A page for new smokers

A Page for New Smokers

"I believe that pipe smoking contributes to a somewhat calm and objective judgement in all human affairs." -Albert Einstein, 1950

The South West Pipe Club (UK)

To contact us, email:

The Club Secretary (bewm@fsmail.net)

This page is for those who are new to the gentle art of pipesmoking, or who may be contemplating taking up the pipe. It is far from exhaustive. It does, however, contain some useful, fundamental advice. More advice can be found on the Internet. And don’t be afraid to ask the views of other pipesmokers — they’ll be happy to oblige.

This may seem obvious, but you need to start with a pipe, or strictly speaking, more than one pipe (more about this shortly). You also need a pipe tool or pipe knife with which you can carry out certain essential operations. A stock of pipe cleaners is another necessity.

Let’s look at the pipe first of all. Pipes come in all shapes, sizes and styles, too many to discuss here, other than to say that there are straight pipes and bent pipes, classic styles and freehand styles. Find a reputable tobacconist to make your first purchase and be guided by his or her expertise; try a variety before you settle on any one particular design; a good tobacconist will have a supply of slip-on bit protectors so you can find out how the pipe feels in your mouth. Prices vary tremendously, but as a rule of thumb, the more you pay the better the quality of the pipe. However, this does not necessarily guarantee the pipe will be a good smoker.

Having found something you like, consider buying at least one more pipe. The reason for this is quite simply if you smoke one pipe for any length of time without cleaning or resting it, the tobacco you smoke in it will eventually start to taste foul. By having more than one pipe, you can rest one while smoking another — the rested pipe has a chance to dry out and, following cleaning, will produce a sweeter smoke. One word of warning — those who become hooked on pipesmoking tend to develop an incurable malady known as PAD or Pipe Acquisition —

Disorder — it starts very shortly after the purchase of your first pipes!

Having purchased your first pipes, you need some tobacco to put in it. As with pipes, the choice is vast. An aromatic or non-aromatic? Virginia, Burley, Cavendish? Ready-rubbed, cube cut, flake? Strong, medium, mild? Where do you start? Your tobacconist will be a source of good advice, as will other pipesmokers. Use both of these resources well and ask opinions. Another useful source of information on tobaccos is “Tobacco Reviews”; an online site where critiques of most tobaccos currently available are posted by pipesmokers. You will find the link to the site on the Links page.

As a new pipesmoker, you will be looking for your first smoke to be a pleasant experience. You might therefore like to consider a mild to medium strength, well-flavoured tobacco, particularly if you are an ex-cigarette smoker. If you opt for an aromatic tobacco, be wary, there are some aromatics that taste very sweet, but they smoke “wet” and they tend to quickly foul up a pipe. They can also “possess” a pipe; that is the taste will linger in the pipe which could make it difficult to enjoy a more subtly flavoured tobacco. Pipe “possession” by a particular type of tobacco is not rare. Many pipesmokers dedicate specific pipes to specific types of tobacco to avoid this problem. Of course, this does entail falling even further under the influence of PAD!

So, you now have a pipe, tobacco, tools and cleaners. Let’s look at that first smoke:-

Filling the pipe. A common and successful method of filling a pipe is filling by “thirds”. Having prepared the tobacco (in the case of flake tobaccos, you will need to break the flake down, known as “rubbing out”), trickle tobacco into the pipe bowl, occasionally tapping the sides of the bowl to settle the tobacco. When the bowl is full, very, very gently press the tobacco down into the bowl. Repeat the trickle operation and press the tobacco down a little more firmly this time. Repeat the operation again and press the tobacco down with even more firmness. You should end up with a pipe bowl almost full of tobacco (about 1/16th to 1/8th of an inch below the rim) that, when pressed, will spring back up to its original position. While filling the pipe, test the draw; if you filled it properly, when you draw on it, it should feel like sucking liquid through a straw. You’re now ready to light up.

Lighting the pipe. There is and always will be a debate as to whether a lighter or matches are best when lighting; you might consider using matches for the initial light and a lighter for any relights (and rest assured, there will be many!). One thing to avoid at all costs is one of the torch-style butane lighters — these will very quickly burn the top of your pipe bowl. The initial lighting of a pipe actually consists of two lights. The first is the “charring light” — having struck your match, “dance” the flame over the tobacco whilst puffing gently. Around the edges first of all, then into the centre. Keep the match moving to avoid burning the edge of the bowl. The tobacco will expand and rise (now you see why you don’t fill to the very top of the bowl). You now have a charred “lid” of tobacco; gently tamp this down then follow the same procedure with your second match. Make sure the entire surface of tobacco has been lit — well done, you’re now ready to enjoy your first bowl.

