Self-taught pipe smoker?
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Well this forum member asked me,"What's with the Ab workout? Why are you rocking back and forth on every puff?" I said, "What? It's the way I smoke. I'm leaning into the smoke to enjoy the flavors." He said, "You're INHALING the smoke!!!!" You're NOT supposed to do that!!! That's a big pipe smoking no-no!" I said, "Really? I didn't know that. It's just the way I smoke and enjoy the tobacco."
About 15 years ago a friend wanted the guys to go to the local cigar shop and get some cigars for his birthday. I'd never smoked a cigar before, but it was love at first puff. The flavors were amazing!
As I explored cigars, that same tobacconist also had pipes. I wanted to try the pipe, and my wife bought me my first pipe for my birthday - a 1998 Boswell for $40. I experimented with different tobaccos and pamphlets on how to pack and smoke. I mostly settled on cigars as I could never keep my pipe lit very well. For years I smoked cigars (about one every week) and dabbled here or there in my pipes.
A couple years ago I was getting bored with the cigars and resurrected my pipes. I began Googling for tobaccos and tips on smoking, and I came across a YouTube video on properly packing a pipe. I thought it really didn't apply to me at first, but I watched it and discovered I'd been unknowingly packing my pipe way too tight for years. I packed looser and according to his instruction (drizzle to top of bowl, tamp halfway down, drizzle to top of bowl, tamp to half of that, drizzle to top of bowl, tamp flat and firm).
And the gates of Heaven opened before me! The pipe smoked to the bottom of the bowl, and oh, the flavors! And since then I have been mainly a pipe smoker, enjoying the journey of blends and collecting new pipes.
As I explored cigars, that same tobacconist also had pipes. I wanted to try the pipe, and my wife bought me my first pipe for my birthday - a 1998 Boswell for $40. I experimented with different tobaccos and pamphlets on how to pack and smoke. I mostly settled on cigars as I could never keep my pipe lit very well. For years I smoked cigars (about one every week) and dabbled here or there in my pipes.
A couple years ago I was getting bored with the cigars and resurrected my pipes. I began Googling for tobaccos and tips on smoking, and I came across a YouTube video on properly packing a pipe. I thought it really didn't apply to me at first, but I watched it and discovered I'd been unknowingly packing my pipe way too tight for years. I packed looser and according to his instruction (drizzle to top of bowl, tamp halfway down, drizzle to top of bowl, tamp to half of that, drizzle to top of bowl, tamp flat and firm).
And the gates of Heaven opened before me! The pipe smoked to the bottom of the bowl, and oh, the flavors! And since then I have been mainly a pipe smoker, enjoying the journey of blends and collecting new pipes.
me and my brother were kids when we found my dads pipe, we were curious and we snuck outside we tried to smoke it, nevertheless we started coughing, I thought I was going to die, but I remember the taste of the briar and some of the tobacco he was smoking ,it was good. I had tried it again when I was 18 but it was hard to get pouch tobacco, because they rarely would have it at the store, and when they did , it was captain black, or some really cheap nasty tobacco, bought captain black, dint know what I was doing and was smoking it wrong, but I did enjoy smoking the pipe, now that am 29, if felt that I can tame the pipe, and I smoked captain black again and I did it just right, I was listening to the country squire and they gave me good advice on how to tamp and how to load up a bowl, and reading these forms has help me too in lots of ways, even though I am a beginner I really appreciate the help of this wonderful website
I've learned from assimilating instructions from, likely, three dozen sources spread across various corners of the internet: youtube, forums and blogs. There have been general consistent themes of packing and the importance of tamping etc. that have set me well on my way.
Unfortunately, so many aspects of the process are experiential: how moist should the tobacco be, how firm should the bowl be packed, what is the rate of a propper cadence, what should the draw resistance be, what is the flow rate of sipping, how hard and often should one tamp, etc.
There have come across various epithets aimed at conveying these qualities, a draw like that of liquid through a straw, tamping with a nickels weight, tobacco that is neither clumpy nor crunchy et. al., however, I can't help but feel like despite ones fervorous research, there's no substitution for a seasoned piper walking you through the paces.
