Flake For The Long Smoke

[mso489]

Ever noticed what a long smoke you get with flake cut tobacco, even if you rub it out? Probably coin, plug, and rope as well, but definitely flake. In a small bowl, a Group 2 for example, you can get well over thirty minutes in many cases. Put it in a large bowl, and you get a seemingly all-day smoke in one packed bowl. That's an exaggeration, but it does last. If you smoke Virginia flake, which is best sipped anyway, it is a really long smoke. I'm puffing away on PS Luxury Navy Flake in a big bowled Nording, and it's been quite a while now.

 

[ashdigger]

IF I want a quick smoke I use ribbon cut or a variant. If I want a long smoke or DGT I use a flake.

 

[npod]

I’m Smoking FVF In cube cut right now. Pipe is a group 4 bent Dublin. I’m going on 2 hours and still plenty left to enjoy. That’s one reason I smoke flakes almost exclusively (except for older cellared tobacco in various cuts).
Flakes and cake or pressed tobacco is such a good value for this reason. Plus they are generally more flavorful.

 

[redglow]

mso,
I received a 1.5 lb box of PS LNF a few weeks ago. I've never smoked it before and I have yet to open this package up to jar it.
Currently have two coins of PS LBF smouldering in my Savinelli Hurcules.
I love the flakes! Will probably buy a couple of pounds of Newminster No. 400 Superior Navy Flake as it's supposedly a great tobacco at a very attractive price.

 

[ashdigger]

Newminster No. 400 Superior Navy Flake as it's supposedly a great tobacco

It is pretty good fresh, BUT put a few years on it an BAM. Great flake.
Sutliff 507C fits the bill as well.

 

[lochinvar]

In the last week, I've been going through a tin of Sutliff Red Virginia Crumble Kake, and it is long lasting. If you fill the bowl with largish chunks of the dense cake, it seems to last all night.

 

[redglow]

Thanks AD. I may grab some of that on the next purchase as well!

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Flakes, or broken flakes, account for around 90% of what I smoke.

 

[btwes7]

I get Stonehaven to burn for quite awhile. Hour and a half or so in a larger bowl. Usually cube cut.

 

[mityahicks]

I too prefer flake tobacco, usually cube cut. I've been easily dismantling my only tin of Dunhill Flake. Wishing I tried to cellar that one, but there are plenty of other good ones for me to try.
GH flakes are among my favorite blends, suddenly scarce as they may be. Wishing the Lakeland hate would return!

 

[Chasing Embers]

GH flakes are among my favorite blends, suddenly scarce as they may be. Wishing the Lakeland hate would return!

It never really existed. During the several drops last week and the week before, a few sites actually had them in stock for a few days.
To the OP, depends on cadence. I can get close to a two hour smoke with ribbons in a 1.5"×.75" conical chamber. With flakes, I either fold or cube cut, but burn time entirely results in how I'm smoking.

 

[mso489]

I tend to smoke intermittently, since I don't always have a chance to finish off a bowl in a sitting. So I can come back to a medium/large bowled pipe repeatedly. I find flake in a larger medium or large bowl will give me three or four or more thirty minute sessions over the course of a day with no re-packing needed. I'm not doing this with a stop watch, but I think that's about right. I don't notice any diminished flavor. Most flake is about as good at the bottom of the bowl as at the top. You just stop when the pipe no longer stays lit. Good to the last puff, to borrow Maxwell House's old line. Really dry flake often smokes just fine, too.

 

[cortezattic]

Folded flakes are the only choice for me when I'm outdoors, in drafty conditions.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have been smoking flakes for a while now and out of 41 blends in my cellar only two are not a flake,plug or rope. I can take one flake, put it in a group 4-5 sized pipe and get an hour and a half to two hours worth of smoking pleasure.
I know people think that tinned flakes are expensive, but if you figure in the smoking time factor, they are not much more than the other cuts. I fold and stuff all my flakes and that gives me a nice slow burning flavorful smoke.

 

[tkcolo]

I smoke mostly flakes. VAs, VaPers, and VaBurs. In the normal pipe 0.75" x 1.6" bowl, that is normally 2.5 hours. Up to 3 hrs anyway. And I know I still smoke it way too fast. It gets good, and I speed it along and burn my tongue. I'd like to find a bowl for about an hour smoke. I bought a Savinelli Petite 402, which has a tapered bowl that is 0.68"(0.68" at top/0.55" at bottom) x 1.35", but even it still seems to be a 2-hour flake pipe.
I know I know - fill it half full. I have brain damage that prevents that from happening.

 

[jeff540]

I acquired a Servi meerschaum with very tiny bowl but full size stem this winter, perfect for 30-45 minute smoke of flakes and "quick" 12-15 minute with ribbon cut. Check out some of the meerschaum offerings if you can, might fit the bill.

 

[ophiuchus]

First weekend of the season over 70F up here. Sunday I hit not one, but two nature trails, one in the morning, one in the early evening, to shake off the winter. On the first hike I took a sandblasted Peterson Standard System 312 loaded with Dunhill Flake (nine year old vintage). Bliss. On the second, I loaded a Stanwell Flame Grain 86 with some recently acquired, unaged SG 1792, which effectively cleaned out my chronometer. I barely remember the last half of the trek. Can't beat flake or sliced plug for a good hike. ::

 

[jazz]

I'm mostly a Virginia flake man. 90% or more of my tobaccos are of this type. It's rare that I get less than an hour from a smoke. Most are in the 60-90 minute range and I don't do big pipes. Most of my chambers are in the 18-20mm X 30-40mm area.

 

[workman]

Well it's a blessing and a curse. As wonderful a 2 hour smoke with a nice flake tobacco is, it isn't always convenient. I like to have some ribbon cut available as well, for shorter smokes.