Types of Clay Pipe

When you purchase your first clay pipe, it is important to know that there are two distinct types of clay pipe: slip cast and press cast.

Slip cast pipes are made by pouring a fairly fluid mixture of clay and water (called slip) into an absorbent mould (usually plaster). A certain amount of the clay clings to the inside of the mould as water is absorbed by the mould; the excess is poured out. The mould is then dried for a few hours or a few days before it is cracked open, at which point the slightly damp clay pipe is trimmed, dried further, then fired before use.

Press cast pipes are made from solid clay. First, a rod is rolled out from a ball of clay, leaving a small bulb with a rod extending from it. A wire or similar object is carefully driven down the length of the rod until just before reaching the bulb. The entire thing is then placed in the mould, and a shaping device is pressed into the bowl part of the mould to force the bulb into the correct shape. The wire is then pushed all the way through into the bowl, the pipe is dried for an hour or two, removed from the mould, dried further, then fired before use.

In general, the clay pipes you see most often in catalogues and pipe shops are the slip cast variety, as these are the easiest to make and also the cheapest, so they represent a very small risk to the vendor - remember that most people don't smoke clay these days, so vendors usually carry them mostly for novelty value.

When you purchase a clay pipe, you should inspect it for the following qualities:

• seam lines
• pits
• airway (esp the entry into the bowl)
• chips or cracks

Slip cast pipes will usually have marked seam lines. These are the weakest part of the pipe, and sometimes begin to separate during firing or as the pipe begins to age. Press cast pipes often have no seam lines, or seams that are very difficult to make out. In the case of press cast pipes, the seams do not indicate any weakness, but do indicate that the maker wasn't very consciencious with regard to the finishing touches, and the price should reflect this.

Pits in the surface of the pipe indicate that it was press cast, and can indicate weak points in the clay. Clays that have been mishandled during shipping may also have developed chips or cracks. During the heat stress of smoking or cleaning, these are the points that are most likely to give way. A pipe with these flaws is still smokable, but you may want to buy a different pipe if the chips etc are in vital spots such as large flaws on the bowl or cracks/chips at the point where the bowl meets the stem. Chips at the end of the bit and around the rim of the bowl are just an aesthetic problem, however, and you needn't worry about them provided you are paying a very good price for the pipe.

The airway of a clay pipe is a sticky problem. Press cast clay will shrink approximately 20% during the drying and firing process, while slip cast clay will sometimes shrink as much as 35%. This makes it very difficult for the manufacturer to judge the size of the airway before the pipe is complete. Many clay pipes (especially slip cast pipes) have their airway restricted to the point of being unable to pass a pipecleaner through them. As clay pipes don't often need that sort of thing while smoking, it shouldn't pose a problem for you, and shouldn't prevent you from buying the pipe. If, however, you tend to prefer blends that typically smoke wet (heavy aromatics and such) you may want to do the pipecleaner test on any clays before buying them. Remember however that clay is very absorbent (especially slip cast) and that not only the bowl but the whole stem will work to absorb moisture while you smoke. The main issue will be cleaning, which I will cover in a moment. You also need to be sure that there are no obstructions in the airway that will restrict draw unreasonably.

It's unlikely you will get a complete obstruction, but slip-cast pipes sometimes have an uneven interior, depending on the process used by the manufacturer. The easiest way to test the airway of a clay pipe is to run a length of florists' wire down the stem - if it meets any resistance at all, you have an obstruction. Usually, the obstruction will be small and easily removed by gentle pressure from the wire. If it doesn't move with gentle pressure, you will need to gauge where in the stem the obstruction lies, and if it is at least 5 or 6 cm from the bowl you should be able to shorten the stem so that the portion including the obstruction is removed.

In addition to the main airway, however, you need to pay special attention to its entry into the bowl. Sometimes this entry is partially obstructed, and this can usually be cleared easily by picking at it with a pipe tool or some other hard, narrow object (needles and nails work well). If it is a press cast pipe, the wire used to make the airway sometimes fails to make it all the way through to the bowl, in which case there is really nothing to be done.

All of the above flaws can be problematic, but remember: they *are* flaws, and if you didn't notice them before purchase it's almost certain your vendor or the manufacturer will replace it with no problem. It's also useful to remember that briar has flaws too. These are different flaws from the ones usually encountered in briar, but there aren't any more of them, really.

