On Smoking Slowly and the Benefits...

[The Benedictine]

It took me a long time to figure out slow smoking. It truly is a wonderful experience. I enjoyed the post @cosmicfolklore

 

[occidentalist]

An average size bowl lasts me 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on the blend. My preference is for a well rubbed and exceedingly dry tobacco, packed somewhat tight.

Embrace the need for frequent re-lights (10 or so per bowl). Puff gently (sip)--shallow puffs, not deep puffs. The frequency of puffs, and the depth of the puff, are determined by how well the tobacco is burning. One needs to develop a sense for how warm the bowl is in the hand--the pipe, and the smoke, should never be permitted to grow hot, or cold!

Sense the amount of smoke entering your mouth with each puff. Strive to keep this smoke density constant--neither too little nor too much. When the smoke thins, it is time to do something--puff harder, or more frequently, until the smoke thickens--or tamp and re-light if the combustion can no longer be maintained by puffing.

After the first light, if the tobacco rises to a point where it might fall out of the bowl, I gently tamp it down.
If the bowl is properly packed, I have no need to tamp again until after the halfway point, at which point the need to tamp grows more frequent.

This is incredible to me. 90-120 minutes on one bowl. 20 minutes is probably the longest I've ever smoked a single bowl. I'm trying to wrap my head around making a modest sized bowl last 90 minutes while still actually "smoking" it. Even when I go through a bowl in 20 minutes it's still a satisfying smoke. I just can't fathom making it last 3 times longer than that while still doing anything that, in my short pipe smoking career, could qualify as smoking (smoked cigarettes for 15 years, cigars for 6). I'm a visual learner so in my mind's eye I picture lighting a bowl, sticking it in my gob, and then just letting it sit there with no interaction from me in order to make it last an hour. I'm obviously way off base. I'll have to scour youtube to see if there's a 60+ minute video of a guy smoking a pipe just to see his tempo.

As an admitted pyromaniac and maker of lightweight camping stoves and ridiculously overbuilt rocket stoves, I understand the relationship between airflow and fuel. It makes sense that the better a bowl is burning, the less frequent the requirement to puff. I'm pretty sure that my whole issue has to do with packing and drying. I tend to go by feel, letting moist aromatics sit as long as 20 minutes whereas a dry latakia blend may only have to sit for half that amount of time. I've tried the palm swirl packing method as well as simply filling a bowl, lightly tamping, and repeating until near the top. My results are inconsistent at best. At least that's my impression. My result is the same as yours: tobacco rises on first light, then tamp down, then need to tamp is much less frequent.

I'm doing the proper steps as described in your wonderful email: check smoke density on puff - if too light, puff harder/tamp - return to less frequent sips until smoke density begins lightening. Rinse repeat.

@occidentalist.. There seem to be two schools of thought, one as @Professor Moriarty has posted about staying focused, and mine, light the pipe and forget about it. But, Moriarty is right, especially in the beginning. Think about learning to drive a stick shift. You have to focus on letting up off of the clutch as you gently give it gas, then shifting, down shifting, etc... then after a while you no longer have to think about it. You just drive, no longer even thinking about the gas/clutch exchange. That's when you can just get a pipe going, and walk around doing things without having to think about it al all. I tend to walk around with unlit pipes in clench between smokes. And, mostly, I never even remember packing or lighting anymore.
But, if I had to maintain that level of focus as I did in the beginning, I would not smoke pipes. I have way too many thing to get done in a day to give smoking that much thought.

I probably fall more into this camp where I light my pipe and forget it unless it causes me issues. Your analogy makes complete sense.

Thanks everyone for your sage wisdom. I'm determined to get a 60 minute smoke!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

This is incredible to me. 90-120 minutes on one bowl. 20 minutes is probably the longest I've ever smoked a single bowl. I'm trying to wrap my head around making a modest sized bowl last 90 minutes while still actually "smoking" it. Even when I go through a bowl in 20 minutes it's still a satisfying smoke. I just can't fathom making it last 3 times longer than that while still doing anything that, in my short pipe smoking career, could qualify as smoking (smoked cigarettes for 15 years, cigars for 6). I'm a visual learner so in my mind's eye I picture lighting a bowl, sticking it in my gob, and then just letting it sit there with no interaction from me in order to make it last an hour. I'm obviously way off base. I'll have to scour youtube to see if there's a 60+ minute video of a guy smoking a pipe just to see his tempo.

