petewho

I fired it up last night.

Setting: Burnt my mouth on hot lasagna two hours prior, had one cold beer to try and fix that. Drove over to a cigar-smokin' buddies' house. Said friend tried a pipe about 15 years ago and burnt the heck out of his tongue, then retired it after 4 bowls. Earlier in the day he ran out and bought a new briar and pouch of Danish cavendish to match my new purchase.

Pre-light: Walking to the back door of his house with the pipe in my teeth for the first time ever, I DROPPED MY @#$%ING PIPE!!! Yes, I am rookie, I dropped my pipe. Now I'm over the it's-something-new-I-need-to-handle-it-with-the-kid-gloves stage. Time to load & light.

Let's go: I've been reading A LOT about the pipe ahead of time. Loaded about 1/3 bowl for it's christening and didn't over-tamp. Lighting my pipe with a Bic soft-flame vaguely reminded me of something I did once in highschool, but once we got over the giggles it was back to business. Got it lit, puff puff, flattened the ashes once with the tamper, lit again, and it was going ok. Producing smoke? Check. Flavor? Not much. Smell? Like a pipe shop!

Smoking the pipe: I was really timid about getting it burning good for fear of burning my tongue. The guy I was hanging out with made it sound like I was guarenteed a tongue-burn and kept asking me, "how's your tongue?". The couple times I did get a little more agressive with the flame, the pipe rewarded me with a good volume of smoke, nice flavor, a warm hand, and no tongue-bite. I finally switched to wooden matches and that made it MUCH easier to light. After switching to the match I had to relight only once. I followed the perscribed rules for a new pipe and smoked it all the way down.

Note to fellow noobs: When approaching the bottom of the bowl, DO NOT take your pipe tool, stir around the contents, tamp down and relight! You'll get a mouthfull of ash! My second rookie manuver of the night! (cue laughter)

Second bowl: Since we had two different tobaccos and I only smoked 1/3 bowl, I decided to have another go. I emptied the ash (from both the bowl and my mouth) and loaded about 1/4 with the other tobacco. This time I lit it right from the start, kept tamping to the minimum, and it went well. About halfway through that I thought the draw was too loose and started tamping a little firmer - this worked. I had been under-tamping! Two times I felt the smoke heating up but didn't get a tongue-bite. I could feel the heat as the smoke came up to the mouthpiece and feel it at my lips and quickly stop my draw before getting the bite.

Post-pipe: Yeah, don't have a cigar after the pipe. Not worth it...

Today: I THOUGHT I never burnt my tongue, but today I can't taste my coffee, and I feel like I have a little sandpaper on my tongue. I guess I did something wrong. Maybe it was the lasagna burn.

Verdict: Good experience! Gotta get a different tobacco. The golden cavendish and Danish were both nice, a little flavor, a little smell. But I want to go one-way-or-the-other. Either a tobacco that's all flavor and more like a cigar, or one that's straight dessert (apple, vanilla, coffee, chocolate, whatever).

Note to self: Thow dirty pipe cleaners away, FAR AWAY, as they are one of the stinkiest things in the known universe.

And that's my story.