New Pipe Smoker With A Question? Ask an Old Fart

[DaBear]

Originally Posted by kydsid

Well that's great advice but it begets another question. What do you mean by "how much I rub them out"?

Flake tobaccos are whole leaves stacked on top of eachother and pressed then cut into thin slices, these slices can either be folded and stuffed into your pipe or rubbed out and broken apart and then packed into your pipe. When you rub out a flake/coin you can leave it fairly rough in what would be called a broken flake(ie large chunks still in a flake) with a light rubbing out or you can give them a full rubbing out which will leave it as almost a ribbon cut.

[RevSmoke]

Originally Posted by DaBear

Flake tobaccos are whole leaves stacked on top of eachother and pressed then cut into thin slices, these slices can either be folded and stuffed into your pipe or rubbed out and broken apart and then packed into your pipe. When you rub out a flake/coin you can leave it fairly rough in what would be called a broken flake(ie large chunks still in a flake) with a light rubbing out or you can give them a full rubbing out which will leave it as almost a ribbon cut.

When I was writing my response, DaBear hadn't posted his yet. We must have been writing at the same time.

He give more detail on the making of the "plugs" which can be cut into plug sizes to sell or slice into flakes.

[Mister Moo]

Originally Posted by RevSmoke

When I was writing my response, DaBear hadn't posted his yet. We must have been writing at the same time.

You all are running willy-nilly here.




Nice to see a reliable pipe smoking resource in a barn full of cigar smokers.

[RevSmoke]

Originally Posted by kydsid

Well that's great advice but it begets another question. What do you mean by "how much I rub them out"?

There is some tobacco that comes in what is referred to as a ribbon cut and is the form most pipe tobacco is sold in. Some pipe tobacco is made in a pressed form called a plug. Some is slices from a large pressed plug and is called a flakes. Still more tobacco comes as a rope where the tobacco leaves are spun together to make it, and it comes in various diameter ropes. Cut slices from rope may be called either coins or disks.

While you can buy some tobacco even in plug or rope form, what you will more often find is either flakes, disks, or coins. To smoke these forms, there are many method to get them into the pipe - I referred to that as "how much I rub them out." Some will take a flake/disk and fold it and stuff it into their pipe. Some will rub it out completely to basically a ribbon form. And of course, there are varying degrees in between.

Peace of the Lord be with you.

[TXSmokey]

what should i do when the baccy tastes kinda watered down? for instance, the first tin of Mississippi river i had was great, but the second tasted watered down so to speak. I tried setting it out for about 10 minutes before smoking it but still got the same results. did i get a bad batch?

[RevSmoke]

Originally Posted by TXSmokey

what should i do when the baccy tastes kinda watered down? for instance, the first tin of Mississippi river i had was great, but the second tasted watered down so to speak. I tried setting it out for about 10 minutes before smoking it but still got the same results. did i get a bad batch?

I am not sure what you mean by watered down. If you mean it tastes like there was not as much flavor as the first time you smoked it, that could come from a couple things.
You might have tried it the first time with a clean palate, and so the flavors were more intense the first time. What I mean by a 'clean palate' is just that, a palate that has not had a smoke in it for a few days, time to be 'clean'.
It might mean that you have tongue bite, where your tongue is sore, and therefore flavors are muted.
Or, the moisture content was different.

Peace of The Lord be with you.

[gravel]

Originally Posted by RevSmoke

I am not sure what you mean by watered down. If you mean it tastes like there was not as much flavor as the first time you smoked it, that could come from a couple things.
You might have tried it the first time with a clean palate, and so the flavors were more intense the first time. What I mean by a 'clean palate' is just that, a palate that has not had a smoke in it for a few days, time to be 'clean'.
It might mean that you have tongue bite, where your tongue is sore, and therefore flavors are muted.
Or, the moisture content was different.

Peace of The Lord be with you.

If I may add to the good Rev's post, time of day also affects your palate. Anytime you eat or drink you potentially alter your palate. Ambient temperatures also may affect flavor. If your smoke feel rushed, flavor will be compromised. Other environmental factors come into play as well with allergens being notable for me.

Everything tastes better on vacation or during a long relaxed weekend.

Edit: Per the thread - been smoking pipes since 2002.

[TXSmokey]

Originally Posted by RevSmoke

I am not sure what you mean by watered down. If you mean it tastes like there was not as much flavor as the first time you smoked it, that could come from a couple things.
You might have tried it the first time with a clean palate, and so the flavors were more intense the first time. What I mean by a 'clean palate' is just that, a palate that has not had a smoke in it for a few days, time to be 'clean'.
It might mean that you have tongue bite, where your tongue is sore, and therefore flavors are muted.
Or, the moisture content was different.

Peace of The Lord be with you.

i'm pretty sure it wasn't tongue bite, but i'm gonna try not smoking for a few days and trY again.
Thanks

[RevSmoke]

Originally Posted by TXSmokey

i'm pretty sure it wasn't tongue bite, but i'm gonna try not smoking for a few days and trY again.
Thanks

Do you smoke cigars?

I ask for it brings up something I thought about later. If I smoke a cigar and then smoke my pipe, the pipe always tastes flat. Cigar smoke is much stronger (even from mild cigars) and while you may not notice it, leaves a finish that lasts a long time in the mouth.

[TXSmokey]

that may be it. so far it's only happened with Mississippi river and a couple aromatics
Thanks

[Subvet642]

I have a question...I'm fairly new to pipes as I smoke them only occasionally but want to get more into it. I saw these pipes on the 'bay that are carved from pear tree root by a craftsman in Poland. Question: Does anyone know how pear tree root compares to briar?

