Confussed about bowl sizes and tobaccos

[dnietosi]

I have acquired a few larger pipes lately and when looking for what to smoke on them I found a lot of people recommending VA and VA mixtures with other tobaccos. Not aros no English blends. Now I figure out that smoking 1/3 of this pipes (still breaking them in) takes me over the hour. Today doing some research about flakes a I find that pipes for flakes are usually smaller (size 3) because flakes smoke slower. But then most VAs and VAPers and VA + Burley being non aromatic come in flake, coins, plug... I m confused.
Any thoughts,
D
BTW, yesterday I filled my Savinelli florence 609 with Haddo's Delight. What a surprise, half an hour delightful smoke to a thing powder that banished on the air as I turned my pipe down, nothing touched the ground... sublime!

 

[hawk60ce]

I tend to go aros in my large pipes. and your right flakes in my narrow bowled pipes. just my experience YMMV

 

[sasquatch]

Speaking in very general terms, a big deep bowl will develop flavors differently than a smaller bowl. Up front, I'm going to say there's no right or wrong - all personal preference.
So if a guy is seeking a really "pure" experience, just a "what subtle flavor does this tobacco exude?" sort of pipe, then that one is probably going to be a smaller pipe - There's no buld up, no real increase in the intensity of the flavor or the style of smoke. You light up, you get smoke, you finish. I think a lot of people like smaller pipes for flake, and I think this is because flakes tend to be virginia-oriented tobaccos with a lot of fine, subtle flavors, and add to that the british tradtion of flakes being quite strong in the nicotine department, and you might choose a small bowl.
A great big pipe smokes differently. After 15 minutes, the briar is lukewarm, the pipe is cruising along. I can hold this state for 2 hours. You can develop a large burn zone with very low temperatures (relatively speaking) and this generates a lot of nice sweet flavors (smoke too hot and you burn those flavors off, literally). There will be some flavor muddling, those nice crisp flavor delineations in the small bowl will meld into one much fuller in nature. At the end of the bowl, you are smoking through tobacco that has been intensified by the smoke pulled through it already, rather intensifying the flavor, concentrating it. Sometimes this is marvelous, sometimes it's horrible. Again, depends on the tobacco and the person.
Personally, I smoke sweet, weak-ass blends, a lot of Mac Baren coins, and they just rock for me in big pipes, so that's what I use mostly.

 

[admin]

Brian will talk a little about this in the next 2 minutes. Check it out:
http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/radio-talk-show/the-pipes-magazine-radio-show-episode-5/

 

[hawk60ce]

wow nice 'plug'. very convenient :clap: :rofl:

 

[sparroa]

I smoke everything in the same sized pipe so I'm not much good to you. lol

 

[dnietosi]

Simenon: I like your avatar.
I guess i got it all "wrong" and I m going to have to try pipes/tobaccos around and redistribute my pipes to new tobaccos neighborhoods. Too bad it might require some PAD/TAD XD
Still open for suggestions.
Tonight is most likely going to be Dunhill Flake in my Jirsa... The first time was sublime!
D

 

[dnietosi]

Rothnh: On the packing method: I usually cut cubes cause everything i fold and stuff is a mess. I keep trying...

 

[pipedreamer]

I went to visit a friend at a pipe and cigar store north of here and he whips out some Frog Morton across the bayou and says lets smoke. WEll, all I had with me was a small bowled Georg Jensen. I loaded and lit and BAM!! The best smoke I've had in months. Now thats the right bowl size. When the pipe lights up and you light up, not only is that the right size for that tobacco, It's time for a dedication. Dedicate I did, again and again and again. Trial and error or success. There are always exceptions to the general rule.