Pack Like Drinking Through a Straw?

[mpjetset]

SNIP... I'm learning my own way, but I get impatient. I need to sit back and just enjoy the learning prprocess.

This will cause you much delay: impatience. But, "Enjoy the learning process" is ideal. The fact is, your mouth will learn - whether consciously or unconsciously - to avoid unpleasantness and find flavor. Slower is better while you gain experience. Good luck!

 

[walkingpipeguy]

I'm finally just beginning to figure it out myself, and I find that descriptions of how much resistance there should be on the draw are completely useless. I just stuff some in and gauge it by how springy it is, but it varies hugely depending on the cut of tobacco, moisture level and the ambient humidity. If it's a lot of fine broken up pieces like you get at the bottom of a jar or baggie, it pretty much falls in and packs itself, very easy to get it too tight. A ribbon cut needs to be stuffed in a little more. Generally the draw has no or very little resistance for me, but it depends on the pipe and tobacco, and varies throughout the smoke as well.

 

[mpjetset]

I'm finally just beginning to figure it out myself, and I find that descriptions of how much resistance there should be on the draw are completely useless. I just stuff some in and gauge it by how springy it is, but it varies hugely depending on the cut of tobacco, moisture level and the ambient humidity. If it's a lot of fine broken up pieces like you get at the bottom of a jar or baggie, it pretty much falls in and packs itself, very easy to get it too tight. A ribbon cut needs to be stuffed in a little more. Generally the draw has no or very little resistance for me, but it depends on the pipe and tobacco, and varies throughout the smoke as well.

YES! Add different objectives (the spectrum between quick smoke to relaxation), and every smoke will be different. For relaxation, I like no draw, where a pipe can "smoke itself" and I fill my mouth with moist flavor with my lips partly open. When I'm grabbing a quick smoke during an activity, I'm a little more aggressive. Each will be a different smoke. These would also "mostly" be different pipes, too.

 

[niblicck]

What helped me the most was just using less tobacco and getting the feel of the amount to use.
Pack your pipe the way you have been packing it. Then remove all of the tobacco out of the pipe. Divide the tobacco into 5 little piles. Remove one of the piles and reload the pipe using the remaining 4 to the height and of the original packing.

 

[burleybreath]

What helped me the most was just using less tobacco and getting the feel of the amount to use.
Pack your pipe the way you have been packing it. Then remove all of the tobacco out of the pipe. Divide the tobacco into 5 little piles. Remove one of the piles and reload the pipe using the remaining 4 to the height and of the original packing.

Ingenious. Wish I'd thought of that five decades ago. My problem has always been knowing that the less tobacco I shove into the bowl, the shorter the smoke. There's a subconscious evil telling me to stuff more in. This obviates that, and adds discipline to my naked lust.

 

[upnorth1]

I stuff and light. I keep my smoking simple. I don't use straws so, no comparing. I started smoking and, over time, found a draw I was comfortable with. I'd strongly suggest you do the same, find a draw you like which gives you a good smoke. You are doing this for you after all.

Plus one for this.

 

[Sobrbiker]

There's a subconscious evil telling me to stuff more in. This obviates that, and adds discipline to my naked lust.

Pack density does have a lot to do with burn rate. Funny thing is, I usually smoke “group 2” sized pipes (avg chamber approx 3/4”x1-1 1/4” deep). Smokes can be 20 min to an hour.
When I grab a pipe with a more generous bowl (not huge, but .8-.9”, same depth) I seem to get 1/2-1hr, but it’s at least 25% more tobacco. Always feels like a waste to me.

 

[anotherbob]

Sooo much help here in this thread for me. Thank you all!

I'm learning my own way, but I get impatient. I need to sit back and just enjoy the learning process.

think of it sort of like learning to ride a bike. Not something that happens over night, and even after you have it perfected you can somehow still get a bit better at it.

 

[/Adam\]

Excellent thread fellas. I’m brand new to this also. I’ve occasionally had bite issues and have tried to just slow down and sip weaker. But at times I feel like I’m sipping so weak that I barely get any smoke. I think I’ve been packing too tight. Also one who used Youtube university to try and school myself haha. I’ll pack much lighter from now on the try adjusting from there.

 

[mpjetset]

I'm glad you brought this topic back up. "Sipping through a straw" has to be the worst possible advice for a new pipe smoker, and over the last week or so I've entertained the idea that the advisor was either joking, hated the OP, or a troll.

Yes, you have packed too tight if you have not getting anything, or the bottom dottle has swamped with moisture. Imaging drawing that hard, most likely increasing the blood supply to your mouth, and exposing more tissue to the alkaline smoke and steam from the hot bowl.

