Beat the Gurgling!! Here's how . . . . .

[kcghost]

If you like it, then good on you!!

 

[sardonicus87]

Not for nothing, but I almost never dry my tobacco and smoke in a humid environment, and my main pipe is a bent pipe, a meer with the modern two-piece delrin mortise/tenon thing, which isn't known for lessening condensing in the shank, and I don't seem to have gurgling that often.

So it's possible to avoid gurgle with good technique even without drying the tobacco.

 

[LeafErikson]

That sounds quite laborious to me. I mostly smoke C&D bulk blends and don't have to worry about dry time or gurgle. I'm glad that you were able to figure something out that works for you.

 

[carp rides again]

Almost all my petersons gurgle. I just keep pipe cleaners handy. Only my 05 shape and system don't. It is what it is

 

[RPK]

None of my Petersons gurgle or any of my other pipes provided I smoke slowly and don't use moist tobacco.

 

[gord]

Bass, thumbs down , lol. I’m from Ontario bass are everywhere, but if I lived in BC, it would be trout and salmon all day, I guess you like what you cant have.

Just came back from Algonquin Park and caught a nice 2lb brook trout. After I netted it and brought it pretty far on shore I decided to take a pic in the net and before I could, it still had life left, spit the hook and jumped about 15 feet down moss covered granite shelves into the water and swam off, bummer, but incredibly sight to witness.

As for gurgling, some pipes do more than others. I have a new Sav that gurgles a lot, same tobacco same moisture in other pipes doesn’t. I don’t enjoy gurgling, but put up with it,,,

Since moving to Prince George 20 years ago, I've only done the bass thing once on a return visit to Victoria. As you said, too many trout up here to keep my mind of bass. But the salmon fishing was better in Victoria, of course.

Yeah, I think this pipe mud thing will fix the gurgling. The charcoal at the bottom did . . . . it was a kind of pipe mud. Fixed it totally . . . . so I'll keep working on incorporating charcoal into the pipe mud . . . . other guys have found this out too, so I'll try their online recipes. Cheers.

 

[Sig]

I agree with @bassbug
Make some pipe mud, fill the gap, and pipe on.
I have several pipes ive been smoking for years with a pipe mud bottom.
Cigar or cigarette ash and a few drops of water. Pipe ash had too much debris to use in my experience.
Mix, slather and let dry. It will last for years.

 

[bassbug]

Bass, thumbs down , lol. I’m from Ontario bass are everywhere, but if I lived in BC, it would be trout and salmon all day, I guess you like what you cant have.

We have plenty of trout in Ontario and I still go to a dry fly whenever possible. A fish rising to a surface fly/lure still thrills me after 30 years. Where are you in Ontario?

 

[Sigmund]

I tried charcoal and it made my good tobacco taste like crap. I went back to meer chips which dont heat up and effect the taste.

 

[elvishrunes]

We have plenty of trout in Ontario and I still go to a dry fly whenever possible. A fish rising to a surface fly/lure still thrills me after 30 years. Where are you in Ontario?

Toronto, oh yes there’s decent trout here, but nothing like British Columbia, you have to work a lot harder for less fish, unless maybe Great Lakes steelhead or lake trout, or northern ON.

I’m more after back lakes trout for a meal.

 

[gord]

I tried charcoal and it made my good tobacco taste like crap. I went back to meer chips which dont heat up and effect the taste.

Yeah, Id still like to try meer chips. Can you tell me where to get them? The charcoal worked fine for me . . . but confess to not having the best taste buds in the world. I'm now trying to incorporate charcoal and cigar ash into a pipe mud. Reports I've read say it works. I'm an experimenter, and really enjoy making mudpies.

 

[tanless1]

Hmmmmm . . . . all I did was replace a Dri-Kule with a layer of charcoal, and install a trimmed pipe cleaner in the chamber. Seems simple enough, especially when the amount of experienced smokers who complained of gurgling in the thread was very high, and many said that the trench below the draft hole was the source of the problem. That's what I addressed as did Prof Moriarty but he from a standpoint of toungue bite.

As I mentioned several times in the thread, I am a VERY slow smoker and dry my tobacco thoroughly before I pack. I average about one draw every four or five seconds. In one of the forum's own instructional videos, if I remember correctly, the teacher said one draw in about three seconds is average.

I have no gurgling problems with any of my 18 pipes that have a draft hole at the bottom of the chamber. Only with the ones that do. Not being defensive, but I did mention these things in the thread. Those times that I do smoke with tobacco not properly dried, I'm in a hurry and usually pay for it lol.

Relax Gourd , it looks like your taking a bit of a beating.
And the rest of you.....hoaky smoke. "Just learn to smoke the pipe right"
Some loads are better than others , and some just require more futzing.
Some have a fresh pipe for each bowl, and others can't be bothered.

 

[jaingorenard]

I'd make two points. Firstly, drying tobacco is good advice to begin with, but as @sardonicus87 said you definitely don't need to with good technique. In fact, I think some tobaccos really lose a lot of character if you dry them too much.

Secondly, on 'slow smoking' - it's a real misnomer! We should say 'gentle smoking'. Just let the smoke drift into your mouth without really drawing on the pipe at all. It's much less about how often you puff.

But do what works for you, and experimenting and practice can only be a good thing. There's a danger of overthinking pipe smoking, but you can't get to the stage of doing it without thinking without practicing and smoking a lot. I have a lot of pipes drilled in very different ways and I don't usually have a problem with any of them.

