Thoughts on Tongue Bite.

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Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
Our friend is correct that lots of pipe smokers have tobacco stomatitis.


What is tobacco stomatitis?​

Tobacco stomatitis, or smoker's palate, is inflammation of mucus membranes in your mouth. A combination of harmful chemicals in tobacco and intense heat irritates the mucus membranes. This causes sores to form on the roof of your mouth. Tobacco stomatitis is most common in people who smoke pipes or who reverse smoke (inhale from the lit end of a cigarette).

——

We should quit. Nobody told us to smoke a pipe, in fact our mothers and others that loved us were against it, remember?

But a fella ought to indulge in one bad habit, you know?

 

shermnatman

Lifer
Jan 25, 2019
1,030
4,862
Philadelphia Suburbs, Pennsylvania
Yes, that’s why Virginia #1 has a reputation for tongue bite.

Thanks, Brother @Briar Lee; I couldn't understand why @UrsaMinor was pointing the dirty end of the pipe at Burley as the worst promoter of Tongue Bite.

I thought perhaps my information and long held beliefs on burn-rates and temps of base tabaks was incorrect.

Thanks for the confirmation that I am not losing my mind... at least in this case. - Sherm Natman
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
Thanks, Brother @Briar Lee; I couldn't understand why @UrsaMinor was pointing the dirty end of the pipe at Burley as the worst promoter of Tongue Bite.

I thought perhaps my information and long held beliefs on burn-rates and temps of base tabaks was incorrect.

Thanks for the confirmation that I am not losing my mind... at least in this case. - Sherm Natman

Take a lighter and fire up your pipe.

That’s hotter than the hubs of hell inside that pipe, whatever temperature it measures.

In the five or six inches of a regular pipe stem the hot smoke cools a lot.

Try removing the stem sometime and smoking the shank.

To me, the real mystery is how we can acclimate ourselves by repeated attempts to NOT get bit.

If it wasn’t for tongue bite there’d be a lot more of us pipe smokers, you know?
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
I don't think a slice of pizza is all that hot, but remember getting both tongue and roof getting burned all the time when I was much younger. Maybe mouth is just too sensitive, and it's not the temperature.

Maybe twenty years ago, long after I learned not to get my tongue bit by pipe smoking, some mornings my entire mouth would burn brushing my teeth, especially my tounge.

Then I guess my body gave up trying to warn me it’s a bad idea to smoke, because it never happens now.:)
 

shermnatman

Lifer
Jan 25, 2019
1,030
4,862
Philadelphia Suburbs, Pennsylvania
I don't think a slice of pizza is all that hot, but remember getting both tongue and roof getting burned all the time when I was much younger. Maybe mouth is just too sensitive, and it's not the temperature.

It's not just you, per se.

Google the term: "Pizza Palate"; and, read all about this very common and well-researched medical condition. You'll find some entertaining images too. :ROFLMAO: - Sherm Natman
 

Auxsender

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 17, 2022
834
4,729
Nashville
I smoke pot. The pipe I use is shorter than my tobacco pipes and I light it every time I take a puff. Tongue bite from pot smoke never happens for me and is not an issue in the world of pot smoking. Why? I would think, if tongue bite for pipers is caused purely by heat, it would effect smokers of other things as well but it doesn’t. @UrsaMinor
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
I smoke pot. The pipe I use is shorter than my tobacco pipes and I light it every time I take a puff. Tongue bite from pot smoke never happens for me and is not an issue in the world of pot smoking. Why? I would think, if tongue bite for pipers is caused purely by heat, it would effect smokers of other things as well but it doesn’t. @UrsaMinor

I’ve wondered about that.

But I think I know why pot smokers don’t get bit.

The very highest priced tobaccos cost something about ten dollars per ounce, and small tobacco pipes hold maybe two grams of tobacco, most hold three grams or more.

In Missouri where weed is legal, the best costs about $300 per ounce, and it’s smoked a half a gram at a time.

You cannot drown in a mud puddle.:)

It’s the dosage.
 

Auxsender

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 17, 2022
834
4,729
Nashville
I’ve wondered about that.

But I think I know why pot smokers don’t get bit.

The very highest priced tobaccos cost something about ten dollars per ounce, and small tobacco pipes hold maybe two grams of tobacco, most hold three grams or more.

In Missouri where weed is legal, the best costs about $300 per ounce, and it’s smoked a half a gram at a time.

You cannot drown in a mud puddle.:)

It’s the dosage.
So perhaps for the bite afflicted, the answer is smaller bowls?
 
