Pipe Smoking Guide

That First Pipe Full of Tobacco!!

When packing your new pipe... small pinches are best. First pinch, to avoid an air pocket in bottom of bowl. Second pinch should fill your bowl half full. Each time you add a pinch, tamp the tobacco firmly but leave a slight spring.

Now It's Time To Light Up!

When the flame is applied to the tobacco the tobacco will rise gently. Apply tamper to the lit tobacco and tamp gently. At the same time puff gently. The tobacco is now burning towards the bottom of the bowl instead of toward the top.

Keeping Your Pipe Lit!

The secret to a steadily burning tobacco is in the packing of each individual blend. Each type of mixture burns and packs differently.

Rough cube cuts pack firmly.

Flake cuts pack medium firm.

Mixed cuts (med) pack firmly but with a slight spring.

If your pipe keeps going out, you have packed your blend too tight. Here is how you correct that. Insert shank poker of pipe tool into back of bowl down to air hole.

If you get tongue bite, you have packed your blend too loose. Here is how you correct that. Tamp gently.

Pipe Smoking Is A Gentle Art!

Savor your pipe. Enjoy the taste and aroma. Puff gently and steadily.

Smoke All The Tobacco In The Bowl!

You may smoke one bowl of tobacco 3 or 4 times. Don't knock it out. Tamp remaining tobacco and relight and smoke again.

The reward is a good "cake" formed all the way down into the heel of the bowl. Proper cake is important (the carbon formed on the inside of the bowl!

The carbon absorbs moisture giving you a drier smoke. And the carbon retains the flavor of the tobacco giving you a sweeter smoke.

Don't K.O. Your Pipe.

To remove the ash, never hit your pipe on a hard object while holding by the mouthpiece. When removing any remaining ash, grasp bottom of bowl, invert and tap gently. This way you'll never be faced with the cost of a repair.

Pipe Cleaners Are A Pipe's Best Friend.

After smoking your pipe, run a pipe cleaner through the stem all the way to the bottom of the bowl. This will absorb the excess moisture and it will keep your pipe sweeter for you and for those around you.

Cool Man, Cool!!

A hot pipe needs a cooling off period between smokes. A cool pipe gives you more flavor from both pipe and tobacco. Like foods, if they are too hot you can not enjoy the full flavor. That's why seasoned smokers rotate their pipes, 2 or more during the day.

Breaking In Your New Pipe

Breaking in a pipe is a trying experience suffered by the owners of new pipes that are sealed with varnish, soaked in stains inside and out. Breaking in is the smoking out of all these foreign substances from the briar. Ask about all natural briar pipes without stain or varnish.

Tobacco...New Worlds to Conquer.

With pipe smoking you will enjoy a variety of flavors that no other type of smoking can offer you. To discover your own individual taste in a tobacco blend, a little patience and exploration is necessary. The cake retains the flavor of each tobacco smoked. When trying a new blend, give it a chance. A pipe full of this and a pipe full of that not only confuses you, but also the pipe.

Let the cake of a pipe fully absorb the flavor of each new blend. Here is a hint, reserve one pipe for one particular new blend

Don't Be A Pouch Hopper.

You are looking for that "perfect blend", so give each blend at least a two ounce try.

Is sniffing the answer? Because an aroma comes leaping out of a package doesn't mean that you have found that mild sweet tobacco you are looking for. Much to the contrary, many sweet gentle tobaccos have no aroma at all but are savored in subtle goodness after you light up.

What is a tobacconist? A tobacconist knows what each tobacco will do and where each blend satisfies in strength and flavor. It is his job to help you find the right tobacco.

Care And Feeding Of Your Pipe.

Your pipe is breakable. The bit is made of hard vulcanite rubber or hard Lucite. The tenon is most prone to mishap so never knock out your pipe by holding it by the bit. The tenon will snap. Never remove the bit from the shank when the pipe is hot. Again, you will snap the tenon or split the wall of the shank. Remove the bit only when your pipe is cool.

Good Basic Facts, But...

There is often problems that are unusual and individual, so feel free to send me an e-mail me at: advice@thetobaccoshop.com or fax me at 317.299.6916 and ask about yours. We are interested in helping you become a happy pipe smoker.