Bad Good Advice

[Peterson314]

That sounds excellent advice and no doubt has helped many people. It is also exactly the kind of advice I mean in my OP that meant I was so obsessed those years ago with an open draw that the pipe wouldn't stay lit, causing excessive puffing, a burned tongue and much frustration. I guess all advise is subjective to the receiver and how they interpret it. Personally a draw with a little resistance works better for me.

For whatever reason, the prevailing myth that comes delivered in every first-time pipe box seems to be the "three pinch" method for packing a pipe. This method invariably leads to overpacking, and most new pipesmokers end up with a thick plug of tobacco in their bowl. This overpacking leads to a draw that seems analogous to puffing on a cigar, so it seems fine to the new pipesmoker.

Tobacco (and all burning things) need oxygen to burn. The burning ember of a cigar has air around it in all directions, so the draw on a cigar doesn't affect the ember nearly as much as a pipe. A pipe, by design, is closed off. When you pack a pipe too tightly, the only oxygen you can get comes from drawing air through the pipe, causing a hot pipe and big clouds of smoke when you have flame on the ember, but the ember gets snuffed out as soon as you stop pulling air through by puffing. Pipe goes out, new pipesmoker burns their thumb relighting 3-dozen times through one session, and they put their twice-used pipe back in the box to be forgotten because they "can't ever keep a pipe lit".

Packing lightly leaves enough room in the bowl for air to feed the ember. This allows the ember to stay glowing at a low temperature, allowing the pipe smoker to puff without relighting every 20 seconds. If you go too far in this direction, the downside is that you burn through your bowl too quickly. Easy fix.

So my advice on the draw--same packed as empty--is a starting point to attack the myth of the thrice-packed pipe. As with all things pipesmoking, YMMV.

 

[Sigmund]

I think good advice is still good. It helps you to think about solutions that may not be on your own radar. However, in the end you do have to find your own way.

 

[boston]

Alot of people really dig tobacco that's been dried out. I don't advocate that unless one tries it first ...not dried out. I enjoy most tobacco when it's pliable; I don't enjoy dust. I don't like it too moist either...can't light it!

No Holy Grail approach in this hobby. A well regarded reviewer (jiminks), as I recall, doesn't dry tobacco for reviews. And a fair number of tobacco 'not dried out" seems to do ok by him as well. The pinch method is solid.

 

[woodsroad]

I’m still practicing with the correct way to open a tin. I’ve watched all the videos, but I’m afraid to give it a try and mess it up. Any advice?

 

[georged]

I’m still practicing with the correct way to open a tin. I’ve watched all the videos, but I’m afraid to give it a try and mess it up. Any advice?

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

These days, I've mostly given up on all the methods and just drop tobacco into the bowl until it's full, press down a bit and just light it. I do fold and stuff flakes because I think the flavor is better and the burn slower. And every once in a while I'll still use the swirl method which does work great for most ribbon cuts if you don't over pack in the process.

 

[BriaronBoerum]

I’m still practicing with the correct way to open a tin. I’ve watched all the videos, but I’m afraid to give it a try and mess it up. Any advice?

Send me your tins, I'll send you a video of how to open them, and I'll throw in a video of me smoking them the right way for free!

 

[Peterson314]

I’m still practicing with the correct way to open a tin. I’ve watched all the videos, but I’m afraid to give it a try and mess it up. Any advice?

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I think there's lots of sound advice to help people get started with pipe smoking. But it ain't rocket surgery. Experience is the best teacher. Your pipes, the blends you like your cadence,etc. Are going to be unique to you. Over time, you'll figure out what you enjoy best and fine tune your technique. No need to follow some published process you read about.

 

[bullet08]

Two ways of looking at this.

 

[brian64]

I’m still practicing with the correct way to open a tin. I’ve watched all the videos, but I’m afraid to give it a try and mess it up. Any advice?

If your fingers aren’t bleeding, you’re overthinking it.

Real pipe smokers don’t overthink…and they’ve got the scars to prove it.

 

[zercules]

Yeah, I disagree with a lot of advice people usually tell beginners.

Things didn’t click for me until I started doing more char lights and changed my cadence. It helped me to keep the pipe clenched in my mouth slightly ajar and draw a puff every few breaths.