So perhaps for the bite afflicted, the answer is smaller bowls?
At the risk of sounding like a contrarian... I find that when a blend is bitey to me, a wider bowl tends to cool it down. I think two reasons, first the wider bowl adds more air to the mix, since I do not let the cherry burn all the way across the chamber. And, secondly it makes more smoke enter the draft, and maybe cools the smoke en masse. Instead of a focused narrow stream, and more billowy... eh... that sounds stupid. I don't have an explanation. But, I do know that if I smoke Virginia #1 in my regular tall conical Virginia pipes, it burns like hellfire. But, if I smoke it in a larger wider pipe, it doesn't burn as badly. I will just be damn glad when I have smoked all of my Virginia #1.
 

Briar Lee

Lifer
Sep 4, 2021
4,759
13,781
Humansville Missouri
At the risk of sounding like a contrarian... I find that when a blend is bitey to me, a wider bowl tends to cool it down. I think two reasons, first the wider bowl adds more air to the mix, since I do not let the cherry burn all the way across the chamber. And, secondly it makes more smoke enter the draft, and maybe cools the smoke en masse. Instead of a focused narrow stream, and more billowy... eh... that sounds stupid. I don't have an explanation. But, I do know that if I smoke Virginia #1 in my regular tall conical Virginia pipes, it burns like hellfire. But, if I smoke it in a larger wider pipe, it doesn't burn as badly. I will just be damn glad when I have smoked all of my Virginia #1.

As to cigars, there’s general agreement the fat gauge ones burn cooler and deliver a bit more flavor than the skinnier ones.

I’ve believed for decades wide pipe chambers are cooler than smaller ones.

Another help to avoiding bite is a wide slot on the bit. One of the reasons vulcanite stems are still popular is often a lucite stem may only have a slight excuse for a slot on the bit.
 
As to cigars, there’s general agreement the fat gauge ones burn cooler and deliver a bit more flavor than the skinnier ones.
I find that to be true also. And, I find that a triple ligero cigar hits me harder with nicotine in the smaller gauges than the fatter ring gauges. So, more narrow makes for a hotter, stronger nic hit, and wider is cooler with less nicotine hit.
I have no explanation, maybe magic. Ha ha.
 
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Auxsender

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 17, 2022
834
4,729
Nashville
At the risk of sounding like a contrarian... I find that when a blend is bitey to me, a wider bowl tends to cool it down. I think two reasons, first the wider bowl adds more air to the mix, since I do not let the cherry burn all the way across the chamber. And, secondly it makes more smoke enter the draft, and maybe cools the smoke en masse. Instead of a focused narrow stream, and more billowy... eh... that sounds stupid. I don't have an explanation. But, I do know that if I smoke Virginia #1 in my regular tall conical Virginia pipes, it burns like hellfire. But, if I smoke it in a larger wider pipe, it doesn't burn as badly. I will just be damn glad when I have smoked all of my Virginia #1.
The point I believe Briar Lee was making wasn’t the size of the bowl, but the serving size of burnable material. When pipers burn a bowl, there’s a gram or 3 in the bowl. When us stoners burn a bowl, there’s a quarter of a gram. I went a step further and posited that a smaller bowl would be handy for smoking smaller amounts of baccy at a time.
 
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Aug 11, 2022
2,225
17,507
Cedar Rapids, IA
I smoke pot. The pipe I use is shorter than my tobacco pipes and I light it every time I take a puff. Tongue bite from pot smoke never happens for me and is not an issue in the world of pot smoking. Why? I would think, if tongue bite for pipers is caused purely by heat, it would effect smokers of other things as well but it doesn’t. @UrsaMinor
Lung bite is always a possibility with that stuff. puffy
 
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Deano

Can't Leave
Dec 28, 2022
422
3,823
Iowa
At the risk of sounding like a contrarian... I find that when a blend is bitey to me, a wider bowl tends to cool it down. I think two reasons, first the wider bowl adds more air to the mix, since I do not let the cherry burn all the way across the chamber. And, secondly it makes more smoke enter the draft, and maybe cools the smoke en masse. Instead of a focused narrow stream, and more billowy... eh... that sounds stupid. I don't have an explanation. But, I do know that if I smoke Virginia #1 in my regular tall conical Virginia pipes, it burns like hellfire. But, if I smoke it in a larger wider pipe, it doesn't burn as badly. I will just be damn glad when I have smoked all of my Virginia #1.
Is it the Virginia or it plus whatever the "essence" MB uses? I know for myself some MB blends smoke well and others bite like a rabid squirrel.
 
Is it the Virginia or it plus whatever the "essence" MB uses? I know for myself some MB blends smoke well and others bite like a rabid squirrel.
I think in the case of VA#1, it is that honeyish sweet casing. Other MB blends do bite a tad, but VA#1 is legendary. I rarely ever get bit by other Virginias though, unless I end up puffing too hard. And, never burleys.
 
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