Help..What am I doing wrong?

[mkvillaire]

I'm still new to pipe smoking but I thought I was getting a little better at it...until this morning. I just received a new pipe in the mail yesterday with some good tobacco to go with it. I bought a Stanwell Featherweight 243 and a few tins of tobacco, one of them Dunhill Flake. I've recently been experimenting with flakes as I have found aromatics a bit of a let down. This wasn't my first go with a flake. I bought some Orlik Golden Sliced a few months ago and the first time I smoked it it burnt the hell out of my mouth, throat, and tongue. I went back to it a few weeks ago and everything seemed to be ok. Last night I packed my Stanwell with the Dunhill Flake, fully rubbed out, and had what I thought was a pretty enjoyable smoke. However, when I woke up today I felt horrible. Sore throat, headache, etc. All day I felt like I had a terrible hangover. You know the kind after you go out drinking all night and smoke a whole pack of cigarettes? The only thing is I didn't drink any alcohol or smoke any cigs.I don't inhale pipe smoke either. I'm just not sure what went wrong. Advice would be surely appreciated. Thanks.

 

[reichenbach]

Have you ever smoked cigarettes? I ask because you could have a nicotine sensitivity. Or there have been other posts about how certain types of tobacco interact with your physiology to produce discomfort. Hopefully someone else might have an insight into your alcohol-less pipe hangover.

 

[reichenbach]

I just thought of something else. A hangover is a severe dehydration, right? So were you drinking anything(water, seltzer, juice, etc)? You might have actually given yourself a hangover.

 

[mkvillaire]

reichenbach,
I used to smoke cigarettes reguraly, especially when drinking. Really thats what attracted me to flakes, looking for a little nic kick.
rothnh,
Maybe I didn't give it enough time to dry out. I pretty much smoked it right from the tin. Maybe thats why the OGS has been pretty good to me lately. Like I said that tin has been open for a while and is now a little on the dry side.
Another thing I noticed is that I could taste the tobacco all night in my sleep and could still taste it in the morning. Is this normal?

 

[baronsamedi]

OGS is a little high on the nic side. You should try an English and see how it goes.

 

[lordofthepiperings]

Dunhill Flake is a Virginia which, I would suggest, rules out nicotine overdrive. It would explain experiencing major tongue bite/burn, as Virginia is high in sugar content, low in nicotine content, and therefore burns much hotter than persay a Burley leaf which is pretty much the opposite (hence the reason in blending the two will typically be paired together).
Personally I have to agree with reichenbach, might just have been dehydration and perhaps a more severe case of it leaning towards heat stress. Heat stress dehydrates you really bad and will leave you exhausted and occassionally nauseas much like a hangover.

 

[shawn622]

I ruined my tongue my first week smoking Dark Twist. It is not a flake, It's a "Roll Cake" Kind of like a rope cut into slices or coins, but it's similar to flake. I swore the stuff off, but I came back to it almost 2 months later, after I got better at smoking, and it is dynamite. I've never had a hangover from a pipe. I've never even heard of that. Hmmmm.

 

[johncorosz]

It really is tough to say. I myself had issues smoking my first 3 months where packing was a problem, inhaling to much, too fast and of course not using Biotene mouthwash all made a difference later on. I can say that many smokers told me to avoid Peterson's tobaccos until much later as they burn hot. Well, when I got the Sweet Kilarney, Nutty Cut and Sunset Breeze is when I really honed my smoking skills. I also picked up University Flake which indeed was a huge stepping stone for me that taught me to resepct my pipe smoking much more. It is powerful stuff as far as nicotine is concerned but it also has a stronger taste than many aromatics do. So after sticking with my pipe and starting and stopping a few times I got really into it. Now I am about 6 months into seriously loving my pipes and spending too much money on them as well as the tobaccos. I am even playing around with my own tobacco blend and have found a very good blend I enjoy at the moment. I wish you luck in your new smoking adventures.

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[mkvillaire]

I tried some Old Dublin, but didn't care much for it. Maybe I'm not quite ready for an English yet. I find that the Virginias that I tried thus far taste more like cigarettes to me and smell like them too. Right now I'm smoking 1Q and I like that pretty well.

 

[jchaplick]

I dont know if anyone said it yet, but sometimes if you have a new pipe, and you smoke too fast/hot, you could burn some briar, I agree with eveeryone above, especially about the hydration part, but burnt briar breath could do it too I think. Just a thought
John

 

[mkvillaire]

When you talk about burning briar are you refering to pipe burn out or actually smoking some of the briar which would cause soreness? The pipe did get pretty hot but I promptly set it down for a few and then went back to it after a little cooling off. Smoked a couple bowls of 1Q last night, no problems.

 

[spartan]

I never thought about the extreme literal meaning of "smoking a pipe"...in which the pipe wood burns and lets off smoke that you take into your mouth along with the tobacco smoke.... not sure if it's the cause or not.
More data is needed.
Take notes, change pipes, tobacco, packing methods, etc.
Sounds like you definately burned your mouth though. The damage to your mouth from over puffing could egg on a headache if you usually get headaches when you're injured?
Good luck !!