Christian Pipe Smokers

I enjoy my pipes with thicker chambered walls. Part of this relates to my inability to maintain a cool smoke.
I have several "quality" pipes that often get rather hot to the touch. I have not yet burned through a pipe.
Since I have smoked a pipe with some frequency for 25+ years, I assume it will take some habit-breaking to get the desired result.
I have heard many say the most flavor comes from a tobacco that is almost going out.

I expect packing, lighting and cadence to be related to hot/cool experience but am open to all tips and advice.

Please advise.

JudgeRusty wrote: ↑17 Jun 2022, 09:54
I expect packing, lighting and cadence to be related to hot/cool experience but am open to all tips and advice.

Please advise.

I have the same problem sometimes. My solution is always to SLOW DOWN. If my bowl gets hot, I let it go out and cool down to a comfortable level.

To be honest, I like to smoke with a lighter in my hand. Touch the flame as often as I need to.

I don't try to smoke the whole bowl on one light -- I can, but it always gets too hot to enjoy and burns my tongue. I aim for a cool, delicious smoke. And that usually means that I have to relight often.

You can play with packing and tamping, if those experiments intrigue you. That depends a lot on the cut of tobacco (ribbon, shag, flake, cube), so I won't even try to give advice from here.

I was thinking about this same issue night before last, when I was smoking some Dark Flake on the patio, it was 25 degrees out. Dark Flake is moist and doesn't stay lit till the 5th or 6th tamp and light. I make the mistake of keeping that rhythm even though its lit...I just absent mindedly do it and sometime don't realize it till the bowl gets warm...well at 25 degrees, the bowl didn't get warm...but that smoke I was watching for it, so...

Its a hobby and a time for thought and reflection...so puff, tamp, light and repeat

Most of my pipes burn at a manageable temperature and never offer a problem, but I have a small few that, no matter what I do, burn hot. One, for example, is a big, thick walled no-name Dublin. After a few minutes, no matter how it is packed or smoked, will flat burn your fingers. Another, a modest-walled older Dunhill billiard, does the same thing. Every time. I cannot detect a flaw or burn-out spot inside the bowl and each look normal from the exterior.

I have to believe it is something inherent in the pipe design or materials, but have no clue for sure why they behave differently.

Every KW I've had burns hot to the touch. I remember summer evenings on the Houston freeways on my commute home, holding the stem of a KW Zulu between my fingers as though it was a cigarette. One old KW Zulu that I bought at an antique shop for $5 finally had a hot spot burn through, and it was actually sort of relaxing to smoke it on quiet cold nights, watching and hearing it spit and spark and sputter, like sitting by a campfire.

Honestly, the one trick that works for me is to always keep my pipe in my mouth and really only let smoke escape from my mouth when I'm lighting it or it's about to go out and I'm puffing a little more furiously. When my mouth fills with smoke, I just slowly blow it back up the stem- really not even a blow so much as letting the natural pressure that has built up slowly escape. Cadence doesn't seem to matter too much, unless you're also worried about avoiding relights- and even then, I've found that the natural cadence that develops while reading or posting on a forum works pretty well until the last 1/3 to 1/4 of the bowl (but if you're like me and smoke while driving through city traffic or walking, the cadence gets too irregular, the pipe tends to go out more often, and some bowls do tend to overheat with the puffing of the relight- I save my known cooler smoking pipes for walking and driving).

Even my most stubborn pipes- such as JimVH mentioned before- respond well to this technique. They might get warmer than others but they never quite get hot (though I do save those pipe for more sedentary moments as noted above).

I had some JD in a glass and Black Frigate in a Peterson Bulldog on the patio last night about 9:30. The temps was 21 degrees...I was smoking cool!

I don't pay no nevermind to it anymore. I smoke and if the bowl gets slightly hot to the touch I either put it down until it cools off or slow my cadence. I rarely smoke without doing something else so I tend not to give much consideration until I need to. It's all almost subconscious at this point.

Biff wrote: ↑06 Jan 2023, 17:26dean.jpg

I see what you did there...well played my friend, well played