Since my coming to the forum, my views have drastically changed. That, hopefully, was the point. I thought that I was a pretty slow smoker when I arrived, but knew I had a lot to learn, and that's why I joined. My first thread was on gurgling, and I got some great advice, and my backside whacked. I was grateful for that, and learned a great deal from that post.
I have three main pipe smoking buddies; Mike, who I have posted about; Josh, a good friend and former violin student of mine, who got me into the pipe in the first place; and Stuart, who has been smoking a pipe and cigars since he was 8 years old, with both his mother and father. No, I'm not kidding. I've spent a few afternoons smoking with him and his mom as well!
After my gurgle shellacking, Mike, Josh, another buddy Nathan, and myself spent a couple or six sessions together, discussing and trying out every suggestion that you forum members gave me. My two favourites (really) were "Learn how to smoke a pipe," and "dry your tobacco out a lot more."
About a week ago, Mike dropped over for an evening, and we both lit up. I decided to take my Peterson P-Lip and smoke a very mild Cavendish. I think that the P-Lip must have been designed for very simple tobaccos in the pre-WW2 days, and it really cannot be manipulated in exploratory fashion like other designs, but I was getting burnt out from all this testing and breaking pipes in, so I appreciated that P-Lip that night, because all of the smoke was going onto my palate. That afterall, is the point of the design.
An aside, I have adopted every suggestion you guys made in one form or the other, except I have refused to mud the gurglers. Nope. Won't do that. The words "learn how to smoke a pipe" kept ringing through my mind.
That session, amongst other techniques, I used blowback, a drier tobacco, proper tamping, flicking the stem, sipping "under" the gurgle, taking the pipe from my mouth and concentrating on the taste, mixing air with the smoke - the whole shebang. I confess to having a few meer chips in the bottom of the trench, but they are now gone. I think I used every technique I knew and that Mike, Josh, Nathan and I practiced during our sessions.
I was totally absorbed in my pipe, until I noticed that Mike was looking in my direction very frequently and then to the other side, where my clock is.
Finally, the pipe died and I put it down, Mike stood up and said, "do you realize that you've had that pipe going for 82 minutes??"
I was so totally absorbed in the techniques I'd been learning and practicing, that I'd simply lost track of the time. I think that this day was as much yours, O' Forum Members, as mine, and I celebrated the occasion the next day by beginning my 3 day fast. I was really shot!
Both Josh and Mike regularly go over an hour with their pipes, Mike hitting 75 on a few occasions and 80 on one. We've all stopped looking at the clock now, and our little group owes you all a debt of gratitude.
The Peterson was part of the process - it has an absolutely massive bowl that holds a ton of tobacco. That time would not have been possible with one of my churchwardens, which have smaller bowls, but I have reached 70 minutes with two of them. Now the clock stays unwatched as i just enjoy.
I've got a long way to go to become fluent at all this, but frankly there is more similarity between mastering a pipe and mastering a violin than I thought. Same process to a large extent. I'm much more confident now in the pipe smoking techniques, and look forward to further growth.
Thanks guys!
I have three main pipe smoking buddies; Mike, who I have posted about; Josh, a good friend and former violin student of mine, who got me into the pipe in the first place; and Stuart, who has been smoking a pipe and cigars since he was 8 years old, with both his mother and father. No, I'm not kidding. I've spent a few afternoons smoking with him and his mom as well!
After my gurgle shellacking, Mike, Josh, another buddy Nathan, and myself spent a couple or six sessions together, discussing and trying out every suggestion that you forum members gave me. My two favourites (really) were "Learn how to smoke a pipe," and "dry your tobacco out a lot more."
About a week ago, Mike dropped over for an evening, and we both lit up. I decided to take my Peterson P-Lip and smoke a very mild Cavendish. I think that the P-Lip must have been designed for very simple tobaccos in the pre-WW2 days, and it really cannot be manipulated in exploratory fashion like other designs, but I was getting burnt out from all this testing and breaking pipes in, so I appreciated that P-Lip that night, because all of the smoke was going onto my palate. That afterall, is the point of the design.
An aside, I have adopted every suggestion you guys made in one form or the other, except I have refused to mud the gurglers. Nope. Won't do that. The words "learn how to smoke a pipe" kept ringing through my mind.
That session, amongst other techniques, I used blowback, a drier tobacco, proper tamping, flicking the stem, sipping "under" the gurgle, taking the pipe from my mouth and concentrating on the taste, mixing air with the smoke - the whole shebang. I confess to having a few meer chips in the bottom of the trench, but they are now gone. I think I used every technique I knew and that Mike, Josh, Nathan and I practiced during our sessions.
I was totally absorbed in my pipe, until I noticed that Mike was looking in my direction very frequently and then to the other side, where my clock is.
Finally, the pipe died and I put it down, Mike stood up and said, "do you realize that you've had that pipe going for 82 minutes??"
I was so totally absorbed in the techniques I'd been learning and practicing, that I'd simply lost track of the time. I think that this day was as much yours, O' Forum Members, as mine, and I celebrated the occasion the next day by beginning my 3 day fast. I was really shot!
Both Josh and Mike regularly go over an hour with their pipes, Mike hitting 75 on a few occasions and 80 on one. We've all stopped looking at the clock now, and our little group owes you all a debt of gratitude.
The Peterson was part of the process - it has an absolutely massive bowl that holds a ton of tobacco. That time would not have been possible with one of my churchwardens, which have smaller bowls, but I have reached 70 minutes with two of them. Now the clock stays unwatched as i just enjoy.
I've got a long way to go to become fluent at all this, but frankly there is more similarity between mastering a pipe and mastering a violin than I thought. Same process to a large extent. I'm much more confident now in the pipe smoking techniques, and look forward to further growth.
Thanks guys!
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