can draw about 200x more air than is in the stem of the average pipe (bringing up a small amount of fresh smoke from the bowl), so if you draw to filling your mouth to capacity you're probably drawing 200x more air than you need to, and even if you drop that by an order of magnitude to what most people would consider a "Small Puff", you're still drawing about 20x more than you need.
Drop two orders of magnitude from a "Large Puff" and now you're in the right ballpark.

Keeping the pipe lit then becomes a challenge if you were under the impression that your puffing is supposed to fuel the ember.
This is where the "Old Codger" blends can be a great asset (and Dunhill blends tend to be cut very fine), they're made to burn nicely.
Flakes get a lot of attention from long time enthusiasts but if you're new to the game try running with training wheels for a while.
 
Jul 28, 2016
7,565
36,060
Finland-Scandinavia-EU
Cool.

Cheers for the replies

So anyone got any blends they recommend?
Assuming You are in England, for starters ,I'd like suggesting Your domestic blends like Mellow (special)Virginia by Benson&Hedges and St Bruno RR yet Amphora original blend brown , better leave them dry out prior to smoke and pack on the looser side, also I'd advise against smoking while driving till you learn the ropes' and feel being at ease ,
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,400
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
my advice skip smoking on the drive until you get it down. I find I personally the one time I get tongue bite is if I am on the phone. It's weird I can hold a conversation in person I can play video games or do work all while smoking but will burn myself if I try to hold a phone conversation, though before I got to this point any activity that required attention would ruin a smoke. Also my advice that seems to work really well is to sip the pipe. Sipping is the right speed. Sip like it's the last glass of the greatest whiskey ever. You want to keep enjoying it but you also want to savor every little bit of it. And everything else everyone else said is totally correct. One last thing try some other tobaccos since it seems there are some that just bite certain people while others just don't. And what bites you might not bite someone else.
 

niblicck

Can't Leave
Oct 7, 2020
385
3,128
Alabama
One of the things I've changed up lately is my daily drive into work from P.S. Luxury Navy Flakes to Haunted Bookshelf. It has cut down on an daily overall tongue bite for me since I prefer Virginian based blends. I also use more pipe cleaners when smoking virginia based blends to remove moisture from stem. as I love the taste but hate the burn.......

As other have mentioned without changing blend should help also.
 
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