In addition to the basic slip cast vs press cast distinction, it should be noted that some clay pipes have been glazed. A glazed pipe will have the characteristic glassy surface of your fine china. A glaze pipe can be very attractive, since it is a good way to permit more intricate and durable decoration. However, it should be noted that there are some difficulties with glazed pipes:

if the inside of the bowl is glazed, the pipe may not be smokable. The airway may be completely blocked by glaze, which would require a needle file to remove. Other than this, it is likely that a pipe that has been completely glazed, inside and out, will not smoke like a clay pipe at all, but more like a glass pipe. This is because the interior glaze prevents the clay from absorbing moisture and tars as you smoke. A glazed pipe will require more thorough cleaning of the stem as well.

even if the inside of the bowl is not glazed, glazed ceramics of this sort are often made from porcelain clay which is much denser and less porous than the usual sort of clay used for pipe making. This will cause problems similar to those found in a pipe with the interior glazed, and means that cleaning will probably not be able to return the pipe to nearly new appearance.

glazes are generally fired at a much lower temperature than the clay was originally fired. If the temperature was low enough, fire cleaning may cause the glaze to sag, run, crackle or discolour. If the vendor doesn't know for certain, you can hazard a guess: porcelain clays (very fine grained, white clays that produce a dense, light ceramic when fired) and stoneware clays are fired at very high temperatures, and the glazes used with them are similarly hardy at high temperatures. Standard kiln cleaning might not bother them (though of course you will still be taking a risk) and other forms of fire cleaning probably won't. If the clay appears quite porous (like a flower pot) then it was probably fired at a lower temperature, meaning that the glazes were fired at a lower temperature still. Such a pipe will survive fire cleaning, but the glaze will probably be ruined.

On the whole, due to the uncertainties a glazed pipe may well be best left as a display piece. However, I have personally made clay pipes *and* glazed them, and they have worked well. The issue is not whether or not glazed pipes work for smoking, but whether the manufacturer really had smoking in mind when the pipe was made. A pipe that is clearly intended as a display piece will probably not smoke well, and may suffer when you attempt to do any comprehensive cleaning. A pipe that is very decorative, but appears to have been designed for actual use will probably smoke as well as any other clay pipe and will not pose any problems when cleaning it. As usual, caveat emptor.

Why Choose Clay Pipe?

Currently, pipes made from wood, especially briar, are the most popular type of pipe. However, clay pipes were quite popular for many years, and in fact for a long time were the only type of pipe available in Europe for the smoking of tobacco. The advantages of briar are numerous, and generally fairly well known by the pipe smoking community. Many people seem to be unaware of the advantages of clay, however.

1. Clay pipes are more forgiving:

The material from which they are made is not flammable, so one need not be concerned if one has a habit of smoking too hot. Burnout is impossible.

Since clay pipes tend to have longer stems, have a higher specific heat (meaning they can absorb more heat) and radiate heat more readily than briar, even if one is smoking too hot and hard, it is unlikely that tongue bite will be an issue for most tobaccos (some tobaccos would bite you even if you just sprinkled them on an incense brazier, however).

Ceramic suffers abuse more stoically than either briar or meerschaum. While it is true that clay pipes are brittle, and unlikely to survive a fall or a sharp blow, it is vanishingly unlikely that you will damage your pipe through over-vigorous application of your pipe tool.

2. Clay pipes do not seem to require any break-in period or seasoning to smoke well. No cake is necessary, and the material being incapable of burning while you smoke it does not influence the flavour of the tobacco. While a seasoned clay pipe does smoke a little better than a fresh one, the difference is not a great one, and a new clay pipe comes essentially "ready to rock" with whatever tobacco you choose to put in it.

3. The absence of any foreign material (burning briar, flavours from the curing oil in meerschaum) in your smoke will result in a brighter, clearer flavour, making clay pipes an excellent way to sample new tobaccos or simply to rediscover an old favourite. While smoking a given tobacco in a well cured pipe does add a certain something, it is sometimes nice to get nothing but the taste of the tobacco in question. This is particularly true if you are going to be smoking "pure" tobaccos, such as a straight Virginia or Oriental. Some people also find the spice and exotic flavours of latakia and perique fuller in a clay pipe, probably due to less absorbsion into the walls of the pipe bowl.