As an admitted pyromaniac and maker of lightweight camping stoves and ridiculously overbuilt rocket stoves, I understand the relationship between airflow and fuel. It makes sense that the better a bowl is burning, the less frequent the requirement to puff. I'm pretty sure that my whole issue has to do with packing and drying. I tend to go by feel, letting moist aromatics sit as long as 20 minutes whereas a dry latakia blend may only have to sit for half that amount of time. I've tried the palm swirl packing method as well as simply filling a bowl, lightly tamping, and repeating until near the top. My results are inconsistent at best. At least that's my impression. My result is the same as yours: tobacco rises on first light, then tamp down, then need to tamp is much less frequent.

I'm doing the proper steps as described in your wonderful email: check smoke density on puff - if too light, puff harder/tamp - return to less frequent sips until smoke density begins lightening. Rinse repeat.





I probably fall more into this camp where I light my pipe and forget it unless it causes me issues. Your analogy makes complete sense.

Thanks everyone for your sage wisdom. I'm determined to get a 60 minute smoke!

And keep in mind, that this is all just the goal. I am not perfect. When I am worked up, I do tend to puff faster, but then when I catch myself, I force myself to slow down. On a few occasions I have been able to just let my passive breath affect the shape of my throat and keep a pipe going. But, i am not superman.

Back when we were doing a lot of meet ups on Zoom, folks would point out that they could see my smoke. I was like, "yeh, I am having a tad bit of social anxiety, so I am going to breath a lot harder. "

I think I have the best form and cadence when I am totally relaxed, but still involved in something that keeps my mind occupied. Chopping wood, not such great form. Rebuilding multiple diamond ring settings at my workbench, closest to perfect.

 

[WirelessSmoke]

I'm surely smoking slower than I did when I first started, but I'm quite certain I could slow down quite a bit more. Slowly picking up nuances in different blends that someone thoughtfully put together is becoming quite a pleasure. Excellent writeup.

 

[RL Bucktails]

Coming from smoking cigars it has been hard to slow down. Some days are better than others. Sometimes the tobacco is so good. A heated bowl reminds me to slow down.

 

[Pypkė]

I noticed that I tend to obey the speed limit when I'm smoking a pipe behind the wheel. I've managed to make a country gentleman cob last 45 min filled with D&R dry dry dry burley like Two Timer. The experience is totally different than "a quick smoke."

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Coming from smoking cigars it has been hard to slow down. Some days are better than others. Sometimes the tobacco is so good. A heated bowl reminds me to slow down.

I have even found cigars to have more flavors when smoked slow, but of course that causes canoe problems sometimes. So…

 

[Benedict Munsinger]

It has been 8 years since I have posted a thread about the benefits of slow smoking. I took a break to let other smokers step up and address this issue. But, I notice that a lot of new posts can easily be summed up with taking notice that smoking slow is the goal.

So, here is goes...

The Benefits of Slow Smoking

For guys who didn’t grow up around other pipe men, and watching the experienced smoker ssssllllloooooooowwwwllllyyyy sipping away at their pipes, it might take a lot of trial and error to figure out that almost every problem you might encounter from smoking a pipe would come from just smoking too fast. How fast is too fast? I’d say that you just can’t slow down enough. When you think you are going as slow as possible, slow down even more. I see guys making large billowing clouds of smoke, and if you are into smoking just for the visual effects of making clouds, then keep on, more power to you. However, here are some of the benefits to slowing down and keeping the clouds minimal.