Smoking the pipe. Unless you have bought a meerschaum or a clay, your pipe will be made of wood, most probably briar. Wood burns, so you do not want to get your pipe too hot. If you can’t hold the side of the bowl against your face for more than a few seconds, your pipe is too hot. Why? Because you’re puffing too deeply and too quickly. Smoke your pipe slowly; sip the smoke as you would sip a glass of fine wine. If you’re an ex-cigarette smoker, try to resist the temptation of inhaling — you will loose a lot of the taste and flavour of the tobacco if you do. If the pipe gets too hot, rest it for a short period. Don’t worry if it goes out; just gently tamp the ashes and relight. You may also experience gurgling; this is only moisture at the bottom of the bowl. It can sometimes be cured by gently blowing though the pipe or, if that’s not successful, run a pipecleaner down the stem to absorb the moisture.

As your pipe is new, it will require “breaking in”. This is merely a period of time, over which, the inside of the bowl forms a layer of carbon or “cake” which will serve to protect the actual wood of the pipe itself from burning. There are numerous techniques for forming a good cake, too many to record here, but a common one is to part fill the bowl for the first half-dozen or so smokes, and to smoke the tobacco right down to the bottom (unless of course the taste is unpleasant!). This will ensure a start to the cake. The bowl can then be filled for subsequent smokes. Some tobaccos help towards faster cake formation than others. Above all though, don’t get obsessed with cake formation. It will come in its own good time.

It takes time, practice and patience to learn the technique of smoking a pipe and, even years later, you’ll still be learning. Stick with it though, and you’ll be rewarded with hours of smoking pleasure.

Cleaning the pipe. A dirty pipe will produce a foul-tasting, unpleasant smoke and an equally foul smell that will be noted by those around you. Over time, the juices from the tobacco and other juices will collect in the bottom of the pipe and in the shank and airhole. These can soak into the wood and also solidify, reducing the airflow. It is this that can make an unlit pipe smell. So, get into the habit of cleaning your pipe regularly; preferably after every smoke. Run a couple of pipecleaners through your pipe until they come out clean. Some pipesmokers choose to clean their pipe without separating stem from bowl, others separate them. An advantage of the second method is that you can clean the shank and the airhole more effectively. If you do adopt the second method, DO NOT separate stem from bowl until the pipe has had a couple of hours to cool down. The stem and the wood of the pipe expand at different rates; separating them while the pipe is hot will cause premature wear which will eventually result in a loose stem. Having cleaned your pipe, it should be rested, ideally, for at least 24 hours. Now you can see why you’ll need more than one pipe! And don’t forget to look after the exterior of your pipe; keep it clean and polished. Most tobacconists will have stem and bowl polish in stock.

The information above has barely scratched the surface. Below are some snippets of information that will help you to get the most out of your new hobby. They have been reproduced by kind permission of the Smokers’ Forums. Click on this link for more comprehensive advice.

CHOOSING A PIPE

"If you decide you want to go with a briar right away I would go down to your local tobacconist and get him to show you the different pipes in your price range. You might be able to get a second, which is a pipe that for some reason or another wasn't good enough to bear the name of the manufacturer. This is usually due to lack of grain or fills. These pipes tend to smoke just as well as those which have been stamped. Stanwell, for example, has several lines of seconds which can be found under the names: Royal Danish, Royal Guard, Sovereign, etc. Many other pipe manufacturers also have lines of seconds. If you are unable to find any seconds then an other option might be to look at basket pipes which are pipes that your tobacconist will usually keep in a basket or box and tend to be cheaper. Something to look for when buying any pipe is that the air-hole is at the bottom of the bowl and that it lines up with the stem when the pipe is together. A way of finding this out is to feed a pipe-cleaner down the stem of the pipe and see if it comes out in the bottom of the bowl. Bent pipes sometimes have problems with this due to the nature of their construction. In the case of a bent pipe bend the end of the pipe cleaner between your thumb and forefinger and it should feed through."

