Guy’s Guide: Smoking a Tobacco Pipe Part2

Part 2: The Art of Smoking

We’re assuming that you know the risks of tobacco use. It is absolutely not a safe habit or hobby. But we also know that you’re a grown adult and that you can make your own choices.  Part 1 of this three-part series might have fired up both your imagination and motivation, and sent you out into the word to acquire one. Or, perhaps you already have a tobacco pipe and have put off using it because you’re unsure what to do with it. Now you need to figure out how to smoke the damn thing.

Tobacco

Kramers Pipe and Tobacco

Before you can start practicing blowing awesome smoke rings, you need something to burn inside your new pipe. You need tobacco!

As with the pipe itself, avoid gas station and convenience store tobaccos. This may come as a huge surprise to you, but gas station pipe tobacco is usually made from extremely low-quality tobacco, laced with a lot of additives. I know, I know, you’d assume gas stations would have all the fanciest things. In such non-specialty locations you may also find products labeled as “Premium Pipe Tobacco,’ which is in fact roll-your-own cigarette tobacco repackaged for pipes. Cigarette tobacco does not smoke well in a pipe.

You will want to get your tobacco from a proper tobacconist, or on-line. I recommend finding a tobacco shop so you can utilize your nose in your selection process.

Pipe tobaccos fall into two basic categories: aromatic and non-aromatic. Aromatics are “flavored” tobaccos, which come in a myriad of standard tastes/scents, like cheery, chocolate, and vanilla. The upside to aromatics is obviously the enhanced flavor, something that will likely be appealing to beginner smokers. The downside is that they can be harder to smoke, due to their moister nature. Quality non-aromatics are just straight tobacco, with nothing added. Beginners choosing non-aromatic tobacco generally start with “mild” varieties, to avoid the intensity of fuller tobaccos. This is logical, though can also have the potentially negative side effect of turning a new smoker away. Like wine, beer, or coffee, it will take a while for your tobacco palette to develop. Despite its name, mild tobaccos have more nuanced flavors than “heavier” tobaccos, whose flavors are a bit more obvious.

It will take some experimentation to figure out what type of tobacco you like best, but that’s part of the fun. And fortunately tobacco is not that expensive.

Breaking In Your Pipe

The “cake” you will develop in your pipe is very important. As the name may or may not imply to you, the cake is the layer of charred residue that builds up on the inside walls of your pipe’s bowl. This is a good thing. After all, you are lighting a small fire inside something made of wood (conversely, you do not want a cake to build up in a clay pipe). The cake protects the wood from the fire. Some pipes are sold with a temporary bowl coating for protection until a cake forms, but most new pipes will not have this. So what do you do?

The “cake” you will develop in your pipe is very important.

Marsha, from Kramers Pipe and Tobacco in Beverly Hills, recommends coating the bowl of your new pipe with a little bit of honey (just once) to speed up the process of the cake’s formation. Many smokers recommend only partially filling your new bowl the first few times you smoke it. Marsha disagrees with this logic, saying that it can cause the cake to form unevenly. I don’t have enough experience breaking in new pipes to have an opinion here, but the half-fill is a common practice. You can decide what sounds the most logical for yourself.

Packing & Lighting

The trials of packing and lighting a pipe is usually want turns off beginner smokers. It does take practice to master, but it really isn’t that complicated to get the hang of. The biggest problem is trying to figure it out by yourself.

Packing your pipe should be a three-step process, designed to give you a bowl of evenly packed tobacco, top-to-bottom.

• Grab a clump of tobacco and trickle it into the bowl until it is full. Now pack it down with your finger so the bowl is about half full. You don’t want it too tightly packed, as that will fuck up the airflow.
• Grab another clump of tobacco and do the same. Fill it to the top, and then pack it down again, about 2/3 full.
• Repeat this one last time, letting the tobacco overflow before packing it down to the top of the bowl.

The tobacco should be springy to the touch.

To light your pipe you can use either a match or a lighter. Matches as the traditional tool, as some smokers feel the fluids in a lighter affect the taste of the tobacco. But honestly, if you are trying to light your pipe outside with even the slightest breeze, you are going to give up on matches pretty goddamn fast. The only downside that I can see with lighters is the danger of over-torching your tobacco. If you’re inside, matches are the simplest solution.

The tobacco should be springy to the touch.

Once you’ve struck your match, simply move the flame slowly around the tobacco in a circle while puffing gently on the pipe (puffing in, not out). You are not supposed to breath pipe tobacco into your lungs, but rather draw and hold the smoke in your mouth as if you were sucking up soda through a straw and preparing to spit it at someone. A lot of cigarette smokers I know can’t seem to deal with this and breath the smoke all the way into their lungs. I guess if you don’t mind destroying your lungs, then go with grace, but this is not recommended.

Lighting your pipe is easy. Keeping your pipe lit is what will frustrate you. A lot of people give up on the tobacco pipe because they become discouraged by their inability to keep the damn thing burning. But understand that even lifelong smokers may re-light their pipes several times during the course of a long smoke. It is the same way with fine cigars. Really good tobacco does not continuously burn easily. The reason cheap cigars and cigarettes stay lit, even when dangling inactive from fingertips for minutes, is because of the gross additives sprayed onto the tobacco. As a noob smoker, just emotionally accept that you may have to light your pipe three or four times before the bowl is completely burnt down. As you get more experienced, you will find yourself re-lighting it less and less. And more often than not, the reason you can’t keep the pipe lit has nothing to do with your lighting technique and everything to do with the fact that you didn’t pack the bowl properly.

Keeping your pipe lit is what will frustrate you.

Generally speaking, to get the most effective smoke out of your bowl, it will require some maintenance while smoking anyway. We’ll talk in the next installment about pipe accessories, but the one item you’ll definitely want is a tamper. A tamper is just a little stick-like device with one flat end that comes in a variety of styles, depending on if you want something spiffy looking or purely utilitarian. You will need this to “tamp” down the tobacco in your bowl. The tobacco in the bowl will expand while you smoke, which kind of fucks shit up over time as the tobacco becomes too loose to keep the “cherry” ember burning. Never dump the ash out of your pipe before you’ve smoked the bowl all the way down. Instead tamp the ash down into the rest of the tobacco before you re-light. This all serves to keep things burning better.

Now that you’ve got your pipe burning, it is time to relax. You will want to puff slowly on the pipe. Puffing too fast will cause the pipe to heat up. Obviously the pipe is going to be warm, but you should always be able to press the pipe to your cheek without it being uncomfortable. If your pipe it too hot to press to your cheek, put it down for a while. Either your pipe is a cheap piece of shit, or more likely you’re smoking it too fast. Even if it isn’t too hot, never shy away from setting your pipe down and taking a break. The tobacco in your bowl will be good for up to a week, so you can always resume your smoke later on without reloading. Always try to smoke your bowl all the way down. Dumping out un-burnt tobacco will prevent a proper cake from forming. Plus, it is a waste of perfectly good tobacco.

Now that you’ve got your pipe burning, it is time to relax.

Storing your tobacco is easy. A jar or tin works great. Or just leave it in the plastic ziplock the tobacco store gave you. And remember that pipe tobacco lasts a very long time. If you find it dried out, don’t toss it. Just sprinkle a little water on it and it’ll be good as new. Don’t get it too wet, though – you still need to light it on fire. But hell, even if you do get it too wet, just let it dry out. Unlike cigars, taking care of your pipe tobacco is inexpensive and fairly idiot proof.

There. Now you are a fancy-pants pipe man. Join me next time when we talk about accessories and your ongoing future as a classy gentleman.

Read Part 1 HERE.

Read Part 3 HERE.