Taste is affected by how slow you smoke. When you get a really flavorful tongue pleasing taste of tobacco, it is not coming directly from the smokes and combustion. This is cigarette mentality. What you taste is the surrounding tobacco to the combustion heating up and giving off its essential oils. This goes for aromatics, latakia blends, to Virginias. Slowing down and not allowing the full width of the bowl to cherry up, is giving the surrounding tobacco time to heat up and give off its flavor before combusting into smoke. Plus, if you are just allowing smoke to drizzle into your mouth, you are giving the flavor time on your tongue, enjoy that flavor, relish in it. Puffing harder faster doesn’t give you more flavor, just more smoke. In fact the harder and faster you draw the smoke in, the more your flavor receptors on your taste buds will get overloaded and overheated. Slow down and sense every nuance of flavor the experience provides.

Thusly, by heating surrounding tobacco to have them release their essential oils, you also speed up the cake process and breaking in of a pipe. The oils and tars are released and get pushed to the inside of the chamber. The faster you smoke, the more you increase the temperature of combustion, destroying those oils that are needed to cake the bowl. So, smoking faster does not help you break in a pipe nearly as much as just slowing down. I realized this when I started practicing for a slow smoking contest. As I limited my puffing and just allowed the smoke to drizzle into my mouth, I noticed that I had to scrape my pipes much more often than I did the years I had been smoking at a moderate (too fast) a rate.

You don’t get more nicotine from smoking faster. This is cigarette mentality also. You are only pulling in nicotine from the small blood vessels of the mouth and sinuses, unless you are inhaling. And, you may be inhaling because you are smoking too fast, not giving your blood vessels time to absorb. The pipe hobby delivers nicotine much slower than cigarettes. You have to go slow and allow the nicotine time to pass through the walls of your skin and blood vessels. Stretching a small bowl out to an hour gives you way more nicotine than a large bowl huffed in thirty minutes. No one celebrates smoking faster. This is why we have slow smoking contests. Smoking fast is just a neophyte behavior. If you want the full benefits of smoking a pipe, then stretch that experience out as long as you can. This is what makes the nicotine reaction in our bodies different and more relaxing than that of the cigarette smoker’s. We actually process way more nicotine, but only over a much longer period of time.

Your pipe will smoke better the slower you smoke. Whether a bent or straight pipe, it has the potential to gurgle if smoked too fast. Gurgle comes from condensation formed from temperature and pressure changes, like the condensation coils on your air conditioner or the copper coils on a moonshine still. I hear, so often, people suggest drying out aromatics to reduce condensation. It seems logical, but you are removing all of the flavor toppings by doing that. And, bone dry non-aromatics have just as much potential to gurgle a pipe, because the natural bi-product of combustion is H2O. Drying out a tobacco will not solve the problem. Air pressure is most affected by turbulence. This is why well-made straight pipes don’t tend to gurgle, and a well-made bent pipe can. Curving the flow, rough surfaces inside the stem, small diameter holes, and drawing too hard by puffing, increases turbulence. You can actually take a gurgler of a pipe and just slow way way way down and get way more enjoyment from that pipe in flavor, nicotine, and a gurgle-free experience.

Live slowly. The reason for the boom of the cigarettes over the pipe came, when we were persuaded that we needed to rush, rush, rush to make a living and get everything that needs to be done, done. All of our time-saving inventions were taking up all of our time. Cars go faster, microwave meals, drive thru, iPhones, computers going faster and faster to download less and less relevant crap. You get the feeling that you don’t have time to smoke a pipe. If that’s the case… then why did you want to smoke a pipe in the first place? Is it a decoration or accessory for you? For me, my pipe is a time machine. It takes me back to an age when men had time to live and enjoy living and being alive. I savor those flavors that men enjoyed back in the time of Isaac Newton, George Washington, etc… From the time I light my pipe till I have finished the bowl, time just melts away. I never feel rushed to finish a bowl. It’s not a contest to get to the bottom. I could care less if I finish a complete bowl. I smoke at my leisure. I try my best to make it stretch as long as possible. I don’t want the sensations to end. If I do have something hounding me to get finished, I just set the pipe aside. Feeling anxious or rushed does not mix well with the pipe.