4. Since clay pipes can be cleaned completely, or nearly so (see Fire Cleaning), they can be used to try completely unfamiliar tobaccos without risking wood or meerschaum pipes, which can have a long memory for particularly intense flavours. If the experiment was a failure, and you truly loathe the tobacco in question, you need only fire clean the clay and it will return to pristine condition, ready for your next foray into the unknown. For this reason, clay pipes are also excellent for experimenting with non-tobacco smokes such as sage, corn husks, indian tea and the like. While you might not like the experience, one sometimes gets that curious feeling "what would that be like in a pipe?", especially about things that smell good while they are burning. It's nice to have a pipe about that can be used for such an experiment without worrying about ruining it.

5. Quality clay pipes are much cheaper than briar or meerschaum pipes in the same class, since both the material and the labour involved is much less. This makes clay pipes an excellent addition to the collection of any pipe smoker who needs to pad his or her rotation, but doesn't have the money to spend on the quality of briar pipe he or she likes.

Clay Pipes and its history

Clay pipes first appear in Europe and in the archaeological record of early European colonies in the Americas during the 16th century. Tobacco was an especially common commodity in England, France, Holland and Spain during the early colonial period.

A wide variety of styles have been tried, but the ones that have endured are mostly essentially the same: a longish stem, usually straight or very slightly curved, ending in a flared, usually conical bowl. Clay pipes are normally made in one piece, however there was a little experimentation in a few regions (notably Ireland and South Africa) with composite pipes combining clay bowls with stems made from other materials, such as horn. As these composite pipes turn up quite late (19th century and early 20th) and follow patterns that are common in briar pipes, it seems likely that these were attempts by pipe smokers of limited resources to reproduce the briar pipes they liked in a material they could afford.

At first, all clay pipes were hand made by craftsmen using press moulds and soft clay. In the 18th century, as the price of tobacco reached levels that made it more accessible to the common man, production started to shift toward slip casting in plaster moulds. Press casting continued, however, to be the process of choice for those who wanted a quality pipe.

Clay pipes were smoked regularly by people as diverse as sailors, explorers in the New World, and by the nobility in the Old World, and are a reasonably common find in archaeological sites that date later than 1550.

The main reason that clay pipes have been more or less abandoned at present is the sheer affordability of briar during the first part of the 20th century, and the association of the cheap slip-cast pipes with poverty. In later decades, good briar started to become a little more difficult to find, but the clay pipe making industry had already more or less died out, and at the present time, despite their advantages, clay pipes are a novelty rather than the norm.

How to clean your meerschaum pipe

Without regular and diligent cleaning, your wonderful new meerschaum will become a soggy, ill-tasting mess, and will no longer provide you with the smoking pleasure you desire. To eliminate such problems, you need to embark on a regimen of regular cleaning and maintainance for your meerschaums.

Materials Needed:

• Tapered Pipe Cleaners
• Bristle Pipe Cleaners
• Regular or extra fluffy pipe cleaners
• shank brush or cotton swab
• pipe tool or pick

Concerning 'Coloring':

One of the joys of owning and smoking a meerschaum pipe is watching it slowly change color, from a milky white to a dark brown. When you first get a meerschaum pipe, be careful that your hands are clean as you smoke it for the first few times. Meerschaum pipes are coated in beeswax which aids in the coloring process and protects the brittle meerschaum. As the pipe heats during smoking (and be careful not to get it too hot) the beeswax melts. If your hands are dirty, the beeswax will pick up that dirt. Though some suggest not touching the bowl of a meerschaum pipe while smoking it, I think this is a little extreme. Just take care that your hands are clean and dry.

A sample 'Coloring' regimen:

There are many different ways to go about coloring your meerschaum pipe, but one of the simplest is as follows:

Smoke your meerschaum several times a day for about two weeks. Unlike a briar pipe, meerschaums do not need long periods of rest between smokes, and can safely be smoked multiple times in a day. Do, however, allow the pipe to cool between bowls. After this two weeks, your meerschaum should be noticeably heavier than when you began, owing to the amount of tars and oils now trapped inside the meerschaum. Put your meerschaum aside for a period of about one month. During this time, the beeswax will wick the tars and oils towards the surface of the pipe, coloring it in the process. Repeat and enjoy!

