Difficult Smoking Coarse Cut

[nupraptor]

Hello everybody. Im new to the pipe smoking scene...about 20 bowls in. Ive noticed im having a hard time smoking the coarse cut tobacco from my tobacconist. I end up with a lot of the heavier peices not ashing. I compare this to "early morning pipe" which smokes well to a fine ash. Any tips?
Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization (please check Rule #9)

 

[jpmcwjr]

Dry it more and rub it out more!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

It could be an inconsistency of the moisture, with some pieces holding more water and a different combustion temperature. Some tobaccos are like that, especially aromatics. And, especially if the tobacconist is mixing a couple of blends together to make a house blend. If it isn't affecting your quality of smoking experience, I would just say, let it be. You could try drying, but the topping will dissipate, making it not taste as good. But, I also have no idea what the blend is, or how it is affecting the smoke. Just a guess.

 

[nupraptor]

Yes, it looks like I wasn't very specific. Its non aromatic latakia heavy blend. One problem is that with areas not transferring the ember well (unburnt), I get odd pockets of unburnt tobacco...almost like twigs in my bowl. I will dry it out more and rub it as recommended. Thank you. I will let you know later how it turns out.

 

[mso489]

Rub it out some more. Some say a spice grinder will reduce uneven cuts so they burn better; I haven't tried it, but it may be worth a try.

 

[mackeson]

Rubbing it out more will certainly help, but I personally like fairly course for good flavor and longer burning. Maybe try drying it out more while leaving the coarseness and see if that helps

 

[wasnsfisher]

Tamp the edges down a bit an relight it

 

[hawky454]

What blend is it?

 

[pianopuffer]

This reminds me of FMC, which I would call coarse cut. It’s one of my favorites but I too am trying to find the best way to smoke this blend. Drying time was definitely required but I’m stumped as to the proper way to get it to burn evenly and cool.

 

[mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast]

I would try packing it a little tighter than what you're used to.

 

[nupraptor]

So I rubbed it a bit, spread it out to allow to dry for around 5 minutes and went through it by hand. In doing so I found 2 things. There are very tightly wound clumps, that you can tease out with your finger nails and when you do, you can tell they contain more moisture. Secondly...i actually found twigs, just a couple in the wad I drew out from my jar but one was close to 2cm long. Not sure if this is typical of house blends. As for the name of the blend, i don't remember. I had moved everything to mason jars without labels The reason being is, I don't smoke often, as for the names, it didn't bother me knowing because of how little i smoke. I do know that it was either lapis lazuli or d965.
now the good news. It smoked way better. The ember settled down nice and evenly with consistent fine ash. It was perhaps my best bowl yet. I still have a bit of problem getting the edges to burn as fast but i swear i'm a slow even puffer. Perhaps my puffs are too drawn out (long)

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The edges of the chamber don't usually burn in my pipes, as the way pipes work is for the cherry to mostly stay centered and the flavor comes from the heating of the surrounding tobaccos. This is similar to how a cigar burns, with the cherry on the cigar burning more deeply into the stogie than the surrounding tobacco. I usually just push the edges back to center with the tamp as the bowl progresses, but that is not absolutely necessary.
The "wads" of tobacco are parts of a flake. The blend was designed like that to slow the burning of whatever flake that is, so that there is a certain "experience" with flavor that the tobacconist has designed for you. Burning all of the tobacco in the bowl is absolutely not a necessity. The "stems" you pointed out are actually the veins of the leaf, and probably not the ribs. The ribs tend to be fairly large. Some blends may have a few ribs in the mix, because their is more nicotine in the ribs and stems.
IMO, you're fretting over something that most of us don't even think about. It's just a part of the pipe experience. There are actually very few blends that were meant to be burned to "fine white ash" as we pipers say it. These are blends where the leaf was cut specifically for that task.
Don't worry about burning the bowl from edge to edge in the chamber. If you do, you will get less flavors and most likely increase your chance of getting tongue bite. And, don't fret about having bits and pieces of unburned tobacco in the bowl. Some of us will even dump the dottle... see we have a word for the unburned, "dottle," so if we have a word for it, we are ok with it. Ha ha.
Just enjoy the flavors, dump the bowl when you get tired of it, and don't sweat it. Just enjoy... ::
However, if you just can't enjoy smoking with these slight imperfections you might try a cigar, as they burn way more cleanly through the entire leaf because of the way they are rolled.