I remember as a kid when I used to run up to my granddad with some daunting question, he’d tell me to hold on… he’d pull out his pipe and make me wait, wait, wait, till he packed the bowl, lit it, sat down, and eventually he’d get to my question… He taught me patience in a world wanting me to rush faster hurry up and come on. In fact, I can’t think of many things that are designed to make us slow down as much as this hobby. Sure, sure, sure, if billowing clouds of smoke are your thing, I won’t tell you that you’re wrong. If hot-boxing a pipe down in 45 minutes or less is your thing, by all means continue. But, not to brag, but I have yet to find a pipe small enough that I couldn’t make it last an hour or more. There are no rights and wrongs. I didn’t write this to make anyone feel bad about huffing huge clouds of noxious smoke. I just wanted to share some things that I noticed about the hobby. Smoke however you want; however, if you are a billowing cloud of smoke sort of guy, please don’t stand next to me. I don’t want someone to think I just bought a pipe and started smoking today. I grew up around pipe men, and they’d definitely crack a giggle at the clouds.

Slow down, give it a try…

Absolutely spot on and well put! I’ve been thinking the same for years — pipe smoking isn’t about racing; it’s about savoring every nuance. Your description of slowing it down so much more, especially letting the essential oils gently release before combustion, really captures the essence.
Thank you for distilling the idea so clearly — it’s refreshing to see someone cut through the hobbyist noise and bring back the core value: slower smoking = better flavor, better nicotine hit, less gurgle.
Here’s to taking it slow and making every bowl count!

 

[stewe]

Naprosto souhlasím. Normálně kouřím dýmky Peterson asi dvě hodiny a mám jeden tip pro rychlé kuřáky. KOUŘTE BEZ FILTRU. Filtr maskuje nepříjemnou chuť tabáku, když kouříte rychle.

 

[FLDRD]

Naprosto souhlasím. Normálně kouřím dýmky Peterson asi dvě hodiny a mám jeden tip pro rychlé kuřáky. KOUŘTE BEZ FILTRU. Filtr maskuje nepříjemnou chuť tabáku, když kouříte rychle.

According to google translate............

I totally agree. I normally smoke Peterson pipes for about two hours and I have one tip for fast smokers. SMOKE WITHOUT A FILTER. A filter masks the unpleasant taste of tobacco when you smoke quickly.

 

[bersekero]

Cosmic you are the man! God bless you my friend. I took great advice here but this thread is the best.

 

[Gerald Boone]

It has been 8 years since I have posted a thread about the benefits of slow smoking. I took a break to let other smokers step up and address this issue. But, I notice that a lot of new posts can easily be summed up with taking notice that smoking slow is the goal.

So, here is goes...

The Benefits of Slow Smoking

For guys who didn’t grow up around other pipe men, and watching the experienced smoker ssssllllloooooooowwwwllllyyyy sipping away at their pipes, it might take a lot of trial and error to figure out that almost every problem you might encounter from smoking a pipe would come from just smoking too fast. How fast is too fast? I’d say that you just can’t slow down enough. When you think you are going as slow as possible, slow down even more. I see guys making large billowing clouds of smoke, and if you are into smoking just for the visual effects of making clouds, then keep on, more power to you. However, here are some of the benefits to slowing down and keeping the clouds minimal.

Taste is affected by how slow you smoke. When you get a really flavorful tongue pleasing taste of tobacco, it is not coming directly from the smokes and combustion. This is cigarette mentality. What you taste is the surrounding tobacco to the combustion heating up and giving off its essential oils. This goes for aromatics, latakia blends, to Virginias. Slowing down and not allowing the full width of the bowl to cherry up, is giving the surrounding tobacco time to heat up and give off its flavor before combusting into smoke. Plus, if you are just allowing smoke to drizzle into your mouth, you are giving the flavor time on your tongue, enjoy that flavor, relish in it. Puffing harder faster doesn’t give you more flavor, just more smoke. In fact the harder and faster you draw the smoke in, the more your flavor receptors on your taste buds will get overloaded and overheated. Slow down and sense every nuance of flavor the experience provides.

Thusly, by heating surrounding tobacco to have them release their essential oils, you also speed up the cake process and breaking in of a pipe. The oils and tars are released and get pushed to the inside of the chamber. The faster you smoke, the more you increase the temperature of combustion, destroying those oils that are needed to cake the bowl. So, smoking faster does not help you break in a pipe nearly as much as just slowing down. I realized this when I started practicing for a slow smoking contest. As I limited my puffing and just allowed the smoke to drizzle into my mouth, I noticed that I had to scrape my pipes much more often than I did the years I had been smoking at a moderate (too fast) a rate.