Before Smoking:

The care and cleaning of your pipe begins with your very first smoke, and should continue forward from there. Before each smoke, run a pipe cleaner, either bristle or regular, through the stem to dislodge any leftover ash and dottle, and gently tap your pipe on a cork knocker or the palm of your hand to remove these obstructions from the bowl. Be especially careful when tapping a meerschaum pipe to hold it by the shank, never by the stem!

While Smoking:

During a smoke is an excellent time to begin the process of caring for your pipe. You can begin by paying careful attention when lighting your pipe. Keep your flame source over the tobacco, so that it does not char the rim of your pipe. Unlike a briar pipe, it is near impossible to remove this rim charring from a meerschaum pipe, so it pays to be extra careful in this department. During smoking is also when you will notice if a more thorough cleaning is in order. If a pipe begins to taste sour, salty, or just plain bad while smoking it, it is probably time for a good cleaning. See Periodic Cleaning below.

After Smoking:

First, a warning: Always remove a stem from a meerschaum pipe by twisting it gently clockwise while supporting the shank with your fingers. At the end of each smoke, your pipe should be given a good cleaning. Dump out the ash and dottle, and run a bristle pipe cleaner around the inside of the bowl to remove any possible cake build-up. Unlike a briar pipe, a meerschaum requires no cake, and in some instances, a cake can be detrimental to a meerschaum, either slowing the coloring process, or causing the pipe to crack. Clean out the stem with a bristle pipe cleaner once, remove it, and either turn it around or use another pipe cleaner, repeating this process until the pipe cleaners come out clean. Moisten a pipe cleaner with saliva and rub the mouthpiece with it to remove any buildup there. Blow gently through the stem of the pipe to dislodge any leftover ash and wipe your pipe down with a soft dry cloth. Place the pipe back on it's rack or stand and allow it to cool.

Periodically:

You will want to, on occasion, give your pipes a more thorough cleaning than just swabbing out the stem after smoking. Most smokers do this fairly regularly, some going so far as to do so after all of their pipes have been smoked once, thus providing themselves with a fresh, clean rotation of pipes. You will have to experiment a bit with how often you do this clenaing to find what works best for you. To start this cleaning, carefully remove the stem of the pipe from the bowl and lay the two pieces on a paper towel. Dip a regular pipe cleaner in alchohol and run it through the stem, from the tenon to the mouthpiece, pulling it through. It will most likely come out with a bit of black or brown gunk on it. Follow this pipe cleaner with a dry one, and repeat until the moist pipe cleaner comes out the same color it was when it went in. Push one final dry pipe cleaner through to remove any moisture and set the stem aside.

How to Smoke Flake Tobacco

This article is provided by McClelland Tobacco Company

English and Scottish-style Matured Virginia flake tobaccos are among the most interesting and rewarding for the smoker to taste; yet, they are avoided by many smokers who simply do not know how to approach them. This article is intended to help the pipe smoker learn how to fully appreciate the zesty character and subtle sweetness of these premium, aged products. (It should also help smokers of the flavored American sliced plug and European flake cavendish tobaccos.)

One reason flake tobaccos are left in slices after cake-maturing is that they retain their freshness better than in ribbon form. Flakes also enable the smoker to have some control over the burning rate and, to a small degree, the flavor.

It is important to prepare the tobacco before packing so that it has an even texture and to fill the bowl evenly, no matter what degree of brokenness is preferred. (The more fully-rubbed -- meaning gently separated -- a tobacco, the faster it will burn. Similarly, it is true that the thinner the cut, the faster it will burn).

The more moist tobaccos should be packed more loosely than normal so they won't pack down densely enough to prevent a good draft. The ideal is to have the tobacco draw firmly, with a little resistance, throughout the smoke. The smoker may be able barely to hear a little hissing through the pipe as it is smoked. Too firm and the tobacco won't burn at all or one small spot will burn hot and maybe wet as the smoker puffs hard to keep it going; too loose and the tobacco will burn inconsistently and unevenly, perhaps causing the bowl to overheat in spots and moisture to condense.

