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.

Where to Buy Clay Pipes

Unfortunately, clay pipes are rather difficult to come by at present, however they are available if you know where to look. Clays appear to be more popular in Europe following a resurgence of historical recreation in the 1990s, and can often be found in the catalogues of large pipe and tobacco companies such as Dan Pipe.

There are also a number of individuals who make press cast pipes, usually replicas of historical pipes, and many of these people have web pages from which you can order. Usually, such operations are quite small, and the vendor may or may not accept credit cards.

Another place you may find replica pipes is in museum shops or the gift shops of historical villages (the type where the staff play the parts of everyday people in a community of a specific period in history). Surprising as it may seem, these pipes, while intended as display pieces, are smokable. The staff of the gift shop may know whether or not the pipe was actually made in the historical village, and if it was it is likely to be quite genuine. If not, it will of course depend on whether the manufacturer intended to make something pretty for your gew-gaw shelf or a pipe.

Finally, some pipe shops do stock clay pipes, though due to problems finding other suppliers these are often slip cast pipes. You local vendor may be able to order some clay pipes for you, particularly if you guarantee to buy three or four of them.

Caring for Your Pipe

Removing ash. Avoid banging your pipe. This may seem like the logical way to empty it, but banging your pipe on the edge of an ashtray or other hard surface will damage it in the long run. Instead, grasp the bottom of the bowl, turn it over and tap it lightly with your hand to remove the ash.

Between smokes. Immediately after smoking, run a pipe cleaner through the stem down to the bowl to remove any moisture. Let your pipe cool down before your next smoke. A cool pipe is infinitely better for enjoying flavor.

Cleaning. You will probably only need to thoroughly clean out your pipe about once a month. Remove the bit and stem from the shank and clean with a pipe cleaner and some pipe sweetener. If the cake is quite thick, use a reamer to cut it back to an even thickness (never use a knife for this).

Tools for Pipe Smoking

Once you've chosen your pipe and tobacco, there are still a few things you will need before you can get started:

Matches or lighter. Matches are the cheapest and probably the easiest to use. Make sure you get wooden ones, as paper matches produce an adverse taste. Wooden matches also tend to burn longer than thin paper matches.

If you choose a lighter, look for those specifically designed for use with a pipe — they’ll be a lot easier on your thumb. A particularly good pipe lighter is the wind-proof Zippo Pipe Lighter.

Pipe tool. You'll also need a tool to "tamp" (gently pack) down the tobacco as you light it and occasionally as you smoke, and a tool that lets you loosen tobacco that is too tightly packed or left in the bowl when you’re done. The Czech Pipe Tool is a particularly popular multi-tool for this purpose. Some tools may have a "reamer" included, a tool used for loosening or cutting your tobacco. If your pipe tool doesn’t include a reamer, check out the Savinelli Fits All Reamer.

Pipe cleaners. Cleaning your pipe regularly is essential. The easiest way to do this is with pipe cleaners — yes, the same ones you may have used for art projects at camp. Tinder Box.com offers a variety of different types, but you may find that the bristle ones are probably the best. Many pipe smokers periodically use pipe sweetener to clean out their pipes and maintain a "sweet" taste.

A second pipe. If you're serious about your pipe smoking, then you'll need more than one. Why? After a smoke, pipes need to cool down before you can light them up again. A second pipe allows smokers to pick up a pipe again while their first pipe cools down.