New Estate Pipe I Got

[chargerucd]

Hello, I'm a newbie!!

I recently got 2 kaywoodie briars from eBay, mainly to learn to clean pipes well and to get them going.
After cleaning my kaywoodie flame grain I noticed it had a small hole for the smoke. This pipe I got because it had a small bowl like the kaywoodie campus.

I loaded it with some escudo to try it and first thing I noticed was that after tamping it "plugged" too easily. (As compared to the corncob I've been using as my first pipe).
So, question is, did use the wrong tabaco? Is this meant for small flakes?

OR....

Can I get a drill and drill that stem hole a little bigger????
What do you guys recommend????
I will try to find a way to post images!!!
Thanks

 

[crpntr1]

Welcome to the forums

Please do post pics, sounds to me like you probably packed it too tight

IMO DO NOT take a drill to your pipe!! But thats just me...

 

[pstlpkr]

Another thought....
You may be tamping with too much force.

Try tamping using only the weight of the tamper.

This will collapse the ash without compressing the tobacco.

Tamping technique is often overlooked as important.

With a good tamping technique you can greatly extend the time of your smoke.

IMHO

::
T minus SEVEN

 

[chargerucd]

Hello. Still can't find a way to post pictures from my phone!!!!

 

[chargerucd]

Test

Hopefully it works!!!!
Thanks

 

[chargerucd]

This one is from eBay

 

[chargerucd]

The tamping suggestion is probably right!! Now that I think about it I think that I was getting away with it with the corncob. maybe it was more forgiving than this little pipe. So I'll try to be more gentle.
Thanks.

 

[ejames]

Most common size drill used to open a shank airway is 5/32" or 4MM-turned by hand.

 

[chargerucd]

That sounds good, It looks like I need to fine tune the smoking technique before I can fine tune the pipe!!!!
I'll work at that and see if the smoking gets better.
Thanks for the sugestions!!!

 

[chargerucd]

More info!!!
I cleaned very well (couldn't believe how much crud there was in there). And measure the hole to be about 1/8 inch so that size was good.

Anyways, to cleaned the stem I dipped it in some jack Daniels overnight (that was the closest thing I have to grain alcohol) and behold!!! I bleached the stem!!!

Shown with the bigger kaywoodie. The bigger got the same treatment than the smaller, yet no bleaching occurred!!! Is it different material ????

The smaller is not as light as the briar color.
Good thing I'm learning.