Pipe tips for Cigar People, what we've learned...

I got to thinking about pipe smoking. It can be an intricate hobby, both frustrating and rewarding depending on if one is "doing it right". There are a lot of little things that go into it. I'd like to share a couple things I've learned, and encourage the rest of y'all to do so as well.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert, just a guy who likes to smoke, and I'd like this to be each individual telling what they've learned.

I'll start us off with 2 things I've learned:

Firstly, for the folks with military experience. Push the pipe cleaner in from the mouthpiece, and never pull it back in that direction. That may sound like a no-brainer, but for someone who's spent a few thousand hours sitting in the hall outside the arms room cleaning weapons until the armorer decides you've spent enough time and he'll start accepting weapons, well, it may be a habit to scrub that pipe cleaner back and forth. Doing so will bring foul tasting oils out to the mouthpiece. Bleah.

Second. Pipes will affect your taste for quite awhile. If you're planning to smoke a cigar in the evening, give at least a few hours since your last pipe. How long depends on your pipe tobacco. Doing it the other way around, cigar first & pipe later seems to work fine.

So, what has anyone else learned that we might want to know?
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roland_7707

When you have the tobacco in different forms, cake, flake, plug, Kendal Twist etc, does it matter how you bust it up to pack? Will it affect the flavor, or just however you can make it smaller?

J.S.

roland_7707:
When you have the tobacco in different forms, cake, flake, plug, Kendal Twist etc, does it matter how you bust it up to pack? Will it affect the flavor, or just however you can make it smaller?

Yes, and no. With flakes, folding it will give a milder flavor but it will smoke forever. You can cut it up or rub it out any way you like. If you are using less then a full flake cut it in half or whatever amount so that you get the full flake don't cut it long ways. This is especially true of plug. You must cut so you get all of the leaves as they are layered. Don't take off a layer or two at at time it will not taste right. What you do with it after you cut the flake off is up to you after that. Cake, just flake it off and take what you want most are generally just pressed tobaccos. Twist, I use a cigar cutter and cut as fine as possible then do what you want with that, I rub them out getting an almost shag cut, personally.

roland_7707

What about moisture content. Are most tobaccos ready to go right away, or do they need some air time to dry out?

Amos_Umwhat

roland_7707:
What about moisture content. Are most tobaccos ready to go right away, or do they need some air time to dry out?

Most seem to benefit from a little jar time, some seem to really need drying, 1-Q being an example of the latter. The few flake tobaccos I've smoked seemed ready to go. Which reminds me, next purchase I make I want to try the Gawith FVF.

Amos_Umwhat

Bump, for Tabako

Amos_Umwhat

@MikeTodd , long ago I started this, and some of the BOTL kicked in, you may find some info here. I saw that @Yakster was steering you toward Lane 1-Q, which is a good all around starting place. No matter what kinds of pipe tobacco people are into, almost everyone can appreciate Lane 1-Q. It tends to be a little too wet when you get it, though, sometimes overnight on a paper towel or newspaper helps.

One thing you'll learn, there are a LOT more variables in pipe tobacco than in cigars, be patient and try a lot of things to find out what you're going to like.

silvermouse

Three Nuns is my favorite, closely followed by about 50 others. Have fun exploring. Some pipe etailers offer samplers, a couple of oz of several blends. I started out smoking drug store aromatics and quickly discovered there were better leaf.

edit: most aros are dosed with pg to keep them humidified; personally I can't stand the stuff.

MikeTodd

Thanks for the tips guys!

Emcee

Seems I have this habit of digging up old threads, but with Fall right around the corner, maybe some will want to pick up pipes for the first time.

Something I noticed while reading through all the pages was the repeated mention of "bite," which we all have experienced before. However, at one point in my long relationship with pipes, I developed a habit of breathing back out of my mouth with the bit still in my teeth. This little breath of air going back through the bowl and stem helped to carry any vapors into the fire, and let them evaporate right out of the top. Mind you, not blowing into the pipe, but just a breath past the bit. I have found that I can smoke pretty much whatever I want, no matter how moist, and I don't have to deal with gurgle or bite. Maybe with one exception, which was a particularly large oom-paul that just seems to take hours to smoke all the way down.

