Size Of The Ember

[ignaciojn]

After the charring light, I get two paths:

1. An aggressive light, where I get a full ember. This gives me a more consistent experience through the bowl, with less relights, but it does tend to get quite hot.

2. A tender light, where I get a small (or two, or three) ember(s). It gives me a cooler and more tasteful experience, but the bowl ends up being a mess, it burns very unevenly, even with tamping. Also, this usually means a lot of relights.
I'd love to find a middle ground here. Any advice would be welcome.
PS. The tobacco is properly dry. I do a sip every 5-10 seconds (this, of course, is an estimate), and a puff now and then.

 

[toobfreak]

Get a "full ember" (light the whole top), But don't puff on it like a madman after that. Once lit, sip just enough to keep it going, maybe cup your hand or fingers on top to stimulate the light.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I NEVER strive for a full cherry ember, less taste, heats up the damned pipe, and just burns the tobacco too fast. There used to be a diagram from that website... crap, the famously well done one that used to be the only online resource for pipes... crap, bad brain, anyways, it showed that by trying to just keep the cherry small and in the middle, you get more flavor, less bite, less heat in the pipe, and a better all around experience.

The flavors actually come from heating up the surrounding tobaccos, not directly from combusting leaf. This is how cigars get their flavor also, from the tobacco directly behind the cherry. And, it also explains why cigarettes don't have much of any taste at all.
But, of course, everyone is allowed to do what they want. Never tell a cowboy how to ride his horse and all that.

 

[toobfreak]

This is how cigars get their flavor also, from the tobacco directly behind the cherry.

That is right. What I meant is to initially give the top a good char light so that you get a more even burn down the bowl that is more likely to stay lit, like a cigar. Usually when I'm smoking in dim lighting, there is not any visible glow from the bowl but you know it is burning in there somewhere.

 

[ignaciojn]

keep the cherry small and in the middle

Could you give me some insight on how to achieve this? I use a BIC lighter, nothing fancy.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I just hold my lighter about a half inch above the bowl, with the flame sideways over the bowl. And, I use my breath to draw the flame and heat down. You don't have to actually have the flame come all the way down, just the heat is enough. This is similar to how a match lights the pipe. And, eventually, with a large enough puff, with the flame a half inch up, you will get flame coming up out of the pipe to meat the flame in the lighter.
But, just don't fret about it. Don't puff hard to spread the cherry out, nor keep torching it with a lighter to make sure it is lit all the way across. There is a good reason we cannot see inside the bowl while smoking, if we did, we would all be smoking our pipe way too hot.
The trick is to smoke on the verge of it going out. I keep my pipe clenched, and never puff (after lighting). I just allow the expansion of my gullet (throat) while breathing through my nose to gently suck a little bit of smoke into my mouth with each breath, then I just let it casually make it's way out of my mouth, sometimes allowing the smoke to swirl around my mouth and tongue to absorb more fully into the small blood vessels. Just breathing normally, and allowing the natural expansion of my throat to keep the smoke rotating from pipe to mouth. You'll only ever see a trickle of smoke from a clencher, no large billowing clouds, nor blown puffs.
But, this is just one way to smoke. Try, if you like it, keep using it. If not keep looking. But, if you start making large clouds of smoke, go set on the other side of the room, because that will make us look like newbies. ::

 

[Chasing Embers]

You can also manipulate the ember, or "chase" it in a downward spiral around the bowl with a tamper.

 

[pagan]

@chasingembers, given the title of this Thread I was expecting something more profound from you :rofl:

 

[Chasing Embers]

Didn't want to brag. :mrgreen:

 

[pagan]

:rofl:

 

[agnosticpipe]

You can trust Duane (chasingembers), cause he has a huge ember! At least that's what he told me... :mrgreen:

 

[tbradsim1]

It's the timber in the Ember, ::

 

[ignaciojn]

Actually, the original title was "size of the cherry". Changed it because I was afraid of the potential innuendo. :|

 

[warren]

I've mentioned it before and will iterate, a gentle rotation of your finger or tamper will help to bring tobacco from the sides into the ember.

 

[Chasing Embers]

You can trust Duane (chasingembers), cause he has a huge ember! At least that's what he told me...

It's the timber in the Ember

:rofl:

 

[bigpond]

Little ember big taste.
The more volatile oils you can coax from the leaf, the more flavor you'll perceive.

 

[sittingbear]

The advice I received when I took up the the pipe 20+ years ago was to puff just enough to keep the pipe from going out. I also sir the bowl with my pipe tool a time or two. Between these two methods I always get a cool, flavorful smoke.