I’ve never had much luck smoking small-bowled pipes. I have a hard time smoking them cool enough to enjoy. Anyone have any suggestions? (With a nod to @mso489 - I tried to make a decent headline)
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How small is small? If you dry enough, pack correctly and smoke at a reasonable pace, I haven't found that it makes much difference.
Some of my favorite pipes have a fairly small bowl (Briarworks OR01), and they smoke just a tiny bit warmer than my other pipes. The main difference is that short-stemmed, small-bowled pipes are less forgiving when it comes to packing and lighting. Here’s what worked for me:
Make sure your tobacco is dry, pack just a bit loose (ChasingEmbers’s gravity fill and very light tamping method works), but most importantly, when you light it, don’t suck the flame way into the bowl. Hold your lighter a bit further up and only let the tip of the flame tickle the tobacco. Starting with a proportional ember size makes a difference—if you just suck down the whole flame, you’re burning too much tobacco all at once and basically getting the same experience as reaching the bottom of a big bowl.
Also, another thing small pipes are less forgiving about is puffing cadence, they will smoke hot quickly if you puff too hard or too frequently. They’re best for sipping strong blends that would put you on your ass in a bigger bowl, or when you don’t have time to nurse a long-burning bowl.
Make sure your tobacco is dry, pack just a bit loose (ChasingEmbers’s gravity fill and very light tamping method works), but most importantly, when you light it, don’t suck the flame way into the bowl. Hold your lighter a bit further up and only let the tip of the flame tickle the tobacco. Starting with a proportional ember size makes a difference—if you just suck down the whole flame, you’re burning too much tobacco all at once and basically getting the same experience as reaching the bottom of a big bowl.
Also, another thing small pipes are less forgiving about is puffing cadence, they will smoke hot quickly if you puff too hard or too frequently. They’re best for sipping strong blends that would put you on your ass in a bigger bowl, or when you don’t have time to nurse a long-burning bowl.
Though I could never get any use out of anything smaller than a group 4 and prefer group 5 and up, a small pipe shouldn't smoke any different than a larger pipe when using the same drying, packing, and smoking techniques.
Short bowls like a prince where chamber depth could be less than 1”. Also Dunhill grp 1 or 2 equivalents in billiard or Dublin which may be somewhat deeper but have narrow chambers and thin walls.
Small pipes like others smoke cooler if they have slightly/somewhat thicker bowl walls. They can give average length smokes with flake/coin/plug or rope cuts. If you sip rather than puff, that always helps. They work well for short smokes with regular cuts, sampling when you want to try several blends like at a pipe show, or for strong blends to get their measure. Like many, I thought of small pipes as toy or souvenir pipes, but the late great fish'n'banjo put me onto them, and I found them fine, actually necessary for certain uses. (Good title!)
Though larger, pushing a group 5, this one has thin walls but only slightly warms when smoked. I'm thinking it's more of a cadence and packing issue.
I think cadence is a big thing for me. I do like to puff. ? I’m with you in general on bowl size preference but have a few pipes in the collection that are small/thin wall. Some are family hand-me-downs that I would like to use. I also have a couple of small Dunhill I picked up in a lot. They don’t have much value bc the stems are chewed through near the button and the bowls aren’t in the best shape. Plus this guy apparently loved silver bands so he had them put on every pipe. I would like to clean them up and see how they fare. I think a combo of what you guys said about packing and cadence plus using stronger tobaccos would help.
I don't think I own anything larger than about a group 3.
I mostly clench and smoke slow, I don't notice the bowl getting too hot.
I mostly clench and smoke slow, I don't notice the bowl getting too hot.
Back in the days, the grand majority of everyman's(basket?) pipes in France & Belgium were group 1 to 2 and mostly what an average pipe man smoked back then was the strongest possible ribbon cut Tabacs Gris'/Tabac Noir , very similar to Tabac de Semois Mainile La Brumeuse' and another similar type of tobacco we know today
I have a definitely small (maybe Group 2) Chacom blast yacht with fairly thin walls, but I love the looks of the pipe, its compactness, and its design, and If I get exuberant and the bowl heats up, I just hold it by the stem and sip until it cools a bit. With this pipe, it is worth it. Pipes have quirks and personalities, like people, dogs, or cats, and it usually pays to learn their ways. This is a little old factory pipe, but it looks like someone's individual design to me.
I only like small pipes with thicker walls. A good squat bowl prince, about 3/4" bowl diameter, is one of my favorite shapes.
I love pipes like that too! The Briarworks OR05 chubby tomatoes in my collection tick those boxes nicely. Extremely thick walls, 0.8” chamber diameter with a chamber depth just under an inch tall, and they handle a careless cadence remarkably well when paired with light-and-forget codger blends.
I have a couple of group 3 sized pipes that smoke fine as both have fairly thick walls. I rarely smoke them as I have the time to smoke my 4's,5's and 6's. Even my 3's have an inside depth of about 1.4 inches and a .75 inside bowl width. I only have one pipe that is around 1.25 inside bowl depth but it has a .82 inside bowl width so it smokes pretty good for a smaller pipe. It is a Abe Herbaugh Rhodesian and smokes fine.
I don't own any 1's or 2's and see no need.
I don't own any 1's or 2's and see no need.
Most pipes I smoke have smaller bowls as they are similar in size to a clay pipe. Since everything I smoke is self prepared from plug I have found the stuff burns a lot slower. The use of Philt Pads seems to reduce the steam that some people complain about and I really don't puff aggressively so stuff doesn't heat up. As a 'wet' smoker I find I only experience tongue burn if I dry the tobacco out which only happens if I misjudge my bowl fills by cutting up too much.
I don't know if Philt Pads would fit in my clay pipes!
I have a few small ones, maybe half a dozen. Definitely need a different technique & cadence than group 4+. I don't have too much trouble shifting gears usually, although occasionally I will forget what I have in my hand & quickly get reminded! "Ooo Ow Ow, hothothot!!!" I've gotten a few blisters over the years that gave me a, er, "good lesson"!
Any prince should do nicely. Or an apple with a chamber ≤ 35 mm in depth. Apples, with their bally shape should have walls thick enough to keep them from getting hot. My Vauen Basic is never uncomfortable to hold and I smoke hot and fast.
I prefer small pipes for flake and rope tobacco. They burn slow and are easy to load well.
I have some group three pipes that smoke very well provided I smoke the pipe very slowly.
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