You don’t get more nicotine from smoking faster. This is cigarette mentality also. You are only pulling in nicotine from the small blood vessels of the mouth and sinuses, unless you are inhaling. And, you may be inhaling because you are smoking too fast, not giving your blood vessels time to absorb. The pipe hobby delivers nicotine much slower than cigarettes. You have to go slow and allow the nicotine time to pass through the walls of your skin and blood vessels. Stretching a small bowl out to an hour gives you way more nicotine than a large bowl huffed in thirty minutes. No one celebrates smoking faster. This is why we have slow smoking contests. Smoking fast is just a neophyte behavior. If you want the full benefits of smoking a pipe, then stretch that experience out as long as you can. This is what makes the nicotine reaction in our bodies different and more relaxing than that of the cigarette smoker’s. We actually process way more nicotine, but only over a much longer period of time.

Your pipe will smoke better the slower you smoke. Whether a bent or straight pipe, it has the potential to gurgle if smoked too fast. Gurgle comes from condensation formed from temperature and pressure changes, like the condensation coils on your air conditioner or the copper coils on a moonshine still. I hear, so often, people suggest drying out aromatics to reduce condensation. It seems logical, but you are removing all of the flavor toppings by doing that. And, bone dry non-aromatics have just as much potential to gurgle a pipe, because the natural bi-product of combustion is H2O. Drying out a tobacco will not solve the problem. Air pressure is most affected by turbulence. This is why well-made straight pipes don’t tend to gurgle, and a well-made bent pipe can. Curving the flow, rough surfaces inside the stem, small diameter holes, and drawing too hard by puffing, increases turbulence. You can actually take a gurgler of a pipe and just slow way way way down and get way more enjoyment from that pipe in flavor, nicotine, and a gurgle-free experience.

Live slowly. The reason for the boom of the cigarettes over the pipe came, when we were persuaded that we needed to rush, rush, rush to make a living and get everything that needs to be done, done. All of our time-saving inventions were taking up all of our time. Cars go faster, microwave meals, drive thru, iPhones, computers going faster and faster to download less and less relevant crap. You get the feeling that you don’t have time to smoke a pipe. If that’s the case… then why did you want to smoke a pipe in the first place? Is it a decoration or accessory for you? For me, my pipe is a time machine. It takes me back to an age when men had time to live and enjoy living and being alive. I savor those flavors that men enjoyed back in the time of Isaac Newton, George Washington, etc… From the time I light my pipe till I have finished the bowl, time just melts away. I never feel rushed to finish a bowl. It’s not a contest to get to the bottom. I could care less if I finish a complete bowl. I smoke at my leisure. I try my best to make it stretch as long as possible. I don’t want the sensations to end. If I do have something hounding me to get finished, I just set the pipe aside. Feeling anxious or rushed does not mix well with the pipe.

I remember as a kid when I used to run up to my granddad with some daunting question, he’d tell me to hold on… he’d pull out his pipe and make me wait, wait, wait, till he packed the bowl, lit it, sat down, and eventually he’d get to my question… He taught me patience in a world wanting me to rush faster hurry up and come on. In fact, I can’t think of many things that are designed to make us slow down as much as this hobby. Sure, sure, sure, if billowing clouds of smoke are your thing, I won’t tell you that you’re wrong. If hot-boxing a pipe down in 45 minutes or less is your thing, by all means continue. But, not to brag, but I have yet to find a pipe small enough that I couldn’t make it last an hour or more. There are no rights and wrongs. I didn’t write this to make anyone feel bad about huffing huge clouds of noxious smoke. I just wanted to share some things that I noticed about the hobby. Smoke however you want; however, if you are a billowing cloud of smoke sort of guy, please don’t stand next to me. I don’t want someone to think I just bought a pipe and started smoking today. I grew up around pipe men, and they’d definitely crack a giggle at the clouds.

Slow down, give it a try…

Well said; I am learning but still have to relight a lot since I am a novice and don't have my technique down. I can tell I'm getting better and definitely taste a great deal more.

