I've finally done it.
Here is the short version of the practices that helped me. A more detailed description is below that.
1. Read this forum.
2. Dry your tobacco.
3. Angle your pipe away from your tongue.
4. Smoke slowly, especially on the draw.
5. Use biotene and ice water when needed.
6. Don't smoke all the way to the bottom.
7. Light indirectly.
Details (long):
I smoked a pipe briefly in college and gave it up, enjoying other forms of tobacco for the next 3 decades. I came back to pipes when cigars became too expensive and fell completely in love. Sadly, however, as many folks do, I got vicious tongue bite no matter what I did. I'm deeply concerned about tongue bite because it's an injury, and repeated injury is a primary cause of cancer, which runs on one side of my family. Finally, after a couple of months of trial and error, I think I've turned the corner. Many of the above had synergistic effects with one another, and it wasn't until I worked them all in together that I noticed a significant improvement in the just past few days.
1. Read this forum. There is an amazing amount of knowledge and tutelage available on this site, served up with a healthy dose of wit and patience. (The density of smartasses on this forum is one of its best qualities.) All the answers to my problem were found in here in some form or fashion. But like many things, it takes time to dig through and find the information that applies to you, and then to try it out and confirm it. This and the items below are what worked for me, all in one handy place for the next guy.
2. Dry your tobacco. This is one of the most common pieces of advice on this forum, and with good reason. Part of my problem was that I was relighting 10-15 times a bowl. In combination with other mistakes I was making, it wound up driving a lot of heat to my tongue, especially near the end of a bowl. I was able to directly correlate severity of tongue bite to frequency of relights. This was because my tobacco was simply too wet. Air drying it removed that moisture, which also reduced the steam produced, which holds a ton of heat--more even than hot air. There are also side benefits of reducing gurgle and improving flavor, which for me the heat and steam were masking quite a bit.
3. Angle. I placed the button of my pipes (a straight MM CG and a bent Nording) inside my lips and drew that way. This practice slowed the smoke down but didn't absorb much heat when I made a mistake and drew too hot. It just directed the hot smoke straight to my tongue. I have since begun hooking the button under my upper row of teeth and angling the pipe to direct the smoke to the roof of my mouth. A couple of times even that got scorched too until I figured the rest of this out, but it was much less frequent and healed much more quickly. This is especially important when relighting or nearing the bottom of the bowl.
4. Smoke slowly and DRAW slowly. This is another very common piece of advice on the forum. Smoking more slowly keeps the tobacco cooler and thus less heat is in the draw. But for me, the key piece was DRAWING slowly too. This also keeps the tobacco cooler and the speed of the air through the tobacco doesn't put it out, which can cause more relights. I went from taking a puff in less than a second to taking several to pull the smoke into my mouth. I haven't timed it because I'm not THAT crazy (yet), but I'm only relighting 2-3 times a bowl now.
5. Use Biotene and ice water. My tongue bite got pretty severe and painful. Biotene functions like astringent for the mouth and then helps you produce more saliva, soothing the burn. But like any burn, ice water AFTER the smoke (not during) really helped too. After a smoke, I kept some handy and filled my mouth with it until it warmed, and then swallowed. Repeatedly doing this helped cool the burned tissue and rehydrate it. A single 12-ounce glass of ice water produced noticeable improvement.
6. Don't smoke all the way to the bottom. The tobacco at the bottom of the bowl contains a lot of the moisture and tar liberated by the combustion of the tobacco above it. This is why it sometimes crackles as it ignites. That moisture turns into steam, which as mentioned above is an issue. Further, there is less tobacco in the way of the flame, so there is less resistance to the hot smoke and air from a relight entering your mouth. It's better to let a few cents' worth of tobacco go than nurse a burned tongue and/or (god forbid) take a break from smoking.
7. Light indirectly. I was so used to having the flame actually touch my tobacco, which is basically necessary when smoking cigars, that it never occurred to me to do something different until I read it here (like a hundred times). Keeping the actual flame away from the tobacco and just doing quick passes a few millimeters away is enough to get going and stay there. Plus, the tobacco itself isn't flash burned, releasing all the flavors at once, and stays cooler, reducing the heat that eventually makes it to the mouth.
So that's it. Once all the above pieces fell into place, my tongue is almost completely healed and my smoking pleasure has increased dramatically. There is more to do refining the above and being consistent but for the first time since restarting, I feel like I'm going to get there.
I hope some of the above helps someone else.
