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These Smoking Tips will help you avoid these problems:
How to fill your pipe: Different types of tobacco need to be packed differently due to type of cut, moisture, etc.
The general rule is to pack your bowl in three stages. The first pinch should be packed lightly, as by a child’s hand.
The second pinch, more firmly, as by a woman’s hand. The third pinch should be packed the firmest, as by a man’s hand. For new pipes, we recommend that you break your pipe in by only filling it about half way. Still follow the three pinch technique, but use just enough tobacco to fill your pipe up to half full.
The breaking in process involves building a “Cake” of carbon inside the bowl. This is best done in stages from the bottom up as you smoke.
Once the pipe has been broken in after several complete smokes, you can begin filling it higher. In each case, try smoking all of the tobacco in your pipe, or the cake of carbon will never form properly.
How to light your pipe: Light your pipe in a circular motion until all of the surface has charred, like
a cigar. Use either a butane gas lighter or a match. Lighter fluid type lighters will impart an unpleasant taste, so avoid them.
If using a match, let the sulphur burn off the match tip before lighting to avoid that taste. Draw slowly and gently. The tobacco will rise slightly requiring you to pack it down a bit. Relight. Take care to not burn the rim of your pipe’s bowl. This can happen quickly, especially if you use a hot flame like a torch-style lighter. Occasionally
tamp down as the tobacco burns since it expands as you smoke.
How to smoke your pipe: As you light,
puff gently with shallow steady puffs. If you puff too hard, the tobacco will burn hotter and faster, but can ruin the taste. Just like cooking stew in a pot, you can cook it slowly and
preserve the taste, or you can scorch it on too high a heat and have that scorched taste ruin the entire pot of food!
In addition, not only will drawing too hard on your pipe cause the tobacco to burn too hot and taste bad, but it will also cause a moisture build-up from condensation creating an even worse taste and prevent your pipe from staying lit from excess moisture. It may also develope a hot spot which burns unevenly, leaving unlit tobacco around it.
The rule to remember is to puff very softly! The smoke of a well packed and lit pipe should be soft and cool and smooth. If you get “Tongue bite”, you have not packed your tobacco firmly enough. If your pipe keeps going out, you may have packed it too tightly. Remember to draw on your pipe in soft, gentle puffs, like a baby. Gently knock out ash as your tobacco smokes down, gently tamping as you get to the looser lower layers. If your pipe gurgles, there is excess moisture from fast drawn, hot burning tobacco. Use a pipe cleaner.
Also keep in mind that different tobaccos have different smoking properties. Aromatic blends tend to be more moist, and require more heat to burn, while non aromatic blends are easier to keep lit
and burn cooler. You must practice, and keep these rules in mind until you perfect the technique. It’s rewarding finding that “Just right” way to smoke your favorite tobacco in your favorite pipe!
Ever Smoke A Meerschaum Pipe?: It’s One of the best tobacco pipes in the world when it comes to a cool easy
smoking pipe! Meerschaum doesn’t need to dry out like Briar, as it is very porous,
so smoking a Meerschaum all day is a breeze.
When smoking any pipe, let it have air to stay fresh. Don’t put it away in a case or cabinet right after a smoke- even with Meerschaum. Residual moisture can sour a pipe. Be gentle when cleaning a Meerschaum bowl. Rule of thumb is, if it can be carved by an artist, it can be gouged as well. Click on this link to see our
Meerschaum pipes: Meerschaum Pipes
How to care for your pipe: Clean your pipe regularly.
Pipes can develop a sour taste from lack of regular cleaning. Use a pipe cleaner through the stem gently running it back and forth after every smoke! Smoke all of the tobacco in the bowl, then use a tool to gently scrape out the ash.
Do not remove the carbonized tobacco stuck to the sides of the bowl!
This layer should build and be maintained to coin thickness to make your pipe smoke cooler and drier. If after time this layer gets thicker, use a pipe reaming tool to evenly scrape the bowl’s carbon back down to coin thickness, or the carbon could expand from heat and crack the bowl of your pipe.
If you have a pipe ashtray with a cork knocker in the center, gently tap the bowl of your pipe on it to knock out any remaining ash or tobacco. Make certain that you hold the wood of the pipe,
NOT
the stem when you do this, or the stem could break off where it connects to the pipe. Many pipes have been broken this way! Never remove a pipes stem while a pipe is warm or hot! This can also break the stem! Never clean your pipe with water or chemicals! This can damage the wood, and chemicals can stay in the wood and damage your health.
Don’t leave unsmoked tobacco in your pipe for more than a couple of hours.
It not only tastes bad (Like an ashtray), but will keep moisture in your pipe which is exactly what you do not want.
When you smoke a briar pipe, the moisture from condensation transfers
to the wood.
When this happens, it becomes hard to keep the pipe lit, and the taste is not as good. This is why pipe smokers have several pipes, and smoke them in rotation throughout the day, giving the others a chance to dry out. If for some reason you do not wish to smoke all of the tobacco in your pipe that day, by all means remove it.
Tobacco: Select tobaccos which are similar in taste when using the same pipe.
Otherwise, your pipe will retain the flavor and transfer that taste to what ever else you’re smoking. If you like several very different tobaccos, try keeping a few extra pipes for those stronger blends. Tobaccos can differ greatly in taste. The stronger ones tend to be the Latakia, Orientals and Perique, which are primarily found in traditional English blends.
Aromatic blends are almost always milder. Everyone has different taste, so one great tobacco to you may be terrible to someone else, and subsequently likewise.
Experiment. Give one blend a chance smoking it correctly before switching quickly to another.
Click Here for Tester Pipes>> 
Pipe smoking is a distinguished pleasure. Smoke your pipe with suave
and respect for others. Some blends may offend people around you, so exercise care when choosing a tobacco for indoors, especially when
not at home. You belong to an elite few who have the singular responsibility to convey pipe smoking etiquette as it should be presented.
Enjoy the pleasant and peaceful time a pipe can bring, savor your pipe as you puff gently and steadily.
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