Crushing a Whole Flake

[Briar Lee]

Out of curiosity, instead of rubbing out a flake of PS Luxury Navy Flake, I crushed a whole flake in my latest Lee Three Star bulldog. This didn’t quite fill the chamber, so I tore a flake in half and mashed that down on top. It was a bit hard to light, but I think this is the way I’ll smoke flake from here on.

Luxury Navy Flake is delicious any way you smoke it.

But crushed in the chamber, it burns slower and cooler, I think.

Anyone else agree?

 

[anotherbob]

yeah I either do that or pull it apart into ready rubbed type of strips. I always feel like if I wanted to rub it out I'd have bought some ribbons instead. One not is tampers are even more important when packing a flake like that and it also helps to spin the tamper to even out the top a little more after it's lit.
Another variation I use if the flake doesn't want to light is to put a tiny super thing layer of five brothers (other shags might work too) on the tippy top, that gets it started with little to no extra effort.

 

[mikethompson]

Flakes have always given me difficulty, and I've always been worried or 'not doing it right'. I end up cutting in little cubes and try smoking them that way.

 

[ssjones]

I just ball one up in my palm, roll it until it releases the springy strands. Easy to light and smoke. I couldn't take the 100 re-lights otherwise. Any left over goes in a coffee filter folded over and held in the jar. (rolling over the coffee filter also restrains the mess)

 

[captpat]

I typically fold and stuff. If it's a bit to moist rubbing it out is the preferred option.

 

[Chaukisch]

I recently got a sample of SG 1792 flakes, I rubbed and crunched them for a good 10 minutes before I felt like they could be smoked. I was always baffled when I read that people would just fold their flakes and smoke them like that. I'll try it some time, there are enough homemade flakes lying around.

My current Oriental and Latakia Virginia Bright is very coarsely cut with some pretty big chunks in there and it does smoke much better than the finely cut Virginia Gold Lemon, with which you could roll cigarettes.
Burns much slower and cooler, as you said. It also stays lit much longer, requiring fewer relights.
The fluffy stuff is just more fun to pack and play with while the coarse cut looks like fish food.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Fold along the length, fold along the width and twist slightly. Stuff in bowl. I think there's more skill in knowing how much of the Flake you're going to need to fill the bowl. Sometimes the entire Flake and a bit more. Sometimes less. Depends on the bowl size and relative Flake size. If more tobacco is needed, I tear off a strip, give it a quick rub and place it in the bowl.or, there's small debris in the tin I just use.

The keys to fold and stuff is having the tobacco at the dryness sweet spot and not packing too tight.

 

[Briar Lee]

I just took my latest Lee Three Star Canadian,,,,,a pipe a billionaire could not commission any better,…and stuffed two flakes of Luxury Navy Flake down the chamber lengthwise.

I wasn’t easy like lighting a cigarette, but after a bit I got it fired up.

Oh my, this is cool, sweet, and delicious.

What this does, is make about a two inch hand rolled, long filler large cigar inside a briar pipe. All those long, pressed strands of golden Virginia with a little Perique are aligned exactly as they would be in a good cigar.

Last year I got out a digital scale and weighed some LNF. It runs about 12 slices to the ounce, or 42 cents a pipeful at 2 slices a pipe, $2.50 an ounce.

I have about two pounds of LNF in plastic Planter’s peanut jars, and a full six pounds aging when I smoke that up.

If I smoke an ounce a day, I can smoke like a Texas oil Baron for twenty bucks a week.

Don’t tell me our life and times ain’t good, because I know better!

Plus you can listen to all the free solid gold nostril nosed high squally hillbilly music you want on Bose headphones.

Sing one Dwight!

 

[jmsmitty6]

I was down a YouTube rabbit hole one night and came upon a video that Smokingpipes did when they visited Per Jensen at Mac Baren. He spoke about the time and effort to create flakes and coins. He spoke about how the burning properties were better and you got more flavor and he didn’t understand rubbing out (I’m paraphrasing). Ever since, if it’s flake, it’s folded and stuffed. As Hoosier states above, the art is knowing your bowl’s capacity.