Here is the short version of the practices that helped me. A more detailed description is below that.
1. Read this forum.
2. Dry your tobacco.
3. Angle your pipe away from your tongue.
4. Smoke slowly, especially on the draw.
5. Use biotene and ice water when needed.
6. Don't smoke all the way to the bottom.
7. Light indirectly.
Details (long):
I smoked a pipe briefly in college and gave it up, enjoying other forms of tobacco for the next 3 decades. I came back to pipes when cigars became too expensive and fell completely in love. Sadly, however, as many folks do, I got vicious tongue bite no matter what I did. I'm deeply concerned about tongue bite because it's an injury, and repeated injury is a primary cause of cancer, which runs on one side of my family. Finally, after a couple of months of trial and error, I think I've turned the corner. Many of the above had synergistic effects with one another, and it wasn't until I worked them all in together that I noticed a significant improvement in the just past few days.
1. Read this forum. There is an amazing amount of knowledge and tutelage available on this site, served up with a healthy dose of wit and patience. (The density of smartasses on this forum is one of its best qualities.) All the answers to my problem were found in here in some form or fashion. But like many things, it takes time to dig through and find the information that applies to you, and then to try it out and confirm it. This and the items below are what worked for me, all in one handy place for the next guy.
2. Dry your tobacco. This is one of the most common pieces of advice on this forum, and with good reason. Part of my problem was that I was relighting 10-15 times a bowl. In combination with other mistakes I was making, it wound up driving a lot of heat to my tongue, especially near the end of a bowl. I was able to directly correlate severity of tongue bite to frequency of relights. This was because my tobacco was simply too wet. Air drying it removed that moisture, which also reduced the steam produced, which holds a ton of heat--more even than hot air. There are also side benefits of reducing gurgle and improving flavor, which for me the heat and steam were masking quite a bit.
3. Angle. I placed the button of my pipes (a straight MM CG and a bent Nording) inside my lips and drew that way. This practice slowed the smoke down but didn't absorb much heat when I made a mistake and drew too hot. It just directed the hot smoke straight to my tongue. I have since begun hooking the button under my upper row of teeth and angling the pipe to direct the smoke to the roof of my mouth. A couple of times even that got scorched too until I figured the rest of this out, but it was much less frequent and healed much more quickly. This is especially important when relighting or nearing the bottom of the bowl.
4. Smoke slowly and DRAW slowly. This is another very common piece of advice on the forum. Smoking more slowly keeps the tobacco cooler and thus less heat is in the draw. But for me, the key piece was DRAWING slowly too. This also keeps the tobacco cooler and the speed of the air through the tobacco doesn't put it out, which can cause more relights. I went from taking a puff in less than a second to taking several to pull the smoke into my mouth. I haven't timed it because I'm not THAT crazy (yet), but I'm only relighting 2-3 times a bowl now.
5. Use Biotene and ice water. My tongue bite got pretty severe and painful. Biotene functions like astringent for the mouth and then helps you produce more saliva, soothing the burn. But like any burn, ice water AFTER the smoke (not during) really helped too. After a smoke, I kept some handy and filled my mouth with it until it warmed, and then swallowed. Repeatedly doing this helped cool the burned tissue and rehydrate it. A single 12-ounce glass of ice water produced noticeable improvement.
6. Don't smoke all the way to the bottom. The tobacco at the bottom of the bowl contains a lot of the moisture and tar liberated by the combustion of the tobacco above it. This is why it sometimes crackles as it ignites. That moisture turns into steam, which as mentioned above is an issue. Further, there is less tobacco in the way of the flame, so there is less resistance to the hot smoke and air from a relight entering your mouth. It's better to let a few cents' worth of tobacco go than nurse a burned tongue and/or (god forbid) take a break from smoking.
7. Light indirectly. I was so used to having the flame actually touch my tobacco, which is basically necessary when smoking cigars, that it never occurred to me to do something different until I read it here (like a hundred times). Keeping the actual flame away from the tobacco and just doing quick passes a few millimeters away is enough to get going and stay there. Plus, the tobacco itself isn't flash burned, releasing all the flavors at once, and stays cooler, reducing the heat that eventually makes it to the mouth.
So that's it. Once all the above pieces fell into place, my tongue is almost completely healed and my smoking pleasure has increased dramatically. There is more to do refining the above and being consistent but for the first time since restarting, I feel like I'm going to get there.
I hope some of the above helps someone else.
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