03 January 2013

Smoking tobacco through a pipe

Smoking tobacco through a pipe

Smoking tobacco through a pipe is an old favourite of many tobacco enthusiasts, however if you wish to smoke pipe tobacco in this way it is important that you go about it in the right way, otherwise you will not get the full enjoyable experience of pipe smoking.

Firstly, it is important to break in your pipe. You do this by only half filling the bowl, and drawing gently to allow the important charring process to happen little by little. This also allows the pipe to harden.
In order to fill a pipe, hold it upright, and carefully sprinkle in the pipe tobacco until the bowl of the pipe is filled. Draw on the pipe a little bit before you light to pipe to ensure there are no blockages. Failure to do so can cause the pipe to burn hot and bitter, and even sting the top of your tongue ‘tongue bite’.

You should light the pipe with a pipe lighter or a wooden match to preserve flavour, petrol lighters can cause unpleasant odours and tastes. To begin with try and merely char the top of the pipe tobacco and allow the flame to catch. This ‘charring light’ as it is referred to should aim to ignite the tobacco without scorching the bowl. Tamp the charred pipe tobacco down and after light the tobacco again puffs gently as you do this. If you leave the tobacco it goes out, in this case it is as simple as relighting the pipe. You may hear or taste moisture in the pipe, and in this case just run a pipe cleaner down the flue, tamp and relight the tobacco if necessary.

As far as cleaning and maintenance is concerned, a cared for pipe can last years, even improving with age. To ensure that your pipe makes it this far, you need to undertake basic maintenance, firstly never refill a warm pipe; you must wait until it has cooled. Some smokers have two pipes to allow ample time to cool down. During cleaning of the pipe, you need to hold it by the bowl and empty the ash from it before running a pipe cleaner through the stem to remove moisture. Do not bang the pipe against a wall or shoe, this damages the bowl. A small layer of carbon will over time accumulate from the very first smoking, do not allow this to get more than 1.5mm thick or the bowl may crack, to maintain this, use a smokers knife or a pipe cleaner.