Amos_Umwhat

Fall is a great time for pipes, isn't it? Love to sit out in the woods when the air is cool and the leaves are turning, slowly smoke a nice pipe of Old English*, mmm... nice!

*or whatever trips your triggers.

Amos_Umwhat

In case I forgot to mention, a helpful tip:

Just because you have a drill bit that fits, doesn't mean it would make a good reamer for your pipe.

Don't ask.

KingoftheCove

This thread is GOLD!!

ElJimbo

What I would recommend to anyone learning how to smoke a pipe, would be to use matches instead of a lighter. I burned out a handful of pipes with bics.

Amos_Umwhat

ElJimbo said:

What I would recommend to anyone learning how to smoke a pipe, would be to use matches instead of a lighter. I burned out a handful of pipes with bics.

OK, I have to ask, what were these pipes made of? Are we talking corn-cobs, or maplewood?

You're not the first to have said this, about matches, but I don't get it. I use single-flame, triple-flame, bic, anything but old-time zippo's every day and have never had a problem. I can't imagine burning up a briar pipe with a bic lighter.

How does this happen?

Not trying to give you a hard time, just curious.

ElJimbo

Amos_Umwhat said:
OK, I have to ask, what were these pipes made of? Are we talking corn-cobs, or maplewood?

You're not the first to have said this, about matches, but I don't get it. I use single-flame, triple-flame, bic, anything but old-time zippo's every day and have never had a problem. I can't imagine burning up a briar pipe with a bic lighter.

How does this happen?

Not trying to give you a hard time, just curious.

I miswrote. I was refering to burning out the draft hole, not burning out the actual pipe. I've had that happen to a wide range of pipes; cobs, hardwoods, briars. It makes a large difference in how the pipe smokes. I have been able to fix 'em with pipe mud, they all smoke better now.

For me, the problem was to learn to 'sip' the smoke from a pipe, as opposed to a heavy draw. The flame on the bics are not adjustable and pretty tall, so it reaches almost to the bottom of the bowl.

Amos_Umwhat

Ah, I see.

Captain_Call

I get pretty decent results from the pipe specific zippo. The chimney is designed to be held sideways. I have also found myself in possession of incredible pipes through estate sales and used racks at shops. Don't count these out. I've recently converted a new botl to a pipe. Over the course of several weeks he has picked it up quite well. A clean burn still eludes him on a few blends. But a couple weeks ago he asked if I would show him around a cigar and it was interesting how many times I had to tell him to slow down.

Amos_Umwhat

bump for @xCigarMasterx .

Amos_Umwhat

So, I've skrewed up, at least a little bit, and since I started this thread for us to be able to share things we learn along the way, I'm going to tell on myself, and ask a question, or two.

As many of you who read these threads will already know, I recently bought a lovely Hans Christian Anderson by Stanwell. The bowl was charcoal impregnated, so I didn't get too carried away with the break-in process. I smoked the first couple bowls indoors, slowly, but filled it all the way up. I have not had any problem with starting out charcoaled pipes this way.

So far so good, right?

So, most of my pipe smoking is done while walking the dogs out to the woods, and I packed up the new pipe, with the short stem in place, and headed out over the hill. I was chuffing along happily, enjoying the breeze and thinking "Wow, this pipe smokes good!", when it suddenly occurred to me that it was smoking too good. And getting hot, and maybe starting to taste a little like wood. I stopped, dumped the pipe and held my gloved thumb over the hole for a couple minutes.

When I got back home I cleaned the pipe, then checked out the interior of the bowl. Sure enough, looked like a hot spot.

I've never had this problem before.

There was some cake forming, but like a chunk out of it on one side. I took my knife and carefully scraped and smoothed things down, and started again with 1/3 of a bowl, building back up to full bowls. It seems to be caking OK, I'm going slowly, but I find that the hot-spot area seems not to want to cake.

I went to a couple different sites, pipedia, etc., looking at information on break in routines. One of the things I ran across, which I may have once known but forgot, was "Don't break in a new pipe outdoors if you can help it, even seemingly slight breezes can cause it to burn too hot and create problems". (Paraphrased)

Rats!

