Loading and Smoking a Pipe
By
Dick Wightman
(Captain Dick)
Most everyone with whom I communicate on the archery and sewing machine collector lists knows I enjoy my pipe (and my coffee). Let me begin this treatise by saying loud and clear that I don’t advocate smoking. However, nor do I feel it is my responsibility, or right, to tell others what to do in matters of their private lives. I, like many others grew up in a different age. Somehow, I was still smart enough to see right off that cigarettes were a losing proposition. I began smoking a pipe at 16 but I have never smoked a cigarette, nor have I ever deliberately inhaled tobacco smoke.
Tobacco in itself is a plant, an herb, I think, that was considered a medicine
by primitive peoples who used it. Like most things, it is not inherently evil…
As with so many things, the evil lies in excess. Excess in regards to tobacco
was deliberately promoted by corporations who sought to make it more addictive
and to market it in the most profitable and addictive form they could, i.e.
cigarettes. I am not saying that pipes and cigars do not have their risks, but
if you study the science, on a scale of one to 10 with cigarettes being a ten,
pipes are down somewhere around 2.
I quit smoking for about 10 years, and did not begin again until I had a health
problem… high blood pressure. I returned to moderate pipe smoking for
the relaxation and to lower my blood pressure, which it did, by about 30 points.
This drives my doctor nuts, but then, I think that’s good for him. These
youngsters have to learn that they don’t know everything, and that every
scientific study doesn’t automatically negate everything that was known
before. If you want to engage in dueling studies, there are a couple that indicate
that moderate pipe smokers live an average of 3 years longer than non-smokers,
but that’s neither here nor there.
To get to the point, you smoke a pipe, or you are trying to smoke a pipe, or
you wouldn’t be reading this. The point of smoking a pipe is relaxation,
the taste and smell of good tobacco, the warm feel of fine briar in your hand,
and the enjoyment of ritual. The ritual of packing, loading and lighting the
pipe has been compared to the Japanese Tea Ceremony in that regard.
Tobacco packing for a pipe is kind of like ice skating or riding a bike... hard
to describe clearly, but once someone gets the feel for it, very natural. I
rarely use a second match (and I do use wood matches) and generally can count
on my pipes to burn down almost to the bottom. Depending on the bowl of the
pipe, which I select based on how much time I have, I can predict a 30 minute,
45 minute or 1 hour smoke.
Some pipes are better at burning smooth and long than others. i won't keep a
pipe that doesn't smoke well. I'm very fussy about the engineering of the airway
vs. the bottom of the pipe. Here are some very crude sketches (I’m no
artist) of what I am talking about:
Pipe A
Note in this drawing, the airway comes into the bowl level with the bottom,
or, on some pipes, may even be below the bottom of the bowl. The condensation
from the burning tobacco is going to settle there and give you a wet, slurpy,
bad tasting smoke, as well as making it hard to keep a smooth draw so that the
pipe stays lit.
Pipe B
In this drawing, the airway is better. It enters a little above the bottom of
the bowl, leaving a little space below for moisture to accumulate. This pipe
should smoke OK, but may need a cleaner or two during the smoke.
Pipe C
Ahh... here the airway enters the bowl clearly above the bottom, leaving room for moisture. This pipe should give a pretty dry, even smoke. I have actually gone to the effort of boring/sanding out some pipes to deepen the bowl to get this effect. Now, a pipe like this will accumulate moisture and be wet in the bottom even after you clean out the dottle (unburned tobacco). It will have to be set aside to dry out every few days, so you need several good pipes. Ain't that a shame!
Carved Meerschaum Pipes
Calabash Pipes
I'll also note at this point that any pipe, smoked a lot, will go sour and start to taste bad. Rest it up and let it dry out well, then "cure" it. You can buy all kinds of solutions to "sweeten" a pipe. Most are based on alcohol and Jim Beam or Jack Daniels works just as well and is handy to have around, too. Stop up the stem, fill the bowl, let sit for maybe half an hour, drain and then let dry out for several days.
I do use that honey bowl sweetener that comes in the little yellow plastic bottle
to keep the cake sweet longer. Every now and then I'll stick a doubled up pipe
cleaner into the bottle and wipe the solution all around the cake in the bowl,
then use the solution on another cleaner to clean the stem and bit.
Watch the cake in the bowl, the accumulated carbon build-up. When it gets thick,
remove some of it with a good quality pipe reamer. Never use a blade to pry
pieces of the cake out.
Part of my Pipe Collection and Pipe Tools
Antique copper humidor... two quality pipe reamers... antique Dundee marmalade crock to hold pipe cleaners... a turned wooden tamper and an antler tip tamper... heavy brass ashtray from USS Firedrake, a Korean War period ammo carrier.
