New Here and Need Help

[toddryan84]

Hi everyone!
I'm new here but not so new to the pipe smoking world, but I still would consider myself a novice. I've had an issue with pipe smoking that I just can't seem to get.
To preface this, I live in South Florida smack-dab between Miami and Fort Lauderdale. We definitely have a lot of humid days and evenings. My issue is that whenever I smoke, I find myself relighting dozens of times. I sometimes can't even let the pipe rest for 1 min without it going out. I've tried numerous packing techniques (gravity fill, 3 finger stuff, roll fill, etc.) I can never seem to get a bowl to burn without relighting 5 or more times. Then I end up getting a lot of moisture or a very burnt taste in the middle of my smoke.
Anyone have any advice they can lend? I've even tried drying my tobacco before smoking and nothing seems to work. I have a few pipes I use in rotation but lately have stopped smoking because I can never get an enjoyable smoke, even from my delicious tobaccos that I have.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Welcome to the forum!
Rule 1) Relights are common, don't feel bad about doing it.
Rule 2) Burning to the bottom of the bowl to a fine white ash. MYTH, well, most of the time.
If you are smoking aromatic tobacco, which shouldn't be a beginner's tobacco, get enough to fill a bowl, place on a paper towel, and microwave for five seconds. Fill your pipe loosely, and when smoking, frequently use your tamper to keep the fire in contact with the unburned tobacco. Maybe try Carter Hall to practice smoking habit and cadence with. It's a very forgiving blend.

 

[deathmetal]

We definitely have a lot of humid days and evenings.

Fellow humidity dweller here (but in another nation, er, state). Drying the tobacco is good advice, but also smoke slowly, and make sure you get a good starting light across the whole top layer of the tobacco.

 

[toddryan84]

If you are smoking aromatic tobacco, which shouldn't be a beginner's tobacco, get enough to fill a bowl, place on a paper towel, and microwave for five seconds.

I actually usually smoke English blends of VA/PER blends. I'm not the biggest fan of traditional aromatics. I think the other issue I smoke outside as I live with people that dislike smoke quite a bit. The Florida humidity seems to really make it difficult.
I also have issues with what to do with the ash on top of the bowl? Do I pour it out after a certain interval? Sometimes the ash gets so thick that I can't relight the tobacco at all..I end up just lighting the ash.
I know these sound like very noob things, but it's been constant for me. Maybe it's my smoking technique?

 

[aldecaker]

Nording Keystones or balsa absorbers may help you out in this case. Definitely dry the tobacco more than you think you should; with that kind of humidity, it will re-hydrate even as you smoke.

 

[toddryan84]

Fellow humidity dweller here

Where abouts are you from? The Florida humidity is awful, especially this summer it's rained everyday like clockwork. Smoking on my patio during a rain storm is always a failed endeavor, which sucks because I find the rain to be soothing and great for sitting on the patio and smoking a briar.

 

[toddryan84]

Nording Keystones or balsa absorbers

What are those? Maybe I should be drying my tobacco more any recommendations as to what the best method is?

 

[jpmcwjr]

If your tobacco is dry enough going into the bowl, packing "techniques" are not important.
For those in very humid locations, microwave may be the only solution, or possibly on sunny days, outside in the sun.

 

[toddryan84]

Even outside in the sun it's still about 85% relative humidity

 

[aldecaker]

Nording Keystones are little absorbent pellets that go in your bowl under the tobacco. Balsa absorbers are a Savinelli thing, but they can be used in any 6mm or 9mm filter pipe, like a Dr. Grabow, for example.

 

[toddryan84]

Example, today it's 87 degrees outside. RealFeel is 99 and the humidity is 75% it's awful

 

[mso489]

I second the motions -- some drying time for the tobacco, a bowl or two in a small bowl before packing (it'll dry sooner, an hour or two, or overnight); some regular tamper work, and sometimes gently dust out the ash on top; a few relights are standard, and many consider a "charring light" at the start, without many or any puffs, standard. I'd be very relaxed about all this. It's not a contest. The main focus is getting good taste out of the bowl. The rest is technique easily acquired over a few months. No pressure.