So, my question for my brothers and sisters here is: Has anyone else experienced this? And, if so, what can I do to get back on track? As I'm sure has occurred to many of the regulars here, I'm really hoping to hear from @jsnake , in particular, as well as anyone else familiar with restoring pipes, as you may have dealt with this before.

Thanks for listening, it's always hard to admit to stupidity.

Amos_Umwhat

BTW, I know I mentioned jake specifically, but that wasn't meant to be exclusionary, so feel free, I'm open to ideas.:)

Captain_Call

I ruined one in the past in a similar way. Burned it out so bad I could push my fingernail through the bowl.

I have heard in the depths of the interwebs that a dab of honey can be applied via q tip to the stubborn spot to coax the cake to stick there but I can't personally attest to the validity of this idea.

If this theory is detrimental to the pipe, correct me. I don't like spreading misinformation

Amos_Umwhat

I've heard honey, and molasses, but the only information reporting on results is that the cake is soft and flaky as a result. I'm not sure how bad it is, it's a small spot, but I don't want to worsen it. Or give up my pipe, which I love. I suppose it's the depth of the burn that determines the outcome. I wonder, could I ream it past the damage point? I don't know. This pipe is rather thin walled compared to most of mine, which are largely Dublin shapes with brushed or sandblasted finish.

rsherman24

Does Stanwell tell you specifically not to break it in outdoors? I would call their customer service. Does not sound like you did anything wrong to me. I would have done the same thing

jsnake

I second calling Stanwell. I bet they would replace the pipe if it's a recent purchase. I don't partake in any given method of breaking in a pipe. Maybe I am in the wrong but I just pack a full bowl and smoke. I always smoke outside and have never had an issue. I avoid pipes on windy days or smoke on the porch. Most windy days it's a cigar for me. I wonder if there was an underlying flaw? I've heard of doing the honey but I know guys will get active charcoal powder and line their estate pipes after they finish working on them. I was thinking of looking into starting that. I like to have a nice smooth bowl and recently a Sasieni I was working on had a chunk of the bowl come out when removing some cake. It was such a disappointing scenario and my first experience with this. I was considering trying to fill it in and line it with active charcoal. If you did cover it you would almost have to avoid reaming in the future or maybe recoat it after reaming. Wish I had more knowledge on this specific thing. I personally have not had any burnouts in any of my pipes yet.

Amos_Umwhat

thanks guys, for responding. I think the information about staying out of the wind for break-in came from the info section on smokingpipes website, not from Stanwell directly. This is my 4th Stanwell, and I haven't done anything different than the others. I do kind of wonder if it isn't just a flaw in the briar, although there's nothing evident on inspection, at least from the outside. I'm going to ponder it awhile, I may dab a bit of honey on the spot, it doesn't seem to be deepening, just still there. And go slowly.

Amos_Umwhat

The honey seems to be working. I cleaned the bowl, used a pipe cleaner to dab the spot. Let it sit for two days and slowly smoked a bowlful. Repeated that with the next bowl. There is still a slight depression on that side of the bowl, but seems to be caking over. I think it'll be alright as long as I don't get too aggressive with it.

Amos_Umwhat

Got the Smokingpipes newsletter E-mail, very interesting piece on the Peterson "System" pipes. I've considered buying one before, but then had heard a number of negative comments. "Looks good, doesn't smoke good" was the gist. So, I've never bought one. After reading the hows and whys, I think my next pipe purchase may well be a Peterson.

Anybody got one? Not for sale, I'll get a new one, but just wondering. Love it? Hate it?

Yakster

I've got a couple Carey Magic Inch pipes I think are in the same vein I never use. I'd stick with a regular pipe, a cob is a good starter, I hear.

Yakster

Different system I guess. I haven't tried the Peterson system pipe.

silvermouse

I've got a bunch of Petersons, including a system pipe or two, never smoke them. By design, they won't pass a pipe cleaner through to the bowl. The saliva/tar/juice is funky to clean. Yes, you can break it down while hot without worrying about making the stem loose or cracking the shank, but if you do you've got to clean the pipe.