OK, let's assume you have a pipe that is more or less like C. The next consideration is your tobacco. Tobacco comes in various forms and many types. I like a mild tobacco and a long cut. I feel that a long cut helps the burn to transfer more smoothly from the lit section of tobacco to the unlit portion below it.
My personal tobacco is Captain Black in a mixture I make myself. Captain Black
is widely available and comes in several mixes or blends. I like to make up
by own blend. I use four parts of Captain Black White to one part of Captain
Black Cherry. I buy and mix five pounds at a time, buying the tobacco in bulk
form from Cup o' Joe's. One batch lasts me seven months. I like the Captain
Black because it's pretty cool burning due to being a long cut. Adding the cherry
makes it smell real good and I get more compliments than complaints from folks
who run into my smoke. Note: This doesn't work as well if you're buying the
little packs from the local smoke shop. First, they cost nearly twice as much
per ounce, and second, they are usually monstrous dry.
Incidentally, when you mix up large batches of tobacco, or if you get a batch and it's dry, put a thin slice of apple in the humidor or tobacco sack. The moisture from the apple slice will gradually be absorbed by the tobacco. Tobacco can get too wet, but that's much less common than dry tobacco, which will always burn too hot and be unpleasant.
There are all kinds of fancy blends, but sometimes they're available and sometimes
not and it gets pretty expensive trying them and finding you don't like a lot
of them. This stuff I've smoked year after year after year. It’s commercially
available from a large firm, so less likely to suddenly disappear from the market.
I'm a firm believer in once you find a good smoke, stick with it, but remember,
too, that everyone doesn't like the same smoke, and that it takes a little while
for your pipe to absorb the taste of particular tobacco. The tobacco and the
pipe accommodate each other, just as the smoker and the pipe do.
Now, as to loading and smoking. When loading a pipe, you are creating a fireplace and chimney. You want it to draw easily, without you having to really create a strong intake. At the same time, you don't want it so loose it won't stay lit, and or takes off and burns too hot. Both a too tight pack and a too loose pack will burn hot... the too tight because you have to draw on it too hard, which is the same as blowing on a fire, and the too loose because too much air is getting in around the loosely packed tobacco. This is where the sense of "feel" come in. After awhile, you can pack the pipe, draw on it unlit, and know immediately that it is too tight or too loose. If too loose, just add a bit of tobacco and tamp it down tighter. If too tight, dig it out and start over.
I start my load by dropping some tobacco into the bowl, then tapping the bowl
sharply with my finger to settle it. Then I add more and tamp it some... then
add more and tamp it harder... repeat. As you can see, the tobacco goes in in
several loads and the tamping is a bit harder the closer I get to the top. Just
don't tamp the top so tight you have to draw too hard.
When you light the tobacco, it will rise, changing the tamp. Once you're lit,
tamp it back down, using a tamper. I have a couple of nice tampers I turned
out of wood and several nice ones made from antler tips. A short length of 1/2"
or 5/8" dowel works, too. Once you're lit and drawing, and tamped back
down, feel the draw. It may be harder than you expected, because the whole process
may have settled some tobacco right in the airway. Run a pipe cleaner down and
twist it. That should clear the airway and ease the draw. In many cases you
will immediately feel that the draw is corrected, or even gets too easy. Simply
tamp the load again with the tamper.
The draw should be fairly easy, and make smoking slow feel right. I enter an
annual slow smoking contest at our pipe smokers club every year. This is a contest
where everyone is issued the same model of pipe and an exactly measured amount
of the same tobacco and then sees who can keep it burning the longest. I even
placed once. :^)
The tamper and pipe cleaners are your friends. They are right beside me when
I smoke. As you smoke the bowl down, the draw will change. Generally, it will
get easier, as there is less tobacco and you're smoking past the tighter tamps
you had at the top of the bowl. Use your tamper and tamp down gently again,
settling the burned ash and keeping the draw the same. I generally tamp a couple
of times during the smoke. Do not tap the ash out into the ash tray! The ash
helps cool the burn, like banking a fire.
As you smoke, if the draw starts to feel too hard, or a bit wet, again, use
the pipe cleaner.
Mentally keep track of how you loaded and what the draw felt like at the beginning
and during each smoke. As with instinctive archery, your brain will start to
tell you what worked well and what didn't.
If you are going to smoke a pipe, I hope this will help you a bit. If you see
me at an archery shoot or a sewing machine convention, say “hi”
and maybe we can go outside and enjoy a smoke together.
A Happy Man
With pipe, coffee and internet to hand...
Dick Wightman
aka: Captain Dick