Occasional Bad Smoke. Just Move On !

[LudwigB88]

I had to look up that Chelsea morning. It sounds very tasty! But yeah mine was smoking better today as well. I’ve also been taking more time to do a better job of packing. I tend to press my bottom layer in a little too hard I think.

Yes. The bottom portion of the tobacco can tend to get bunched up as you are tamping. It’s always an issue because stirring it up risks mixing in ash. Then you get a mouth full of soot. I often end up sucking and spitting out ash until it’s gone … like sucking venom from a snake bite ! Lol !! Or other nasty analogy I’ll refrain from making.

 

[PRogers]

Yes. The bottom portion of the tobacco can tend to get bunched up as you are tamping. It’s always an issue because stirring it up risks mixing in ash. Then you get a mouth full of soot. I often end up sucking and spitting out ash until it’s gone … like sucking venom from a snake bite ! Lol !! Or other nasty analogy I’ll refrain from making.

I’ve been there man, it’s unpleasant.

 

[Uguccione]

The bottom portion of the tobacco can tend to get bunched up as you are tamping. It’s always an issue because stirring it up risks mixing in ash

No, at that point you can't do anything about it anymore, the smoke is compromised. You can try using the tamper needle to move the tobacco away from the walls of the bowl, in correspondence with the suction hole; sometimes it works, but it remains a palliative remedy, just so as not to throw everything away.

 

[didimauw]

It was definitely the humidity. We had a spell of rain for a week. Today is dry and I’m having a great smoke ! Chelsea Morning in a Savinelli brandy !

Smoking in the rain is my favorite. Under cover of course. But the humidity affects even the driest of tobaccos quickly, and can cause gurgle. It's a win/lose.

 

[MartyA]

Although I've smoked a pipe for brief periods over the last 55 years or so, I'm not an experienced smoker. Only last spring did I get "serious" about smoking technique, after running across a tobacco that I REALLY LIKE. Since then, I've tried a number of other tobaccos, and when I have a bad smoke, it's usually a matter of learning that I just don't like a particular tobacco. I'll give the stuff a couple of chances, then leave it in it's mason jar and smoke something I like more.
And maybe eventually I'll try mixing a tobacco that was maybe "too much" with one that "wasn't really there."

 

[dingdong]

just like food, work, love, sex, it will never be 100% good - relief is you have a choice - pick up another pipe filled with another tobacco - not always be the case for work, love and maybe sex