Five Steps to Success

1. Put in the palm of one hand the amount of tobacco that it is believed will fill the bowl. Then pinch at the slices or rub them between the palms until the tobacco separates to the degree preferred, keeping the texture even, avoiding clumps. The denser the tobacco is left, the slower it will burn. (This becomes especially valuable on windy days outdoors.)

2. Gently but firmly and evenly work the tobacco into the bowl of the pipe until it is filled slightly over the top and feels firm but still springy under enough finger pressure to flatten the surface of the tobacco even with the top of the pipe. (we assume the pipe is clean at the outset, free of obstruction to a good draft, well rested).

3. Now, while drawing through the stem, light the pipe evenly across the entire surface of the tobacco. After a few puffs to develop an ash, and while continuing to draw, tamp the tobacco down evenly all around the bowl with a tamper. The goal is to have the tobacco packed so that it will burn as evenly and firmly as a good cigar.

4. Relight the pipe after tamping to get the entire surface of the tobacco burning again. Even burning is very important. Otherwise, hot spots may develop.

5. With only occasional tamping as the tobacco burns down, since it tends to expand and loosen as it burns, the pipe should now smoke evenly to the bottom. The aim is to maintain a firm, even draft throughout the smoke. The process is not difficult to master and with practice will soon be effortless.

A Note on Flavor Expectations

For those who are used to the "aromatic" or sweetened tobaccos that dominate our market in the United States, it may take some time for the additives remaining in the pipe to dissipate. Many smokers prefer to maintain one set of pipes exclusively for the natural, matured tobaccos and another for the sweetened varieties.

It may be necessary to smoke Up to four ounces of a natural product before the mouth adjusts to the clean taste and subtler range of flavors typical of these Matured Virginia tobaccos. The smoker is rewarded for the effort as he becomes able to distinguish the delicate variations in taste and deepening richness these tobaccos develop as they are smoked.

Is it safer to smoke pipes and cigars than cigarettes?

Some people believe that smoking a pipe or cigars is better for your health than smoking cigarettes.

Part of the reason for this is that many pipe and cigar smokers do not inhale the smoke into their lungs, whereas almost all cigarette smokers do.

However, the idea that smoking a pipe or cigar is harmless is wrong. Smoking tobacco in any form can cause potentially fatal diseases.

Pipe down

Research has shown that while smoking a pipe is not as dangerous as smoking cigars or cigarettes, it can still seriously damage your health.

Smoking a pipe increases your risk of six cancers - cancer of the colon, pancreas, larynx, oesophagus, and lung.

It also increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and chronic lung disease.

Say goodbye to cigars

Cigar smoking has been linked to coronary heart disease.

Research has also suggested that cigar smokers are 5 times more likely to develop lung cancer than non-smokers. And, worse still, if you inhale the strong cigar smoke, you are 11 times more likely to get the disease.

Smoking of any kind is bad for your health. There is no such thing as a safe tobacco product.

Being completely smoke-free is the single best step you can take to reduce the risk of fatal diseases and increase your chances of a longer, healthier life.

How to Start Smoking a Pipe

Title: How to Start Smoking a Pipe
From: http://pipes.priss.org/howto.php

There is a very good article on the Pipes Digest web site on how to pack and light a pipe, but I'll add my own comments too since we all do it slightly differently and sometimes different descriptions will just click for different people. It took me about six months to get really good at packing my pipe—partly because several of my first pipes have fairly deep, narrow bowls, and these can be a little trickier. Many folks get the hang of it after just a few times, and sometimes even the first time!

The pipe. Understandably, you may not want to invest a lot in something you're not sure you're going to like or continue. However, if you can start off with a not-so-cheap pipe, so much the better. Some cheaper pipes do turn out to smoke quite well, but not all. Here, I'm speaking mainly of briar (wood) pipes, and am leaving meerschaum and clay pipes out of the discussion for now. Corncob pipes are also a good option if you just want to try pipe smoking—they are very inexpensive and require no breaking-in. They do lend a different taste to the smoke, a taste which I generally find more compatible with natural or the so-called English blends, than with the flavoured and sweetened blends.