I think probably one of the most helpful pieces of advice is helping beginners understand how different flames affect the experience. Soft flame butane is still very hot, even if not a torch lighter. Naphtha in zippo I think is cooler, but I’ve come to not care for the taste and odor. I find myself only using matches nowadays because they’re not as hot as butane and are neutral in flavor. When using butane, you pretty much never want to touch the flame on the tobacco. Even with matches, I will relight indirectly. To me, it makes a big difference. I always get a bit shocked seeing someone with their old boy lighter on the max flame setting, hoovering it into their pipe. I physically feel pain in my tongue when I see that lol

 

[Pipeh]

Over time I have developed my own understanding, and I believe I have found that the old wisdom, when applied to the letter, was the source of my misery. Now I let my tobacco dry out fully. And then dry it a bit more. I pack it down harder, and give it an extra little poke to be sure. Then I tamp it with a firm hand whilst taking longer draws. And now generally it stays lit, tastes better, doesn't leave my tongue like an old leather rag, and I have never enjoyed my pipes so much.

It sounds like you are my anti-smoker - I leave it moist, pack lightly, tamp gently, and don't really consciously draw at all. So funny that they both work.

 

[CurlingWhisps]

I feel your pain - I love watching anything on YT about our hobby as I find the pipe smokers there to be relaxing ‘company’, but I stopped actually taking advice from them a long time ago and have my own methods that seem to work well for me.
None of my social circle smoke so I’ve never been able to share the hobby and thoughts with others, which is a shame as I imagine swapping tobaccos and wisdom would enhance the experience.

 

[waterbelly]

I found my method after reading that SP article where the writer suggests pulsing all new tobacco in a single speed food processor. He does so with a delicate hand, and keeps the tobacco much more whole than you're probably thinking.

This inspired me to get a weed grinder. Now I grind my tobacco just a bit, gravity fill my pipe a couple times, and smoke.

When I light I keep the flame as far away from the bowl as possible, and yeah it takes twice as long to light, but as that's the hottest air I'm gonna ingest during the whole bowl, it minimizes the initial bite from the light.

I also tamp much harder than recommended. When looking at a cigar cherry, the tobacco has no gaps. That's how the top of my cherry looks at all times.

Noone taught me these things, but this is all found through trial and error I wouldn't have gone through had I not been shown the above mentioned methods. It's all part of the journey I guess.

 

[Choatecav]

While I didn't realize it at the time, my summer job while in college (working with loggers clearing trees) was a blessing to me in many ways. I learned to not fear hard work, how to use a chainsaw and an ax and how to smoke a pipe. No videos or advice..... they just opened the Sir Walter Raleigh or Prince Albert, filled pipe and packed with their finger and lit it up with a zippo or matches. Even the tamping was ALWAYS done with the finger. I guess they cleaned it occasionally and if reamed it was done with a pocket knife. No pretense, no "method" just pack, burn and puff.

 

[fr0st]

Some of the worst-best advice I received: years ago a Tobacco shop employee said the Frog Morten blends were sub par. I never did try them.

 

[dunnyboy]

When I first started pipe smoking many years ago it never occurred to me there was a "technique" to it. I had one starter pipe and smoked Borkum Riff, Sail, some cherry aromatic and Edgeworth. They were not called codger blends or drugstore blends back then because lots of people other than codgers smoked pipes. The only premium blend I tried was Macbaren Dark Twist and it gave me tongue bite.

After a hiatus of a couple of decades, I resumed pipe smoking and started to follow a couple of pipe forums. Only then did I realize there were blends besides Captain Black, that pure Virginias were what real pipe smokers smoked, that all tobaccos require drying time, and that there was a right way to pack a pipe. So in a sense I went in the opposite direction to the OP: from naive empiricism to "sophisticated" experimentation.

I've now migrated back in the direction of less fussiness but a lot of what I picked up from forums like this one has been unconsciously incorporated into my routine: I do dry tobacco when it needs it, I prefer Virginia blends, I have more than one pipe, I no longer smoke codger blends and I almost never get tongue bite. So there is nothing wrong with soliciting and following advice, gaining experience and confidence ... then figuring out what works for you.

 

[renfield]

I’m still practicing with the correct way to open a tin. I’ve watched all the videos, but I’m afraid to give it a try and mess it up. Any advice?

​

1) Place the tin directly under the “device”. Multiple tins can be opened at the same time for better economy.
2) Trigger device
3) Capture the cloud, condense and store in oak casks. French Oak is preferred.
4) Wait as many years as you can stand and separate out the tobacco. It should be dry and ready to smoke. If the tin is still sealed, repeat.
5) Enjoy.

This method has the benefit of artificially aging the blend like no other method.

I think saw this on YouTube so you know it works.

 

[Brad H]

The only good bad advice I have to offer at this time is invest in blockbuster. They are going to make a comeback some day.