Pipe Smoking Tips

[jvnshr]

After smoking pipes for a while you find out how much to dry your tobacco, how to pack a ribbon cut or a flake cut, what to smoke after what, what to pair with the tobacco you are smoking, etc. Those are the basics of pipe smoking and no matter how much you read or watch about it, you have to find your own way by practicing. However there are also some small tips that have great results when applied correctly. I will try to explain one that I found out myself, probably there are some who do it, too.

As we all know, there are some blends that smoke really hot and there are some that will bite whatever you do. My solution is sipping some air into my mouth while sipping the smoke from the pipe. The air naturally will cool down the smoke and smooth it out. I tend to do that while smoking cigars as well. Rick Rodriguez from CAO explains it really well on this video that I happened to stumble upon.
Why Box Pressed Cigars with Rick Rodriguez
Do you have any pipe smoking tips? Please share.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I never close my mouth completely around a pipe stem when sipping and let air flow in with the smoke. Great tip and video Javan!

 

[jvnshr]

Come on Duane, don't you have anything to share with us? I know that you have some little pipe smoking secrets

 

[Chasing Embers]

Tobacco goes in the big hole. :rofl:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Actually, I do have one that I hadn't thought was much of a secret, but really don't hear much. When doing the fold and stuff with flakes, rolling the folded flake a bit to break up the tobacco fibers helps the tobacco to burn more evenly and with fewer relights.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

When you are on here long enough, you pick up tons of tips that one could list. Because I have picked up and repeated tips by others and others repeat the ones I have given, it's hard to tell which ones were which.
Holding your lighter about half an inch above the rim, and don't try to shoot the flame down into the bowl is one that I have recently realized that not many people instinctively know. The flame doesn't have to touch the tobacco to ignite it, just the heat, and there is a reaction that happens that will cause the fire from inside the bowl to pull up towards the flame, like when lighting a cigar. It will save your rims, will give you a more even lighting of the bowl, and it will light the tobacco deep inside the bowl on relights, without having to feel like you need to shoot the flame down inside there.
And, if you've ever seen someone use a coal in tongs to light a pipe, as they would have done, pre-civil war (before matches), they would just hover a hot coal in some tongs about an inch over the bowl to light their pipes. Also, match users generally don't have to stick the match inside the bowl, just hold it up over the pipe.
Try it... it might save you some grief on cleaning the rims and risking charring the inside of your bowl.

 

[jvnshr]

rolling the folded flake

Agree, that is what I do all the time with the flakes.

 

[ray47]

1. Never load a bowl up to the rim. Prevents rim charring.

2. Always run a pipe cleaner thru the stem after each smoke and don't let the pipe cleaner remain in the stem overnight.

3. For those, like me, who don't like a lot of cake, always swab out the bowl with a bent pipe cleaner after each smoke.

4. Let the pipe cool down completely before removing the stem.
I probably could go on and on but I'll let others chip in their tips.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

The serendipitous part of pipes that I love is that no matter how long you've been smoking them, collecting them, studying them, there are always a ton more things that other people have realized or discovered that you never thought of before.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Even though I smoked pipes previously and cigars for years, the retrohale wasn't automatic for me. Most people don't retrohale that often while smoking a cigar, perhaps once every 4 to 8 puffs. Many don't at all. I've been focusing more on that for my pipe smoking and it has become rather automatic now. I retrohale 75% plus of the time which may be too much. I've found an added benefit of retrohaling is it slows down the puffing and promotes sipping as drawing in a huge mouthful of smoke for a retrohale kind of polices itself. LOL Regardless, improving my retrohale technique has significantly increased my enjoyment.

 

[jpmcwjr]

1. Never load a bowl up to the rim. Prevents rim charring.

Good tip, but that alone doesn't prevent rim sooting. (Charring actually is damage to the briar that can't be buffed out) See cosmic's advice on lighting.
And lighting lightly also gives a better taste to the tobacco.

 

[oldmansmoking]

Trial and error, smoke and enjoy.