 

[Sigmund]

@gord I don’t know where in canada but the ones I use are packaged by Elephant.
If you cant find them its easy to make your own substitute. Take a broken red clay garden pot. Wack the shards with a hammer until they are small pieces. Then put them in a colander and rinse off the dust. A few in the bottom of the bowl works great. Unlike charcol it doesnt off gas. Im pretty sure the charcoal is not good for you. Its definitely not good for flavor.

 

[grimpeur]

Hmmmmm . . . . all I did was replace a Dri-Kule with a layer of charcoal, and install a trimmed pipe cleaner in the chamber. Seems simple enough, especially when the amount of experienced smokers who complained of gurgling in the thread was very high, and many said that the trench below the draft hole was the source of the problem. That's what I addressed as did Prof Moriarty but he from a standpoint of toungue bite.

As I mentioned several times in the thread, I am a VERY slow smoker and dry my tobacco thoroughly before I pack. I average about one draw every four or five seconds. In one of the forum's own instructional videos, if I remember correctly, the teacher said one draw in about three seconds is average.

I have no gurgling problems with any of my 18 pipes that have a draft hole at the bottom of the chamber. Only with the ones that do. Not being defensive, but I did mention these things in the thread. Those times that I do smoke with tobacco not properly dried, I'm in a hurry and usually pay for it lol.

Tamp towards the draught-hole. Problem solved.

It really is that simple, and was figured out long, long ago. I do that with my Petersons and at the end of each smoke, I'm left with ash and a few bits of tobacco...and, yes, the draught-holes are comically high.

Give it a try.

 

[WerewolfOfLondon]

No one seems to have mentioned this problem is also caused by badly made and/or poorly drilled pipes. In the time I've smoked a pipe I've learned to just cast aside pipes that misbehave in this way. No room for sentimentality, nor any time to 'fix' problem children. I want to enjoy every bowl full as if it were my last, any pipe that isn't co-operating is shown the front door. A pipe gets a maximum of ten bowls, if after that time it's gurgling, or tastes bitter, or won't stay lit, or whatever else, it gets tossed aside. To be honest this is why I rarely buy new pipes now, I have my select four or five pipes that behave perfectly, so that's that.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Ha ha, the extremes some will go to, to offset bad smoking habits. There was a time when men had to rely on developing tool control to do things. You had to develop shifting skills to drive a car, but guys wouldn't take the time to learn, so they developed automatic transmissions. Now, all cars have them.
To frame a house you had to learn to drive a nail with merely two strikes of a hammer. Now, a whole industry has built up around nail guns.
You had to know DOS commands to do anything on a computer, now the damned things come with operating systems and now AI.
You had to know brush control to paint a room, now you buy a prolifera of pads for edging and getting into corners.
Everything that took a modicum of tool control, now you can a gadget.
:::sigh:::

Well, I am glad that you can enjoy your pipes, but I would urge others to try smoking slower. Just chugging along with a bunch of stuff in your pipe is not going to give you any of the benefits of smoking a pipe. At best, it just helps you better keep using your pipe as an affectation. But, that may be all some want.

 

[simong]

First of all, read Professor Moriarty's post on "toungue bite" of Apr 24 2024. He's addressed the solution from a different standpoint. Truly great post. Thanks Prof!

I've spent the last few days going over all of the suggestions and getting a great case of tongue bite myself. But the solution works. Here is what I came up with, and did:

All of your suggestions (in summary, packing too tight, dryer tobacco, gently into the pipe, meer chips, mid-pipe cleaner, and Dry-Kule), all of which seem to play a factor, but the problem is that THE DRAFT HOLE IS TOO HIGH ABOVE THE CHAMBER, which collects a foul smelling and foul tasting slag which almost led me to just display the Peterson and never smoke it again.

The solution is a coffee grinder and horticultural hardwood charcoal chips, exactly as Prof Moriarty says. Toss a half grinder of chips into the grinder bowl, give it a whirr and you will collect sizes of chips from dust, to little pebbles to larger pieces. Separate them into sizes in three containers.

Fill that useless cavern with three layers of chips, from powder, little crumbs, and small pieces, then put a flat, larger chip just below the draft hole. It only takes a few seconds when you get the hang of it, and just consider it part of packing the pipe.

Then, with a bit of due care, pack your pipe as you usually do. Then smoke as usual. Not only will there be no gurgle, but when you are finished, the charcoal will have absorbed all of the foul juices, and will come out as you clean your pipe as usual.

In addition, take a piece of pipe cleaner, cut it to size to fit in the tenon system, and trim the fabric down to half the size, inserting it into the chamber. Do this actually before adding the chips. It will act as a draft filter and absorb some of the juices that would otherwise drip to the bottom and create the usual foul mess. Take enough fabric off the cleaner so that it doesn't interfere with the draw.

That's about it. Charcoal is cheap, and if you make the process a part of your packing, the process is easy. You will also have a much tastier smoke. I figure aquarium charcoal should work as well, but the pet store is 10 miles from where I live, and the greenhouse supply store about ten blocks away.

The other great bonus is that there was left a layer of carbon at the bottom of the pipe, helping the break-in process, which is apparently part of the solution, too, much faster and easier. Cheers. I will comment further on any reply, giving further reasons for this deep trench nonsense as well!

 

[InWithBothFeet]

I drilled a hole through the bottom of the bowl then installed one of those spring loaded brass spit valves like trombones have over the hole. Then when it gurgles, I seal the bowl top with my thumb, open the valve and blow through the stem.

 

[Sigmund]

I use the meers for getting a taste I like better at the bottom of the bowl. My only pipe that gets stopped up is one with the draft hole in the center rather than the typical placement. The Meers or broken pottery addresses that also. I dont smoke much fine ribon cut and I think that helps prevent the problem.