Learned a Couple of Techniques today. What are some of yours?

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Talon

Might Stick Around
Nov 7, 2021
70
230
Ontario, Canada
So today while browsing around on Youtube I stumbled across a video of Mutton Chop Piper explaining that he smokes using the "breathing" method where he essentially almost never blows the smoke out of his mouth and instead sips it through his mouth and exhales it through the pipe and out the bowl. He even said that it's a misconception that you are suppose to blow the smoke out of your mouth which I find interesting but I'm not sure I entirely believe that, unless it is perhaps true...

Another video I found was an older guy who went by "Grandpa Cavendish" who said that to get a more pleasurable smoke from your bowl was to scrape the ash off the top of it around 2/3 or halfway down and finish the rest off. This is one I think I will try tonight! What are some other obvious or not so obvious tips or techniques you guys have gathered that could help someone fairly new to enjoying pipe smoking? :sher:
 

warren

Lifer
Sep 13, 2013
11,699
16,207
Foothills of the Chugach Range, AK
Learn to stuff it so the draw is right, light and enjoy. Or, you can make the experience as complicated as you wish. It's all about the smoker enjoying the bowl. No hard and fast rules other than flame must be involvred, tobacco and of course, the tool (the pipe). A lot of pipe smokers deny the nic hit but, that's why we smoke. Some don't even notice the nicotine but, everyone's brain does. So, try what you think appears to be logical until yo've developed your style.
 
I've been using the breath technique for years, but I just let the smoke come out of my mouth, not the pipe. This wisps... But, even that, I may vary from day to day, or pending what the blend is.
You just have to find what works for you, like Warren says.

There used to be a guy on youtube that put his pipe in his nose and smoked it that way. Ha ha, I just don't watch much youtube these days.
 
Apr 2, 2018
3,112
35,190
Idong,South Korea.
To avoid burning the rim when lighting,I begin to draw, then lower the flame to the tobacco, then,while still drawing I raise the flame away.I complete this as many times as I need to until the tobacco is lit.This keeps the flame from lingering in the vicinity of the rim.It works.I picked this up years ago by watching a member of NYC's pipe smoking community at the Barclay-Rex pipe shop.
 

bullet08

Lifer
Nov 26, 2018
8,932
37,915
RTP, NC. USA
Always wanted to shoot ping pong ball out, but I don't have the necessary part. Anyway, yeah.. Don't take anything off the web as the whole truth. You can do many things with pipe smoking and you can make it your own.
 
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Jan 28, 2018
12,953
134,626
66
Sarasota, FL
When lighting, never let the flame touch the tobacco. Hold it above the bowl and draw the flame into the tobacco. Impossible to scorch the rim. You light a cigar the same way.

Packing Flake. Bend Flake in half length wise then again the other direction. Take ends between fingers of each hand, twist lightly to break up a little. Twist lightly into bowl. If necessary, fill in top with some loose pieces. If you had too much, grab a small bit and pull it out to make room, the pulled out pieces become loose pieces to fill in the top on a subsequent bowl. With experience, you'll get better at judging how big a flake will fit and with a smaller bowl, will tear of some before folding. Error on side of packing too loose, easy to fix with tamping.

Exhale through nose. This is difficult to explain but I think essential to fully enjoying pipe smoking. I consider it a throat inhale, somewhere in between no inhale and a full lung inhale. I learned it long ago with Cigars. Like I said, it is a feel thing, experiment. But once you get it the first couple of times, it's easy. After awhile, it becomes subconscious. The flavor experience is worth the effort.

Can't draw. Either a piece of tobacco gets stuck in airway or packed too tight. First attempt is to run pipe cleaner through pipe up into bowl. Twist a bit. May need to do it a couple of times. If that fails, take thin part of pipe tool, run it down the inside of the bowl to the draught hole to where you can feel the tip in the draught hole. Lightly pry tip towards center to clear some draw. Do this while pipe is in mouth testing for draw. Occasionally, you may have to run pipe cleaner through again. I very rarely will have to empty the bowl and start over. Rarely happens anyway but I sometimes get lazy and don't dry my tobacco enough.

Best advice I read here from a well loved member who passed. I can't quote it verbatim but went something like "Dry the tobacco more than you think you should, pack looser than you think you should, light less than you think you should and draw slower than you think you should ".
 

sablebrush52

The Bard Of Barlings
Jun 15, 2013
19,625
44,843
Southern Oregon
jrs457.wixsite.com
To avoid burning the rim when lighting,I begin to draw, then lower the flame to the tobacco, then,while still drawing I raise the flame away.I complete this as many times as I need to until the tobacco is lit.This keeps the flame from lingering in the vicinity of the rim.It works.I picked this up years ago by watching a member of NYC's pipe smoking community at the Barclay-Rex pipe shop.
Another way to retard singing of the rim is to wet it with a bit of saliva before applying flame.
 

anotherbob

Lifer
Mar 30, 2019
15,678
29,398
45
In the semi-rural NorthEastern USA
So today while browsing around on Youtube I stumbled across a video of Mutton Chop Piper explaining that he smokes using the "breathing" method where he essentially almost never blows the smoke out of his mouth and instead sips it through his mouth and exhales it through the pipe and out the bowl. He even said that it's a misconception that you are suppose to blow the smoke out of your mouth which I find interesting but I'm not sure I entirely believe that, unless it is perhaps true...

Another video I found was an older guy who went by "Grandpa Cavendish" who said that to get a more pleasurable smoke from your bowl was to scrape the ash off the top of it around 2/3 or halfway down and finish the rest off. This is one I think I will try tonight! What are some other obvious or not so obvious tips or techniques you guys have gathered that could help someone fairly new to enjoying pipe smoking? :sher:
I don't do the breath method. It is not my thing. Though I dump the ash part way through and find it does smoke better. I just poke the ash with the stick part of the pipe tool and turn the pipe upside down and the ash falls out. With the system pipe by Peterson I turn the pipe sideways and give the ash a toss. It works well.
 
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makhorkasmoker

Part of the Furniture Now
Aug 17, 2021
564
1,354
Central Florida
In addition to some of the things mentioned above, these things works for me:

Delayed gratification technique: smoke a little, enjoy, set the pipe down, go do something else, come back to it when you like. (This works especially well with high nicotine or otherwise demanding tobaccos).

Try using your finger as a tamper. There is, admittedly, a chance of a slight burn now and then, as well as a dirty fingertip, but it's convenient and simple and often seems to work better than a true tamper in ways that are hard to explain.

I sometimes smoke while doing some chore, but I have found the smoke is best when I do nothing except "zone out" and look at the sky and listen to the birds, as Mr. Jeremiah suggests above.

And at the same time (this may seem a contradiction), some "mindfulness" does make the smoke better. I set down the phone. I try to stop thinking about whatever it was I was thinking about. And I try to appreciate the moment--the smoke-but without trying to analyze it. A balance.