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.

Summer Smoking

I'm rather used to smoking in the extreme summer heat but it seems we're in the midst of a country wide heat wave so I thought I'd take a little time this month to offer some tips that might help you get more enjoyment from your pipes as the mercury rises.

The first thing that comes to mind is tobacco choice. Try to smoke tobaccos that you know from experience to burn a bit on the dry side. This is especially important if it is humid as well as hot.

Burning pipe tobacco creates steam. This is one of the reasons why wet tobacco tends to "bite". Wet tobacco also has less flavor as the steam masks the tastes while cooking your taste buds. Excessive seasonal humidity adds to this problem. What I do to help matters is pre dry a day or twos worth of tobacco overnight in the driest part of my house. I'm not talking crispy dry but dry enough to where the tobacco burns correctly on a hot humid dry. A little trial and error will be necessary but you will be rewarded for your effort.

As for choice of pipes … there is really no right or wrong. There are two schools of thought. Some think that smoking a thinner wall pipe helps to dissipate heat better. Others think a thicker wall pipe is better because the last thing you want on a blistering day is to be holding a red-hot pipe. You'll just have to try each and report back. Myself? I'm in the latter camp.

Spring Smoking

Finally, spring is in the air. It's this time of year when a lot of my focus is directed outdoor. My property and house needs much attention, the cars could use a thorough detailing, the grill is looking a little shabby and what's that green stuff in the pool?

Gotta work on that to-do list first then I can turn my attention to real outdoor activities such as BBQs with friends and family, fishing and the occasional round of golf when the web site chores are done.

One thing comes to my mind when thinking about all the exciting and not so exciting things that I'll start doing this weekend ... my venerable yard pipes and getting to smoke all the tobacco I desire (even the "stinky stuff" as my family calls it) without concern for who might be offended.

With the enjoyment of a wonderful holiday season with many guests and winter temperatures confining my smoking to indoors, I found myself smoking mostly blends that others found to be pleasant and acceptable. Don't get me wrong, I loved smoking those tasty aromatic blends that harken back to Grampa but it's now time to hit my taste buds with something with a bit of punch.

A rich, deep, dark English blend with lots and lots of Latakia is on the menu this weekend and there will be no one, not even a spring squirrel, to complain or pass a disapproving glance. Might even mix in some ground up cigar leaf just for good measure.

I mentioned yard pipes. What are yard pipes you might ask. My yard pipes are generally lower grade pipes such as Savinelli budget pipes or Brindisi in price range and style. Some are higher end pipes that have seen a few better days. All of my yard pipes have 3 things in common. First, they all are very comfortable with a lot of bent pipes that hang in my mouth well.

Being that I need both hands to do my chores, they must be very comfortable to clench with minimal effort. I fit many of them with rubber soft bits that slide over the stem end. These are great additions for a no hands yard pipe. Second, they are all some of the best smoking pipes I have. That may sound strange based on the fact that I have many high grade pipes in my collection but it's true.

My yard pipes smoke great. They have too. While doing my chores that last thing I want to be doing is messing with a pipe that won't stay lit. If the pipe won't stay lit and needs more attention than the task at hand it's not a yard pipe. The last common thread amongst my yard pipes is the fact that they are mostly thick walled with big bowls and durable stems. These characteristics lend themselves well to a yard pipe.

The big bowl mean I can puff away for an hour or so without having to reload. The thick walls, stem and tenon are great for absorbing the inevitable bounce off the driveway. Once I tried putting a tiny eye screw into a yard pipe with a string through it which hung around my neck. All I got for my effort was a few really bad blisters on my chest.

How to Smoking a Pipe

Breaking in process: All briar pipes need a breaking in process before being used. The wood should be prepared before it is exposed to the heat and tobacco. First, a layer of carbon has to be applied to the interior walls of the pipe. In order to create this layer, the bowl has to be filled to approximately a quarter of its capacity. Then the pipe can be lighted and smoked slowly. One should avoid too much heat. After four or five of such quarterly filled pipes, the amount of tobacco can gradually be increased. An important rule is to let the pipe cool down before refilling it, to prevent burning the briar. The pipe has been broken in when the layer of carbon is even.

Filling a pipe: When filling a pipe, it is important to do this bit by bit. As the pipe bowl is being filled more and more, the tobacco can be pressed more firmly into the bowl. However, the tobacco should retain its elasticity. When filled too firmly, one needs to draw strongly to keep the pipe lit, whereas a loosely filled pipe burns extreme easily, resulting in a very hot bowl, wet smoking and a sore tongue. The tobacco should burn evenly. When smoking, it is good to tamper the tobacco slightly every now and then. When the pipe goes out, possible deposit should be removed and the pipe can just be relight again!

Maintenance: Taking care of the pipe after use is just as important as knowing how to smoke it. By good maintenance, the pipe will not only look nicer, it will smoke better as well.

A pipe should smoke clean and dry, whereas the pipe tends to smoke wet and bitter when not been given attention to. Finally, maintenance guarantees a longer lifetime of the pipe!

The first thing to do is to gently fluff out all the ash and moist deposits of the tobacco that have accumulated in the bowl. Insert a pipe cleaner into the pipe and let it cool down. After a couple of hours, both the pipe cleaner and the stem can be removed from the pipe, by twisting it gently. The next step is to run the pipe cleaner through the bit and the stem until it comes out clean. The pipe cleaner might be dipped in a pipe cleaning fluid to loosen any deposit. This is however not necessary. After the inside has been cleaned, one may polish the entire pipe with a cotton cloth. Briar pipes can be occasionally polished with a natural oil or wax. This will highlight the lustre of the wood. Now the pipe is ready to be stored in its rack, preferably with the bowl down.

If the pipe has a vulcanite bit, this slowly may turn into a greyish colour as a result of oxidation of the rubber. Keeping the pipe away from direct sunlight will slow down this process. When it does occur, the bit can be polished with special wet sandpaper.

After having smoked the pipe over a period of time, the layer of carbon will slowly begin to build up on the interior of the bowl. This cake helps protect the briar and cool the smoke. However, when this layer becomes thicker than 0,15 - 0,20 cm, it can crack the bowl. At this time, it is best to carefully remove a part of the layer with a knife (or an especially equipped reamer).

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.