 

[Hillcrest]

ssssllllloooooooowwwwllllyyyy sipping away at their pipes

 

[lithicus]

Live slowly. The reason for the boom of the cigarettes over the pipe came, when we were persuaded that we needed to rush, rush, rush to make a living and get everything that needs to be done, done. All of our time-saving inventions were taking up all of our time. Cars go faster, microwave meals, drive thru, iPhones, computers going faster and faster to download less and less relevant crap.

For me, my pipe is a time machine. It takes me back to an age when men had time to live and enjoy living and being alive.

I just stumbled upon this thread as it was linked in another thread I was reading. I'm only on the first page, but will work may way through the rest of this thread. These parts I quoted really spoke to me in a way I hadn't realized or expected. And, I appreciate you sharing these words.

I'm not old, but I'm certainly no longer spry. I grew up in a small town; hunting and fishing. But my career path took me to the east coast after college. I lived the big city life for over 10 years. I could never afford a house there. So in March of 2019, I bought my first home out in the country; where life moves a little slower. Not a single stoplight in town. Just a post office and a feed mill. On the rare occasion I actually had to return to the office, it didn't take long to realize how much I had normalized and internalized the stress that comes with big city traffic. Big city life. You don't realize it when you're living it. But, step away for a breath of fresh air and coming back to the big city feels toxic.

I always smoked cigs, but hated when bic lighters emptied and I didn't have a back up. It didn't happen often, but trips to town take time and felt silly for a pack of lighters. I started collecting zippos and bought a big box of matches. Now when my lighter runs out, I can fill it back up myself. If the flint goes out, I can replace it.

When my grandpa passed a few years back, I picked up collecting pocket knives. He bought me my first Case XX Peanut when I was 7. He gifted me the knife we used to field dress deer and rabbit. Working around the property, having a folding knife in pocket came in handy. Now, I feel naked without one. It just feels right. When it gets wet, I take the time to dry it. When it dulls, I take the time to sharpen it on a whetstone.

It was actually a knife video that got me into smoking pipes. The guy in the video had received a lot of questions about his pipe and so he did a video exclusively on it. The grain was beautiful and I immediately felt the desire to learn more. I'm 2 years in to smoking pipes now, and I couldn't be happier for it.

I enjoy taking the time to fill my zippo with lighter fluid, to oil my 1095 carbon steel pocket knife, and to pack a pipe to smoke. Others buy butane inserts, prefer stainless steel, and smoke cigs. I feel they are missing out. Bought in and sold to the hectic lifestyle that doesn't feel toxic until you realize what you're giving up. Peace. Quiet. Relaxation. Time to be in your thoughts. Free from society. The world cares so much for convenience that, unbeknownst to them, they unwilling give up their freedom and sanity.

All of this is to say... slow down. Not just in smoking, but in life. Enjoy it. Appreciate today because tomorrow isn't guaranteed. When the world is built to pay you for going faster, sometimes it pays to just take your time.

 

[JOHN72]

In my opinion, these three points of the triangle are essential. Smoke calmly, drink calmly, eat calmly.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Thanks guys, I am glad that you are all still enjoying this thread.

 

[Lux]

Thanks guys, I am glad that you are all still enjoying this thread.

As a new piper, your treatise has helped me a great deal, thank you.

 

[BronzeAgePiper]

In my opinion, these three points of the triangle are essential. Smoke calmly, drink calmly, eat calmly.

This might actually be related. I’m the slowest eater of anyone I’ve ever met, I am reminded of this every time we dine with friends. Always been a slow smoker, I don’t have a single pipe or cob for that matter that I can finish in less than an hour, and most of my pipes are quite small and I pack loose.

I’ve been shocked to see guys unload a 5 cigar rotation for the night as I would have to begin first thing in the morning to be able to finish all of that smoking. Some guys take pride in their ability to smoke laps around us, but to me it’s never been a race nor do I take pride in smoking slow, I’m just too busy enjoying my smoke.

And with spirits I can easily spend an hour on a 1oz pour, but when it comes to beer…boy I’ll race ya, let’s go!