Filling the Bowl with Tobacco-What to Use?

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lawdawg

Lifer
Aug 25, 2016
1,792
3,812
Just wondering how anyone else fills their pipes without wasting excess tobacco or making a bit of a mess. Perhaps you just reach into your jar, perfectly pinch the right amount and fill the bowl without dropping any?

Pretty much, yes. It usually takes a few pinches. It's not too hard to drop it straight into the bowl. We aren't exactly threading a needle here.

Or do you make a filthy mess, waste tobacco, and don't notice since you wear bifocals and don't see so well anymore LOL?

I don't worry about tobacco dust or tiny scraps here or there, as I'm not a penny pincher, and I don't mind wiping off my pipe tray when it gets a tad bit messy.
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
45,238
119,175
Er, not with that one!

Though that's what I do with larger jars. More often fill from pouch with one finger, finish off with a pinch @ 10.23 pounds of pressure from the digit.
What do you mean not with that one? That's a pint jar.
 

kcghost

Lifer
May 6, 2011
15,138
25,713
77
Olathe, Kansas
Well I am a natural spiller of things including pipe tobacco. So having given up on neatness in loading a pipe I just try to stuff in the appropriate amount. I always spill a bunch of it. Then I pick most of it up and pack it in the pipe. Repeat this two or three times and I am good to go. It is not neat but it works for me.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
16,835
31,576
46
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
Oh, I've seen Frank Method threads get brutal back when I was modding. I always felt my heart break for those tiny little Frank Method people, getting curb stomped by the Preferred Ones.

Putting the tobacco into the pipe is serious shit for some.
I remember running into frank method people who were belligerent about how this is the way to pack a pipe. To the point where I had to give it a serious go. Those guys deserved a light case of traumatic physical assaults. They're half the reason this is the first forum I've stayed on. That and those you're not a real pipe smoker cause you smoke anything otherwise then what I smoke "donkey" hats.
 

jpmcwjr

Lifer
May 12, 2015
26,263
30,343
Carmel Valley, CA
Uh, no.?‍♂️
20210831_123647-jpg.95224
You cannot be serious! Or you're a contortionist. Or you switched pipes. Or you're never wrong.
 

Chasing Embers

Captain of the Black Frigate
Nov 12, 2014
45,238
119,175
You cannot be serious! Or you're a contortionist. Or you switched pipes. Or you're never wrong.
Nope, same pipe. When the pipe's tilted, it's easy to do. My big pipes get loaded directly from the tin but after three fills the tin's empty so no jarring there.?
 
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macaroni

Lifer
Oct 28, 2020
1,015
3,196
Texas
But, then when I start getting tobacco and cat hair build up on the bottoms of my socks, my wife makes me vacuum up the sacrifices from the smoking room floor. puffy
YES...Cosmic, EXACTLY (except for me it's a broom not a vacuum cleaner! LOL). Same problem here--add dog hair to the cat hair LOL
kindly
mike
 
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macaroni

Lifer
Oct 28, 2020
1,015
3,196
Texas
A bit defensive, are we? I never suspected that the topic of packing a pipe could provide such deep emotional trauma to anyone.
You save me money I'd give to a therapist! LOL!! Drinking, up late and my inner secrets are laid bare!! LOL

Yes, exactly! I'm was laughing at myself and how silly I can be after I wrote it. Now I get another even bigger chuckle, at myself.

I LOVE your way with words, insight and good cheer! Really, I do wish we could meet and share a bowl--I would thoroughly enjoy it! You bless me!!
thnx,
mike
 

jpmcwjr

Lifer
May 12, 2015
26,263
30,343
Carmel Valley, CA
This special vacuum would not see the floor! Just clean counters. Well, I was joshing in any event. I am not spending a couple hundred to save 20 bucks worth of tobacco....
 
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romaso

Lifer
Dec 29, 2010
2,036
7,882
Pacific NW
I use Asian style plastic (melamine) bowls, about 5" across. Easy to pour excess tobacco back in the jar from them and they also hold my pipe upright. Very sturdy & easily washable.
bowl.jpeg
 

leonardbill1

Lifer
May 21, 2017
1,360
5,752
Denver, CO
Tore a page out of a Pipes and Cigars catalog. Toss what I think is a bowlful on the page and then load the pipe (dry it on the page first if it needs to dry). Use the page to pour the last bits into the pipe or back into where it came from depending on whether or not my estimate was accurate. Top it off if I'm short of a bowlful.
 

Misanthrope

Can't Leave
Apr 26, 2020
367
1,128
Texas
I don't do anything that tediously complicated--I have a small leather valet tray, I just take out a couple pinches from a pouch, canister, or jar, then drop it in the tray, do whatever I need to do to make it pack nice, then I feed it to Mr. Pipe. What's left in the tray gets poured back into the pouch, canister, or jar that it came from in the first place. No mess, no fuss.