Cheap pipes sometimes lead to bitter tastes and wet or hot smokes, but sometimes these effects are merely a result of a new briar not being broken-in. Before you blame your pipe, consider that the problem may be caused by your smoking technique or by overly moist or dry tobacco. With a bit of perseverance, you do get better at figuring out what is wrong if you have a smoke that isn't as enjoyable as it should be. If you're not sure, always smoke as slowly as possible, and that cures many pipe problems.

The tobacco. Tobacco choice is important. In my case, at first I wasn't trying the kinds of tobaccos that I would be likely to enjoy, but I had no way of really knowing that. I had always liked the aroma of the sweet-smelling tobaccos but I found they lacked something when I tried smoking them. I finally tried a couple of natural, English-style blends, despite warnings that these were for more serious, seasoned pipe smokers only. Surprisingly, these tobaccos provided the kind of taste experience I was somehow hoping for. Be forewarned though that natural or English-style blends don't usually have exactly the same degree of sweetness in their aroma, and that they're not for everyone. Only experimentation will help you figure out what you like and don't like. Trying new blends can be a lot of fun, but no matter what, always keep some of your favourite blend on hand in case your sampling doesn't go well!

There is a myriad of different pipe tobaccos available with different flavours and smoking qualities. However, you are not totally hopeless as to where to start—just take the plunge and enjoy. If you have a taste for sweets, why not start off with something commercial and easily available like Sail, Captain Black or Amphora, or ask your tobacconist for their recommendation. Some folks stick with these blends forever, but others find much pleasure in the elusive search that perfect tobacco.

If you have a taste for stronger or more bitter flavours in coffee, chocolate, tea or beer, you should try a light English blend as your first tobacco instead of a sweeter one. Better still, start with a pouch of each of the two types. Just don't smoke them in the same pipe if you can avoid it ... Smoking an English blend in a pipe used for aromatics often tastes rather weird, and vice-versa. Let your pipe take on the flavour of your tobacco for a while and then judge the tobacco. Of course, that doesn't mean that first impressions aren't lasting.... If you're smoking a fairly moist blend (like most flavoured tobaccos), be sure to pack your pipe looser than you would a drier, natural English blend.

Packing the tobacco in your pipe. If you've already smoked your pipe, cover up the bowl of the pipe and blow through the stem in case there are small bits of tobacco that are blocking the passage and which could clog your smoke.

I find that there are two key aspects to packing a pipe correctly. First, the tobacco should be only "somewhat" tight in the pipe—it should still be springy to the touch on the surface. Second, the pipe should be loosely in the bottom half of the pipe than at the top, so that it doesn't get too tight down there when you tamp it while smoking.

Start by taking a wad of tobacco that looks like it might be a bit more than enough to fill your pipe. If the tobacco seems really stuck together, fluff it up a bit before you do this. Hold your pipe over the pouch (or tin) so that the pouch catches the tobacco that falls while you're filling it. Push the tobacco in until the pipe is full and a bit of the tobacco is overflowing over the top of the pipe a bit. Don't cram it in tightly; just make sure the pipe is well-filled. Slowly and carefully fill the pipe as if you were trying to measure how much tobacco the pipe would hold under "average" circumstances, not how much you can cram in.

Your pipe should now have some (or a bunch of) tobacco sticking out of the top and may look like it needs a haircut. Pull most of this off, then take your pipe tool (a "tamper" available at your pipe shop) and *gently* push any loose ends down into the pipe. This way, your tobacco ends up a bit more tightly packed on the top than underneath, which is what you want. Touch the tobacco on top lightly with your thumb. It should feel somewhat springy.

Lighting your pipe. Put the pipe in your mouth and take a few puffs of the unlit tobacco. Not only should it taste good, but you shouldn't have to apply much suction to get air to pass through it. It should only give a little resistance, like drinking liquid through a straw. If you find that you have to draw hard on it, empty it out and start over— you have packed it a bit too tightly and it will not smoke well. Just pry it out slowly with your pipe tool.

