How to Smoking Clay Pipe
Lighting should proceed as normal for your briars. As most clay pipes have a stem that is a bit longer than the average briar, you might find the process a bit awkward at first as you adjust, but it should take only 2 or 3 lightings for you to be just as proficient as with your usual pipe.
Of course, if you already smoke churchwardens fairly regularly, you should have no trouble at all. An advantage of clay pipes is that they are fire proof. This means that you have many more options for lighting your pipe than with a briar. Candles, flaming twigs, blow torches, coals lifted straight from a fire, Bunsen burners, or just sticking your head close enough to the fire to get the bowl in there and puff are all options.
While you are smoking your clay, you will probably find tamping to be less necessary than with your briar pipes. Again, this is related to the density of the pack. The denser pack used in clay smoulders rather than burning - at first you will probably need to relight more than in a briar, but as you get the hang of it you may find that your clay pipes smoke more smoothly.
I personally often have days where I'm "in the zone" and never need to relight my clays once I've got them going. I rarely have this experience with my briars. During this process, tamping serves the purpose of encouraging the ember rather than breaking down the ash. When it looks like my pipe might die out, I sometimes break up the ember with my pick and spread it over the surface of the tobacco before puffing things up and tamping gently to get things going.
While you are smoking, it is not wise to handle the bowl ... unless you have asbestos fingers. The bowl will get quite hot, certainly much hotter than a briar and hotter than meerschaum too. The best way to hold a clay pipe with a stem of any length is to rest the stem on your ring finger, curling your index and middle fingers over top.
Once you have found the pipe's centre of gravity, this method becomes effortless. Pipes with shorter stems are generally intended to be clamped in the mouth, but if you don't like to use your teeth while smoking you can hold the part of the stem closest to the bowl between your thumb and forefinger and rest the stem on the knuckles of your other fingers.
Many pipes with shorter stems are equipped with a "dewdrop" hanging either from the bottom of the bowl or at the point where the bowl and stem meet - this is intended for gripping, and on a well designed pipe will stay remarkably cool during the course of a smoke.
Of course, if you already smoke churchwardens fairly regularly, you should have no trouble at all. An advantage of clay pipes is that they are fire proof. This means that you have many more options for lighting your pipe than with a briar. Candles, flaming twigs, blow torches, coals lifted straight from a fire, Bunsen burners, or just sticking your head close enough to the fire to get the bowl in there and puff are all options.
While you are smoking your clay, you will probably find tamping to be less necessary than with your briar pipes. Again, this is related to the density of the pack. The denser pack used in clay smoulders rather than burning - at first you will probably need to relight more than in a briar, but as you get the hang of it you may find that your clay pipes smoke more smoothly.
I personally often have days where I'm "in the zone" and never need to relight my clays once I've got them going. I rarely have this experience with my briars. During this process, tamping serves the purpose of encouraging the ember rather than breaking down the ash. When it looks like my pipe might die out, I sometimes break up the ember with my pick and spread it over the surface of the tobacco before puffing things up and tamping gently to get things going.
While you are smoking, it is not wise to handle the bowl ... unless you have asbestos fingers. The bowl will get quite hot, certainly much hotter than a briar and hotter than meerschaum too. The best way to hold a clay pipe with a stem of any length is to rest the stem on your ring finger, curling your index and middle fingers over top.
Once you have found the pipe's centre of gravity, this method becomes effortless. Pipes with shorter stems are generally intended to be clamped in the mouth, but if you don't like to use your teeth while smoking you can hold the part of the stem closest to the bowl between your thumb and forefinger and rest the stem on the knuckles of your other fingers.
Many pipes with shorter stems are equipped with a "dewdrop" hanging either from the bottom of the bowl or at the point where the bowl and stem meet - this is intended for gripping, and on a well designed pipe will stay remarkably cool during the course of a smoke.
posted by Shang Ning | 5:49:00 AM
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