[alfredo_buscatti]

I've been smoking flake for some time, and over time my packing method has changed.

I started by rubbing out flake. Then I tore off chunks about 1/4" X 3/8" and gravity dropped them into the bowl. But I kept reading that others simply folded a flake into 3 parts, assuming a 3" to 4" long flake, and stuffed that folded flake into the bowl, with tinder on top. When I tried this I found that it was hard to light and hard to keep lit, but it did burn very slowly, which was what I sought.

I asked for advice and was told that I needed to "worry" the flake before inserting it into the bowl; that is to rub out the folded flake, but just to the point of loosening the strands. This is easy with fragile flakes like GH Dark Flake but quite a bit more time-consuming with dense flakes such as Irish Flake. The key, at least for my hands, is to worry about an 8th" piece of Irish Flake at a time.

This last method retains the slow burn while normalizing relights.

You stuff the worried flake into the bowl vertically so that ends of the flake strands stand up in the bowl. Having done so, often tinder isn't needed, and relights are facilitated.