Now, the fun part— lighting up! Big wooden kitchen matches work well, as does a lighter. If you try to use small paper matches, you may end up frustrated and with burnt fingers... As soon as the sulfur burns off, pass the lit match across the surface slowly and puff slowly but firmly, just enough to draw the flame down into the tobacco. Try not to burn the rim of the pipe. You can puff deeply, but not too hard. Hold the smoke in your mouth, but try not to inhale it. Let the smoke puff out of your mouth as you take the next puff. It can take a good 10-20 seconds to get your pipe lit. The tobacco should fluff up a little, perhaps a lot. Now take your pipe tool and flatten out the surface of the scorched and fluffed-up tobacco so that you have a flat surface on the top of your tobacco again (don't apply much pressure).

You have just completed what is sometimes called the "false light." It is called "false" because it is now time to light your pipe again. Pass the flame around the top of the tobacco, swirling it slowly to get all of the tobacco on top lit (which you just flattened). As usual, puff slowly, just enough to bring the flame down into the tobacco. This may take another 10-20 seconds or so and generate a lot of ambient smoke, which you will probably enjoy. Now you're on your way... your pipe is lit. Take a slow deep puff every 5-15 seconds or so—more often if the pipe seems to be going out, less often if the pipe seems to be heating up a lot.. You can either hold the smoke in your mouth for a few seconds and just let it drift out and stop there, or you can take a puff, keep the smoke and the pipe stem in your mouth, then a few seconds later, take another puff, letting the previous puff escape into the air. Some smokers will swallow a small quantity of the smoke, which causes it to escape through the nose and look like you had inhaled it. But you didn't. Some pipe smokers actually inhale the smoke like cigarette smokers, but the smoke is very strong and this is not recommended.

If your pipe goes out while smoking, no big deal, just re-light—this is pretty normal. Especially at first, you may need to re-light frequently. It's always better for your piep to go out from time to time than to prevent it from going out by smoking it hot. Furthermore, there's no need to panic and re-light your pipe the second it goes out if you don't feel like it or if you're busy doing something. You can come back to a partially smoked pipe a few minutes later if that's more convenient. And if you're smoking a bent pipe, you can carefully put your lit pipe in your pocket when you enter a non-smoking establishment and it will self-extinguish rather quickly. Every 5 minutes or so, or more or less, tamp down the tobacco a little, just enough to crush the ashes on the surface and to make sure that the tobacco that is lit is touching itself and continues burning. You don't want to apply so much pressure that the tobacco underneath gets further packed.

As the tobacco burns further down, the pipe will heat up. It should get warm, but if the pipe starts to get hot to the touch, let it go out for a few minutes to cool down; you might be smoking it a bit too fast. Hot smoking can cause the tobacco to become bitter, in addition to being uncomfortable on the tongue. As well, it may create moisture build-up that is very unpleasant if drawn into the mouth (which is particularly easy to do if you are smoking a straight pipe).

If you are smoking a brand-new pipe, it will need to be broken in. Smoke only half bowls for a while (at least 10 times or so) until you start getting some carbon buildup on the lower sides of the pipe's bowl. Try to smoke to the bottom as much as possible to get this carbon cake built up and your pipe will smoke much better later. On the other hand, if at any time your pipe starts to taste nasty, stop. Pipe smoking is always supposed to be pleasant and there's no reason why it shouldn't always be so.

Practice makes perfect (or almost). Enjoy!

Winter Smoking

One of my favorite times of the year to smoke my pipe is the winter season. The cool, crisp air brings out favors in tobacco that we never experience during the warmer months of the year. The warmest of the bowl in my hand also warms my heart.

A recent winter smoking experience also prompted me to write a few precautionary word about smoking pipes outdoors in the cold weather. Cold air and hot pipes do not mix!

• Whilest walking my dog and enjoying a pipe I tapped out my ashes on palm of my hand (yes I knew better but I was absorbed in the moment). What happened next? You guessed it ... I was packing my pipe up and shipping to our pipe repair person for a new stem. The tenon snapped with less pressure than it would take to snap a toothpick.
• Briar pipes also have the tendency to seperate from their stems in cold weather. This is especially true for military style bit that a push fit in place. There is nothing worse than chasing your pipe bowl as it bounces it's way along the pavement.
• Blustery winter winds can cause a pipe bowl to burn out. Be careful when lighting and smoking. Wind rushing across your bowl will act like a bellows and super heat the tobacco inside causing burnouts.

Follow these simple winter precautions and you'll enjoy mishap free winter smoking.