Try this: Drop the first tobacco into the bowl by gravity. Wad the next pinch a bit and place it on top with a gently push. This is relatively loose but your bowl should not be full while you are learning. Wet your mouth - something slightly acidic like tea or coffee is good but until you are comfortable with the process avoid alcohol, and a light film of saliva is helpful too. Now, light and enjoy creating a dense plume of smoke during the char with gentle draws. Some tamp a little, and do it again. After this, your draws should be done only by opening your palate (expanding your mouth cavity) through partially open lips so you'll get fresh air at the same time. Never "suck."

As you begin to find flavor without pain you will get a little more aggressive. Just avoid "sucking through a staw" and any sense you are getting steam, and more of your smokes will be flavorful.

Good luck!

 

[AroEnglish]

I drank from a straw just to recall what it's like and how it compares to draw on a pipe and yeah, that would be way too tight.

 

[jdlander]

Try this: Drop the first tobacco into the bowl by gravity. Wad the next pinch a bit and place it on top with a gently push. This is relatively loose but your bowl should not be full while you are learning. Wet your mouth - something slightly acidic like tea or coffee is good but until you are comfortable with the process avoid alcohol, and a light film of saliva is helpful too. Now, light and enjoy creating a dense plume of smoke during the char with gentle draws. Some tamp a little, and do it again. After this, your draws should be done only by opening your palate (expanding your mouth cavity) through partially open lips so you'll get fresh air at the same time. Never "suck."

This is a great method. I have done this with my last few pipes and have had the most enjoyable pipes. Easy draw. Easy lighting. Stays lit (mostly). No bite. Thank you!

 

[Oddball]

Its a dry straw flow, not one in a drink...


Works so good every time.

Impossible to mess up.

Dry straw. Regular size. Puff before lighting, if like straw, doesn't have to be exact, gtg.

 

[PaulDM]

Just think of an upside down bonfire. The pack should be relatively lose on the bottom of the bowl and firm on top. There are different ways to accomplish that. I use an informal "Frank method" which has become basically stuff and puff over time. 1. - gravity fill, tap the sides of the bowl, and add as much lose tobacco as it can take without tamping. 2, Take a large bunch of tobacco - more than you will think you will need - and lay it on top of the bowl, and start pressing gently around the edges without pressing your finger directly into the bowl. Almost folding the tobacco over the top, Let any excess fall away. Tamp a few times gently with our thumb. Result is that the gravity filled tobacco is at the bottom of the bowl but remains lose and is not overly compressed, allowing air flow, The top of the bowl is a fairly solid plug of tobacco that will ignite and gradually burn down to the lose tobacco, with tamping as needed to keep the ember in contact with the tobacco,

 

[Uguccione]

I drank from a straw just to recall what it's like and how it compares to draw on a pipe and yeah, that would be way too tight.

Exactly.
But just think about how long a smoke lasts: half an hour? An hour? An hour and a half? Now imagine drinking with a straw for an hour and a half and tell me how your facial muscles would shrink.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

All of you guys having to draw really hard to drink through a straw, WTF you drinking?
The analogy is that there needs to be a slight resistance when you draw on your pipe. The difference between a straw in an empty cup verses a cup of water is dead on. It takes hardly any effort to drink through a straw, unless you're some sort of special needs smoker. WTF, ha ha.

Now, a milkshake, that is different. Those do require a slightly more suck.

But, you know if the analogy doesn't work for you because you have absolutely no muscles from eating water with a spoon for the entirety of your life, then sure... it is merely an analogy.

 

[mpjetset]

Its a dry straw flow, not one in a drink...

HOW did I think it was about a straw full of liquid. Of course, an empty straw. I can be an idiot sometimes.

 

[ThermionicScott]

HOW did I think it was about a straw full of liquid. Of course, an empty straw. I can be an idiot sometimes.

Nah, I've heard some people say it should be like drinking water (or even a milkshake.) I suspect that they just draw harder by nature, and need some resistance on the other end to keep the ember from burning too hot.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

For clarification...
a straw in an empty cup, packed too lose.
A straw with a soda, just right.
Straw in milkshake, to tightly packed.

But, YMMV, because some folks seem to be having some issues, saying that drinking soda through a straws is too challenging for them. Ha ha...


All in all, if this analogy doesn't work for you, then just do what helps you enjoy smoking. Personally, I just do a codger scoop, but I have been at this for a while. I think all of the analogies are really just for folks just getting started.
But, it does crack me up thinking about some of you guys falling over exhausted after taking a sip of soda from a straw, haha.

 

[Oddball]

nah, dry straw with a very light puffing OR wet straw if you are huffing and puffing.

its like stacking firewood bark up or bark down to a degree...