Jason

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Crushing or wadding it up is ok in a pinch, but I mich prefer to cub cut it and just gravity fill the bowl. It’s the best of both worlds, easy to light and smoke and retains the flakes slow burning flavor.
Yeh, Mr. Jensen, or anyone professing “one right way” is someone I avoid. But, something tells me that he was probably just be hyperbolic.

 

[redglow]

Out of curiosity, instead of rubbing out a flake of PS Luxury Navy Flake, I crushed a whole flake in my latest Lee Three Star bulldog. This didn’t quite fill the chamber, so I tore a flake in half and mashed that down on top. It was a bit hard to light, but I think this is the way I’ll smoke flake from here on.

Luxury Navy Flake is delicious any way you smoke it.

But crushed in the chamber, it burns slower and cooler, I think.

Anyone else agree?

I do both. Fold & Stuff or pull the flake apart one strip at a time.

Just depends on my mood at the time. Breaking down the flake is something I do more with new, more moist tobacco. Provides a more reliable burn IMHO.

I buy PS Luxury Navy and Bullseye Flakes in the 1.5 LB boxes.

Definitely my faves.

 

[cigrmaster]

For a few years I would do the cube cut method and it worked quite well. Then I figured out if I took the perfect square shape folded it and stuffed it into a group 4-5 sized pipe I got a great smoke. I always checked the draw before lighting. If it was too tight i would run a pipe cleaner to the bottom and it would loosen up to perfection. It was was too loose I would add a bit more tobacco and press down till I would get the resistance I was looking for. I have the fold and stuff down to a science pretty much now.

 

[Briar Lee]

I was down a YouTube rabbit hole one night and came upon a video that Smokingpipes did when they visited Per Jensen at Mac Baren. He spoke about the time and effort to create flakes and coins. He spoke about how the burning properties were better and you got more flavor and he didn’t understand rubbing out (I’m paraphrasing). Ever since, if it’s flake, it’s folded and stuffed. As Hoosier states above, the art is knowing your bowl’s capacity.

Jason

I’ve just folded into a square and pressed a single flake of LNF into a medium Lee bulldog.

A well made long filler hand rolled cigar is zig zagged, much like folding a flake into a square and pressing it into the chamber of a pipe.

After fifty years of pipe smoking, I learn something new about every day to improve my best bad habit.

 

[futureman]

Flakes have always given me difficulty, and I've always been worried or 'not doing it right'. I end up cutting in little cubes and try smoking them that way.

Same here. FVF is a good example. I have not smoked a ton of it, but on the few occasions I get it dialed in, it's divine--moderately dark, lightly sweet, and very smooth. I just can't engineer the experience consistently.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Same here. FVF is a good example. I have not smoked a ton of it, but on the few occasions I get it dialed in, it's divine--moderately dark, lightly sweet, and very smooth. I just can't engineer the experience consistently.

SG flakes are so thick, tough and wet, you absolutely have to dry them out a lot to make the fold and stuff work well. At the same time, the SG flakes I smoke often, FVF, BBF and SJF are divine when you get it right.

 

[cigrmaster]

SG flakes are so thick, tough and wet, you absolutely have to dry them out a lot to make the fold and stuff work well. At the same time, the SG flakes I smoke often, FVF, BBF and SJF are divine when you get it right.

SG flakes are like shoe leather in bulk. Sometimes I just get lazy and cube cut them.

 

[MacMarty89]

Cube the fuckers. Damn glorious. Stuffin’ ‘n puffin’.

 

[bullet08]

Fold and stuff. But today's flake was little too dry. Folding more or less caused the flake to completely come apart. So gather up the long pieces and stuff the bowl, and top it with what was left.

 

[ray47]

I just ball one up in my palm, roll it until it releases the springy strands. Easy to light and smoke. I couldn't take the 100 re-lights otherwise. Any left over goes in a coffee filter folded over and held in the jar. (rolling over the coffee filter also restrains the mess)

You may want to look into getting one of these, they work great for rubbing out flakes and pouring the leftovers back into the jar. https://www.smokingpipes.com/accessories/ashtrays/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=71575

 

[didimauw]

I rub them out into shag. Then crumble them up into almost cube cut, then obliterate it into almost a dust. Then smoke it.