 

[sjfine]

I haven't participated for a while, so I thought that it was time. I hope this helps.
It took me several months to "get it right." The thing is, "getting it right" is relative. What it means is that I found a packing method, a lighting method, and a smoking method that works for me. It is, undoubtedly different than anyone else's. You will find yours.
I found the stuff, or the fold-and-stuff packing method works for me. It provides an air pocket that never fails me. I have never been able to make the 3-step method work for me.
I found this article to be a game changer for me. I am so happy that the Wayback Machine has a copy, Neil's site is long gone. A major loss for the community.
And, sipping-and-relighting is the order of the day. I smoke every day. I have pipes that do not require any relights, and I have pipes that require relighting almost every few minutes. I don't put too much thinking into the process. I just smoke. I rarely tamp, and I certainly don't tamp with any force at all. I scrape the ash, dump it gently, and relight the center. Sometimes I scrape some tobacco from the sides of the bowl to the center.
I often dump the bottom of the bowl (although I am able to smoke to ash in every cob that I own, every single time).
There came a time when my my learning curve stopped being a chore, and the pipe became a part of me like my middle initial is. It just happened.
And, I haven't looked back.
It will happen to you. Humidity or not.

 

[toddryan84]

When I first started smoking pipes back in Aug 2015, I smoked 2-3x a day for 4 months straight, and I still ended up finding issues with every bit of tobacco I tried to smoke. Relighting would sometimes cause a very bitter taste for me, or it just would light, I'd take a puff or two and it would go out again, causing me to relight dozens of times. Sometimes all the relighting would heat the bowl too much and I'd end up getting too much moisture in the stem.
I started to lose the enjoyment and it made me a bit sad because I had amassed a collection far before becoming a regular smoker. I have about 10 tins of unopened tobacco that I bought waiting for me to crack open but I became discouraged. I just recently got the desire to start again. I have 4 pipes in regular rotation: a Cob, a BC Rocbrune, a Rattrays Bull Dog, and a Peterson Dublin Castle. I love all of them, and I want to make use of them and thoroughly enjoy my tobacco.
I do think that the advice here has soothed my fears a little bit though, and that's good because I really do enjoy this hobby. I was an ex cigar smoker, and I like pipes way more than cigars that I don't even touch my cigars anymore.

 

[pipesmokingtom]

I don't see that anyone answered your question re: dumping ash. If they did and I didn't see it, I apologize.
Personally, I'll usually smoke ~half a bowl, take the pointy end of whatever tamper I'm using and lightly run it around the circumference of the ash - then dump. It doesn't take much disturbance to loosen it up enough that it will tip out.
Depending on how compacted the bottom half of the bowl is (varies by tobacco, how I've been tamping, etc), sometimes I'll stir everything up before I relight. Or at least do some rearranging.
Don't be discouraged by relights. I relight my pipe probably more than most and I'm just fine with it, because I'm usually smoking so slow that the tobacco is always at the point it's about to go out. When I relight, though, it looks NOTHING like my first light. I light the flame and spin it around the top of the tobacco while drawing for less than a second and assess how the burn is. If it takes two or three times doing that - fine. But I don't relight aggressively at all. Another tactic I use is getting the smoke out of my mouth as soon as I can when I'm lighting. Tobacco burning at lighting temperature tastes horrible. Expel it and then take a drink immediately if you have to before going back to it.
Works for me - hopefully something here works for you!

 

[saintpeter]

I picked up a tip on this forum that impacted my smoking to the extreme. I had read the admonition to tamp lightly. I always thought I did, but one day, partway through a bowl, I just used the weight of a pipe tool to tamp down the ash and then dump it. Flavor and smokeabilty of the tobacco went skyrocketing and relights plummeted. Give it a try, you might be amazed. (It works in Arizona heat during the monsoon season.)

 

[toddryan84]

All good advice from everyone so far, I'm already loving this community and I've only been here for a few hours lol.
To note the "Tamping", I do tamp, and I tamp lightly but that hasn't ever seemed to work for me.....I've had the best success out of my corncob pipe usually, although I can never smoke it all the way to the bottom because of how my particular cob was constructed.
Gently dumping the ash is something I need to try. My experience has been one time I tried dumping the ash and I guess my tobacco was too dry that the entire last 1/3 of it fell out.
I'm already excited that today when I get home from work I'm going to give it a shot again.
Now the hard part is to figure out what I wanna smoke!

 

[oldmansmoking]

Relights are all part of smoking, any tobacco not smoked I put in a tobacco jar for when I smoke my clay pipes.

Dryer tobacco helps. Put your tobacco in like handshakes

Baby ones at first

Women shakes

Then manly ones

In other words lightly packed, then on top a little tighter, then on top a good press.

Don't fret just enjoy, it will come.

Don't forget to use a tamper!

 

[oldmansmoking]

To add I never empty ash out of the pipe when smoking, a good tamper is all you need.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I like some ash on top, but not a lot. Therefore, flicking the pipe while vertical will sending flying some ash, but not all. Or tapping the side to loosen it and a quick inversion to dump it into an ashtray.