Go Back   Cigar Weekly Community Forums and Discussion Groups > Smoking Post > Pipe Room

Pipe Room A place for the discussion of Pipes and Pipe Tobaccos.

 
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
Prev Previous Post   Next Post Next
Old 08-31-2005, 12:56 PM   #5
tedski
Club Member
 
tedski's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Looking up at the Pleiades ...
Posts: 1,490
Keeping your bowl lit can be difficult or easy depending on many factors. First off is your choice of tobacco. Some have low to high levels of humectants (like Propeylene Glycol) added in order to keep the tobacco somewhat moist while sitting around for months in the smoke shop. In some cases these never really dry out.

Second is how the tobacco is cut. This not only affects how the bowl is loaded but how well the tobacco burns. A fire needs fuel, heat and oxygen to burn. If you load the bowl too tight, then you cut off the oxygen. If loaded too loose, then you are taking away the heat and fuel components.

Here are a few things to try:

1. Cut up your tobacco into smaller chunks. Some people use a small coffee grinder or food processor for this. You should end up with something that looks like tobacco confetti. Pour this into your bowl (gravity feed) until it is overflowing. Pack down 1/2 way. Then overfill again and pack down to just under the rim. Make sure the draw of air through the pipe is not constricted ... if it is, pour out the tobacco and reload.

2. Make sure you get a good starting light. Use your lighter or match and get the entire top level of tobacco glowing. You will find that this will generate a ton of smoke, but in doing this you stand a better chance of the coal lasting longer.

3. Use your tamper often - but use a gentle touch. When first beginning a bowl, your tamper should be used several times on the initial light. Then during the course of the bowl, use it 3-4 times just to keep the top layers of ash compressed. Don't press down hardly at all - you don't want to compact the tobacco any further - you just want to keep the coal covered and keep the heat in.

If none of these work for you, it might just be that your pipe doesn't have the best airflow characteristics. You might consider having the airway "opened up" to 4 or 5mm.
__________________
There are lies, damn lies and statistics ...
tedski is offline   Reply With Quote
 

Bookmarks
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts

BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off

Forum Jump


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 04:07 AM.