Do Flakes Give As Many Bowls?

[Wellington]

I was wondering if a 50g tin of a flake tobacco will give you as many bowls as a 50g tin of a non flake. I know that sounds really stupid, if they're both 50g then mathematically it has to, but it seems so much more dense, and if you do the fold and stuff method it seems like you wouldn't get very many bowls.

 

[scurvydog]

Flakes smoke slower and last longer, so maybe not as many bowls but more smoke time.

 

[Perique]

I would think 50g is 50g. If you fold rather than rub out the flake, the bowl may last longer, but number of bowls should be the same, shouldn't it?

 

[pstlpkr]

Uh oh....

::

 

[cedeks]

I do not think it is a matter of number of bowls since people tend to fill them differently and in all cases pipes got different bowl sizes. So I think the main thing to check here is time. According to my calculations previously 50gm of flakes lasts around 900 minutes (based on MB navy flake) where a regular 50gm would last around 500 minutes (cheap tobacco) and around 750 minutes for richer ones such as Dunhill 965. After all those were my results, sure further studies regarding this issue can done special ly that there is also some major factors such as buffing rate, indoor or outdoor smoking, windy or calm, etc...

 

[sparroa]

I think that you will get less bowls with flake tobacco than loose cut, and even less bowls with plug tobacco than flalke tobacco.
One tends to pack their bowl with greater density when using flakes or plugs, and that is responsible for both a longer burning time and a general increase/improvement in flavour...
If some of you are very precise and mathematical you may mitigate this effect, but I would wager that most of us just eyeball our bowls and as a result take more than we need to when we deal with these more compressed forms.

 

[rmbittner]

For me, I get fewer bowls from a flake than I do from a ribbon-cut blend. Flakes tend to be dense (although that isn't always the case), and that equals weight. Common sense would seem to suggest that when you rub them out (if you rub them out), the resulting "unflaked" tobacco should equal the same number of bowls as a never-flaked, ribbon-cut blend. That just hasn't been the case for me.
I do get longer lasting bowls. . . but the overall number of those bowls is less.
Of course, that suggests that we now look at the overall smoking-time differences between flakes and other cuts. . .
Bob

 

[cigrmaster]

In my experience I get twice the smoking time from a flake than I do of a ribbon cut. A group 5 bowl of flake is usually an hour and a half smoke, while a ribbon is 45 minutes. Now as far as how many bowls of each, I think it depends on how you prepare it. I think that it really does not make a difference and you should smoke what you like. When it comes down to it we are talking pennies per bowl. I get approximately 12.5 bowls per 50 gram tin. Most of my tins run around 9.50 so that is .76 cents per bowl. A cigarette at 7.00 a pack cost .35 cents and that is a 5 minute smoke. A cigar at 5 bucks can be an hour and a half smoke. Pipe smoking is definitely by far the cheapest way to enjoy tobacco, so buy what you like I say.

 

[cedeks]

That is extremely similar to my results.... usually 50gm tin of flakes give me 10 bowls of 90 minutes each... thanks cigrmaster at least someone else did this calculations... the only difference in my country is that tobacco price is a bit cheaper... 50gm MB flakes is around 6.5 USD and a pack of cigarettes is around 1.5-2 USD; however, I still prefer pipes by far.

 

[lestrout]

Most of my bowls are about 3 grams of ribbon. FWIW, the regulation amount for the Slow Smoke events is 3g. Like cigrmaster, I get fewer flake bowls - maybe 12-14, and more ribbon bowls (about 17-19), but then I don't pack that tight.
Wow cedeks - what tobacco paradise do you live in to get those prices?
hp

les

 

[cedeks]

Not for long-time I guess both government and parliament are discussing adding taxes on tobacco.... but I think the main difference in price between here and US are cigarettes, specially local brand where pack never exceeds 70 cents in retail. However pipe tobacco is maximum 30% less than websites prices in US.

 

[sparroa]

I think flakes are better for my tastes, and by extension they are worth the price premium to me, but I find I get less mileage (per number of smokes) when it comes to a tin of flake.
On the other hand, as I mentioned, I notice a tendency to pack a little less tight with loose cuts and as a result there is a bit less flavour to be had...
I think that you definitely do get what you pay for, though, because as cigrmaster says the length of the smoke (and often the quality of the smoke) goes up when you are smoking flakes...

 

[taerin]

Depends how you pack, but if you pack super light like I do with ribbon cut, then you will be using a little more tobacco up with each bowl with the flake tobacco. It won't really cost a whole lot more since it is cheap in the first place and many people smoke flakes just because of the slow burn that comes with that style of tobacco.