How Many Bowls In a Tin?

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sallow

Lifer
Jun 30, 2013
1,565
4,389
15 - 20 bowls. I smoke around 2 bowls a day so a tin lasts me about 2 weeks.
 

Franco Pipenbeans

Part of the Furniture Now
Jan 7, 2021
648
1,698
Yorkshire, England
Title edited. Please read Rule 9.

Just wondering, obviously there will be much variation.

I tend to only load them halfway at this point because if they’re packed to a medium level they last long enough; any more than this and I weary of the pipe before it’s done.

At my rate of half bowls and 2-3 per week I’m making tins last a long while but I wonder about others’ results.

As well, if I were to buy about the same amount of Flake or some other, would I get more per tin?

thanks!
Personally - I smoke one bowl a day usually, maybe two or (infrequently) three a day over the weekend. My job precludes me from having a pipe in, let alone on, during the day. Besides, I like the peaceful nature of an evening pipe that can last me a while.

I find that the amount of time a tin/pouch lasts for is related to the speed the tobacco burns and how interested I am in the flavour. Something like Germain’s Plum Cake, which is a true shag cut, like cigarette rolling tobacco, burns down relatively quickly, no matter how I pack it; it’s a unique blend (to me at least) and I only smoke a bowl of it when the mood takes me. As a result, a 50g tin has lasted me for over a year.

A favoured flake (more usually half a flake to be honest) like a Condor or a St Bruno can last me anywhere from 45 minutes to a few hours in the bowl, depending on how quickly I puff away at it and how many times I let it go out because my mouth is tingling. I tend to go for one of these flake varieties most evenings so a pouch will go quite quickly, compared to one I smoke every so often but a pouch still last me for a month or three.

My grandad used to, more often than not, light a pipe and smoke it from match to dottle; other smokers I know/knew would light it, take a few pulls, let it go out, relight it five minutes later and repeat until the bowl was gone.

I’m quite happy lighting, sitting with it for 10-15 minutes, letting it go out, do something else for a while, come back to it and fire it up again. It’s all personal choice.

I’ve never really counted the bowls I get out of a tin/pouch but I should think it’s in the 30+ bracket per 50g/1.75oz tin.

I have some different jars of tobacco on the go at once so I don’t really notice any one of them quickly going down - having said that, I do need to get some more 1792 flake and RB plug on order because they are at worryingly low levels at the moment.

I hope this helps; happy pipes. ??
 

captpat

Lifer
Dec 16, 2014
2,389
12,422
North Carolina
Too much counting, weighing, trying to account for every possible variable like humidity, the form of the tobacco, size of the pipe, etc. Makes my head hurt, I'm going to go smoke a bowl or 2, or 20 or 17.375...
 

waznyf

Part of the Furniture Now
Apr 24, 2012
742
48
29
Texas
I strongly suspect that the form of the tobacco factors into this, although I haven't measured to verify this.

If you smoked 2 oz. of ribbon (packed in whatever way you pack ribbon), 2 oz. of flake (packed in whatever way you pack flake), 2 oz. of crumble cake (packed in whatever way you pack crumble cake), and 2 oz. of coins (packed in whatever way you pack coins), all in the same pipe, I bet that you'd get differing numbers of bowls.

Maybe someday I'll open fresh tins and pack and empty bowl after bowl, just to test the suspicion.
I quite agree!
 
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Fralphog

Lifer
Oct 28, 2021
2,080
26,105
Idaho
Well, There’s been more than enough critical thought in the above posts to answer the question. What should be clear is: it’s not definitive and for the most part YMMV applies. What I really need to know is how many lites do ya get from the average BIC lighter...?
 
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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,960
14,334
Humansville Missouri
The finest American Spirit cigarettes are $75 a carton and the cheapest generic brands are $25 a carton in Missouri.

So three $75 cartons a month is about $225 times 12 or $2,700, or a third that at $75 a month times 12 equals $850 for the cheapies.

You can roll your own with $12 a pound cheap pipe tobacco, and save a lot. There are approximately 7.300 cigarettes a year smoked by a pack a day smoker. A pound of cheap $12 “pipe” tobacco makes about 450 cigarettes. Bugler papers are $30 per case of 24 115 packs. For $204 you buy 17 pounds of tobacco and $90 buys over 8,000 papers. You can smoke a pack a day for less than a dollar.

Premium pipe tobacco costs at least a dollar an ounce and the tiny two ounce cans often cost eight dollars an ounce.

I can load almost 10 grams in my huge Preben Holm Ben Wade Matt Special and my smallest Lee pear shapes hold two grams. Let’s put the average at three or four.

Bought in quantity almost every mail order blend without Latakia or Virgina is about two dollars an ounce. Good examples are all the Lane and Sutliff blends online.

If you smoke all day, every day, you might burn up two pounds a month. The cheapest you’ll get off is about $34 for the bottom shelf brands, Double that for the average mail order blend. You could spend over fifty a week on those little cans of ultra premium tobacco.

But in fifty years of smoking I’ve decided God never subtracts money spent on tobacco from your lifetime pile of winnings.

The Missouri minimum wage is $12 an hour. One hour buys an entire pound of cheap pipe tobacco.

Years ago I bought a 1907 copyright book at a thrift store that is sort of a one volume encyclopedia and a manual for everyday life, with various information about a wide range of subjects.

It’s filled with wise sayings and humorous jokes.

One was, that an elderly man was watching a brand new commercial building being constructed while smoking a cigar. A young man came up, and the old man offered him a cigar.

The young man declined, but asked him, how many of this cigars do you smoke a day?

Oh, about six, I suppose.

And how much do they cost, asked the young man?

A quarter each, was the reply.

And how many years have you smoked those cigars, the young man asked.

Almost forty five years the old man said.

The young man did some figuring and then said to the old man, if you’d not smoked and saved $1.50 a day and put it on interest at a sound bank, for forty five years, do you realize you could own that new commercial building going up, with money to spare?

The old man smiled and said, I do own that building, young man.

And, the rest of the block.:)
 
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