[WaRevo]

I bought a pear root pipe and sadly was very unhappy with it. For the price of most the ones I seen back then I could have picked up a nice smoking Briar same price and less in some cases. I don't know what kind of Tobacco you plan to smoke out of it, What I seen is that the pipe didn't like to build a cake and it smoked hot. Also was a little bit of wood burning. A friend of mine liked the look of the pipe and wanted it so I was more then happy to let him have it.

James

[Subvet642]

Originally Posted by WaRevo

I bought a pear root pipe and sadly was very unhappy with it. For the price of most the ones I seen back then I could have picked up a nice smoking Briar same price and less in some cases. I don't know what kind of Tobacco you plan to smoke out of it, What I seen is that the pipe didn't like to build a cake and it smoked hot. Also was a little bit of wood burning. A friend of mine liked the look of the pipe and wanted it so I was more then happy to let him have it.

James

Gotcha! Thank you.

[RevSmoke]

Originally Posted by WaRevo

I bought a pear root pipe and sadly was very unhappy with it. For the price of most the ones I seen back then I could have picked up a nice smoking Briar same price and less in some cases. I don't know what kind of Tobacco you plan to smoke out of it, What I seen is that the pipe didn't like to build a cake and it smoked hot. Also was a little bit of wood burning. A friend of mine liked the look of the pipe and wanted it so I was more then happy to let him have it.

James

Originally Posted by Subvet642

Gotcha! Thank you.

Glad someone else had an answer. I was going to say this...

After the past couple hundred years of pipe smoking, briar, meeshaum, corn cob, (and to some extent, clay) pipe are now presently widely accepted and available. I know that there are many other things that have been tried. As those 3 (4) are the ones that are "readily" available, I doubt that pear root is a good choice.

But, that was only to be my

Peace of the Lord be with you.

[ApexAZ]

So I have had 2 tins of GLP Virginia blends, each with about 3 years of age on them, according to the sticker on the bottom. Laurel Heights and Stratford.

I haven't had a lot of experience with virginia blends before now, and the sweetness really just blows me away each time. The Laurel Heights seems especially sweet, since it's lacking the perique the other blend incorporates. It kind of reminds me of sweet black tea.

Anyways, I was reading a piece written by Mr. Pease where he stated that pretty much all tobacco has some type of casing or topping added to enhance the flavor.

My question is, how much of the sweetness is attributed to natural sweetness, and how much to topping? How do I find out what was added?

[CoffeeWaterBeer]

I dare not attempt to speak for GLP but it's my understanding that he uses the smallest amount of "juice" to hit the target flavor for his blends. As you try more VA's , you will notice many do have a great natural sweetness due to the higher sugar content that is the norm for those leaves. If I'm off base, please chime in.

[Subvet642]

This has probably been asked before, but how does one properly "break-in" a new pipe? The wife has been pretty supportive of this new-ish aspect of the hobby/sickness so I've pulled the trigger on a couple of new Chacom pipes. As I've only ever bought estate pipes and Dr. Grabows, I don't want to screw it up.

[MarkinAZ]

Originally Posted by Subvet642

This has probably been asked before, but how does one properly "break-in" a new pipe? The wife has been pretty supportive of this new-ish aspect of the disease so I've pulled the trigger on a couple of new Chacom pipes. As I've only ever bought estate pipes and Dr. Grabows, I don't want to screw it up.

Here's a nice article by Patrick Dennis titled "Breaking In A Pipe":

http://www.chicagopipeshow.com/educa...rickDennis.pdf

And, another from PipesandCigars:

http://www.pipesandcigars.com/faq/ar...-pipe-break-in

I tend to agree with Mr. Dennis myself...

[WaRevo]

For me I am different then most people that smoke pipe. In some cases I do the Dennis method and I use Prince Albert to start my break in. However seeing that I am not like most I rarely have a pipe with cake in it. I make sure that I clean my pipe after every use and that I keep the stem and bowl as clean as I can daily. I do use alot of Cleaners and from what I have seen in Estate pipes that I have bought I can't understand really how some people could let the pipe fill with such cake. I mean I have had some pipes that you couldn't even put a Pipe tool into let alone a Dr. Grabow filter How in the world did they even smoke the pipe. Then when I take the stem out and it is filled with SO MUCH junk I am like OMG that is nasty. This one pipe I just got from a person that said they didn't want to smoke pipe anymore and didn't like it, Buying the pipe at 1/4 the cost of new because he thought there was something wrong with it. I get it, The pipe wasn't really deep with cake but the drawhole was filled with unsmoked tobacco and the buildup in the shank was deep tar and i was like no wonder they didn't like it. Honestly it looked like they never ran a pipe cleaner in the stem or shank at all. Again the bowl wasn't that bad, ran a Czech took around the bowl maybe 15 times before it was a good clean thin cake. The shank took my shank brush, 40 Q-tips before it came out looking almost clean and the stem took 15 Q-tips and 5 bristle pipe cleaners, and 4 soft pipe cleaners before I could pass it with Alcohol on the tip and pull all the way through clean.

my first thought when I seen this was It had to have been HORRID to smoke this pipe.

James

[MarkinAZ]

Here's a thread regarding breaking-in your pipe from Pipesmokersforum for your review Darren:

http://www.pipesandcigars.com/faq/ar...-pipe-break-in

As you will see, there are various thoughts as to how to break a new pipe in...