OVERSMOKING ONE PIPE

"I definitely haven't overloaded my taste buds/got tongue bite/lost my sense of taste. I had a go on my workmate's pipe to make sure. I have only one pipe at the moment that I've been using for about 15 half bowls a day for the last three weeks, smoking a variety of “baccies” (the taste only stopped this past weekend). Have I perhaps overdone things and just need to let the pipe rest? I'm not too worried about breaking it as it's just my first (and cheap) pipe (and I've got two new pipes arriving this week) I have cleaned the pipe religiously after every 2 - 3 smokes and always given an extra good clean before I retire for the night. I've also tried to smoke it as cool as possible but since the taste stopped it gets really hot really quickly (within 10-12 puffs). Have I perhaps overdone the cleaning and got rid of too much cake?"

"It sounds to me as though you may have saturated the bowl with your variety of different tobaccos which has served to neutralise the taste of any tobaccos. The sooner you get a couple of extra pipes into your rotation, the better, you'll enjoy what you're smoking. It may also be worth giving your pipe a clean out with alcohol and resting it for a few days once you have a couple of extras to be going along with."

TAMPING TECHNIQUE

"I pack my pipe as has been described by many of you in the past. I then tamp the tobacco by slightly tilting the tamper to the outside of the bowl and work around the edges keeping the tamper tilted to the outside as I go. This will cause the tobacco to have a mounded top instead of a level one. I then give it the charring light and tamp again using the slightly tilted tamper as before and relight. As the tobacco is burned and is in need of tamping, I will tamp again always with the tilted tamper to mound the tobacco and ash. This has worked for me for the last forty years, often smoking the bowl with just the charring light, depending on the tobacco being smoked."

SMOKING TECHNIQUE

"For the first week or so I lit up and puffed away furiously

enveloped in a billowing cloud of smoke, this resulted in a very sore tongue and mouth and a taste like the bottom of a bird cage.

I have slowed down some what and the mouth has recovered.

So what method do experienced pipe smokers use, huff and puff, slow and easy, let it go out and relight or some other method not known to the uninitiated?"

"I think most of us would agree that the "slow and easy" method you mentioned is infinitely preferable to "huff and puff", which is the last thing you want to do; assuming you want a nice cool smoke and an unbitten tongue. It's helpful to try and smoke with the pipe almost on the verge of going out... gentle "sips" of the pipe smoke will prevent this from happening and will also reward you with more flavour than puffing away like a steam train. Having said that, do not be afraid of letting the pipe actually go out, especially if you feel you just want to take a break between puffs. A warm pipe can be relit as often as necessary with no ill-effects/bad tastes. Try and regulate the bowl temperature to a point where it is just comfortably warm, and can be held against the side of your cheek without burning it. Finally, just keep smoking! You will find as time goes by that you will subconsciously develop more and more expertise in this area."

HOW FAST?

"how often you usually "puff" (pull the smoke to your mouth) and how often (approximately) tamp the top-ash?"

"A) It depends on which tobacco I'm smoking and which pipe I'm using. But often enough to keep the fire burning.

B) I tamp when I get less smoke, i.e. when the fire is about to go out. Tamping, and puffing a couple of times, gets it up to steam again."

"I puff just enough to keep the embers burning, and usually tamp upon each re-light - but not always."

"I've never actually timed the number of seconds between each puff, but like the rest - it depends on what I'm smoking. Usually just enough to keep the bowl nicely warm, but not hot. The tobacco usually tastes better if I can control things so that the pipe is just Burning and no more."

“WET” SMOKING

"There are a couple of things you can do. The first is to let your tobacco dry out a bit before smoking it. The second, and probably the most important, is to smoke your pipe as slowly as possible. A fast burning pipe will produce more moisture than one that's smoked slowly. The moisture might also be caused by your pipe not being broken in all the way. In any event there are a couple of things you can do to avoid getting a mouthful of tobacco soup. The first is to keep pipe cleaners with you when you smoke so if you hear a gurgle you can clean out your stem before it gets to your tongue. An other method when you hear the gurgle is to puff lightly into your bowl. This will often move the moisture away from the air hole and allow you to continue smoking without sucking tobacco fluid."

SOME THOUGHTS ON PAD!

"Many pipe smokers, myself included, find themselves on the slippery slope of pipe acquisition. For me it's not just finding a pipe for a given tobacco type, but finding the perfect pipe for the tobacco type at a given moment. Smaller bowled pipes for the tobaccos with high nicotine content, big pipes for reading, outside pipes, work pipes, pipes for a certain brand of tobacco, the list goes ever on. Not to mention that it's probably better to rest your pipes for more than a day from time to time. It's your decision, but in my opinion three pipes limits your smoking options."