Unfortunately, so many aspects of the process are experiential: how moist should the tobacco be, how firm should the bowl be packed, what is the rate of a propper cadence, what should the draw resistance be, what is the flow rate of sipping, how hard and often should one tamp, etc.
There have come across various epithets aimed at conveying these qualities, a draw like that of liquid through a straw, tamping with a nickels weight, tobacco that is neither clumpy nor crunchy et. al., however, I can't help but feel like despite ones fervorous research, there's no substitution for a seasoned piper walking you through the paces.
If you mean, you left it out in an open tray or bowl for at least 24 hours before you smoked it, I'd say you've got a good start. I tease. That stuff does smell nice. It doesn't seem to dry out either. (that usually means the dreaded propylene glycol)
I originally started smoking pipes back in 2009 when I graduated high school. I thought it would be a nice relaxing activity for my down time on my backpacking trip on the Appalachian trail. When I started then all I did was go to a local cigar shop, buy a cob, a pouch of some vanilla blend and went from there. This venture into pipe smoking failed probably because I tried on my own to get into pipe smoking and couldn't seem to get my bowl packed right, or to burn right, and getting extreme tongue bite when I did get it hitting.
Back in January I was reading a book which described how much the protagonist enjoyed sitting down and smoking his pipe and I got the intimidate urge to try another venture into pipe-smoking. I did the same thing this time and got a MM cob from a local tobacco shop and a pouch of captn black. Trying again on my own I set out to become an avid pipe smoker with little knowledge of anything. I soon found to have the same results, but this time I searched youtube for beginners pipe smoking and came across Stogie Farts videos. This for me was the holy grail of what I needed as a beginner. He walks through how to pack a bowl, how to light the pipe, and breathing techniques. Also he has other videos beyond his beginner videos he also has some on tobaccos, pipe styles, filters, accessories and many more.
From this point I was able to get my pipe smoking pretty well, but I wasn't so satisfied with the Captn Black(just overall bad tobacco blends), so I ordered a couple of different types of aromatics and regular tobacco blends and a second pipe from P&C. Once I got this order in I was hooked and here I am now with a growing pipe collection and a dresser drawer in my sitting room dedicated to my tins and pouches of tobacco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7P9MgodV_8
https://www.youtube.com/user/StogieFarts
Back in January I was reading a book which described how much the protagonist enjoyed sitting down and smoking his pipe and I got the intimidate urge to try another venture into pipe-smoking. I did the same thing this time and got a MM cob from a local tobacco shop and a pouch of captn black. Trying again on my own I set out to become an avid pipe smoker with little knowledge of anything. I soon found to have the same results, but this time I searched youtube for beginners pipe smoking and came across Stogie Farts videos. This for me was the holy grail of what I needed as a beginner. He walks through how to pack a bowl, how to light the pipe, and breathing techniques. Also he has other videos beyond his beginner videos he also has some on tobaccos, pipe styles, filters, accessories and many more.
From this point I was able to get my pipe smoking pretty well, but I wasn't so satisfied with the Captn Black(just overall bad tobacco blends), so I ordered a couple of different types of aromatics and regular tobacco blends and a second pipe from P&C. Once I got this order in I was hooked and here I am now with a growing pipe collection and a dresser drawer in my sitting room dedicated to my tins and pouches of tobacco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q7P9MgodV_8
https://www.youtube.com/user/StogieFarts
Dad smoked Granger in one pipe at a time until it wore out for the decades I was growing up, so I had the moves imprinted in my brain when I finally bought a pipe in my early thirties. I'm still fixed on many of his habits -- always light with matches. I don't gesture with the pipe as he often did because it feels like I'm doing an impersonation of him. He'd point the stem for emphasis. And he'd roll his eyes upward when he drew in, when he was listening to conversation. An old college buddy, best man at my first wedding (I was a widower for a while) told me I was adamant about not smoking a pipe in college. I thought it was too imitative of some of the professors, therefore phony.
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