Wind Caps for Cooler Smoking?

[Morbius]

I have only been piping for about a year now, but something strange happened to me a few days ago. I had the occasion to have to smoke outdoors on a windy day so I used my new wind cap for the first time. I had lit up some Orlik Golden Slice Virginia Flake and found to my surprise that it was incredibly easy to slowly smoke it without the bowl or humidome of my Falcon getting hot. Has anyone else experienced this? Would this be a good method to use to smoke virginias until I get more proficient with my cadence and draw speed? This was the first time I had a truly cool Virginia pipe experience and I was blown away!

 

[ThermionicScott]

For sure. Anything you can do to slow it down should help.

 

[CurlingWisps]

It’ll work, but don’t start to rely on it. It won’t take you long to figure out a packing technique and draw technique that suits you best without the constant need to fiddle about with the wind cap.

 

[Mike N]

I have long been a big fan of windcaps, including having a NYC pipe shop install one on the first “good“ pipe I bought on a visit there around 1988. Now I use them for a more utilitarian purpose: to make sure a hot ember does not fly out and burn a hole in a pair of my suit pants.

 

[Morbius]

It’ll work, but don’t start to rely on it. It won’t take you long to figure out a packing technique and draw technique that suits you best without the constant need to fiddle about with the wind cap.

Thank you for the advice. I have problems with the packing technique when I am folding the flake in some way, but it works great for me when I cut it into little cubes.

The draw is my problem. I use the breath method and as I exhale through my nostrils I have been using the tip of my tongue to push smoke out of the top of the chamber. I guess seeing how very little smoke was truly required to keep an ember lit showed me such exertions are not needed for every single exhale.

Anyway, I'll keep at it.