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Smoking a pipe.

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Ben Brand

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I smoked pipe (not much) when I was younger, not with much success though. I smoked a few shop bought blends from a tobacco shop. The nicest one for me was a blend called house blend, very nice liquorice taste and flavour, and the smell was very, very nice.
Don't smoke pipe anymore, reason, the tobacco burns my tongue!!
Why is this? My late father used to smoke pipes and I've got a few of his pipes, nothing fancy, although there is a Peterson but I don't like it because its a straight stem, I prefere a nice bend stem pipe ( don't know if that's the right way of describing it)
Is it because of the tobacco ( the tongue burning) or is it because I smoke it to quick?
I would like to in the future plant a few pipe tobacco varieties and try my hand at making nice house blend type of tobacco.
When I was in the UK I bought a packet of pipe tobacco, can't remember the name, a pity, very nice spicy pipe tobacco, it was in a green plastic packet, a very black aromatic tobacco. Maybe one of our UK friends can get the name.
I want to invest in a good pipe and start taking up pipe smoking again. A good pipe is very pricey, maybe I must just start with my Dads straight one.
 

Jitterbugdude

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Tongue burn is caused by several things. Smoking too fast is probably the primary reason for tongue burn. An average size bowl of tobacco should last you about 45 minutes. Another reason would be the tobacco itself. Just about all commercial tobaccos add propylene glycol (PG) to their mix. This is because it is a humectant and antimicrobial. They also usually add some type of sugar which lowers the pH, which increases tongue burn. Finally, it can be caused by the variety of tobacco. Flue cured has a lower pH than Burley. Flue cured heavy tobaccos are known to cause tongue burn.

So put that all together: You buy some pipe tobacco from the store, it has PG and extra sugar added, it is heavy with Flue Cured and you smoke that bowl in 20 minutes. It's the perfect storm for a burned tongue.
 

istanbulin

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Most people have same problem. They start smoking pipe with lousy aromatics, e.g. Captain Black, and for sure most of them give up because of the very first bad experience. I can't even tolerate to see the pouch of Captain Black.

Ben, I'm just guessing but I think the tobacco you bought in the UK was "Clan" which seems popular because of the lower price. I never intend to smoke it. There're many horror stories about Clan, like;

tobaccoreviews.com said:
In Clan the casing is napalm, and the flavour is fire. It will burn your pipe, your fingers, your tongue; and it will probably toast the roof of your mouth

035247.jpg


I think they should change the warning massage on lousy aromatics, "Smoking this soggy stuff seriously harms you and others around you."

Old used pipes may smoke better than new ones, go for it.
 

bonehead

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i use a missouri meerschaum corncob pipe for testing my homegrown tobacco. they are under 10$ and if you don't abuse them they last years. i use mine a couple of times a week smoking air cured tobacco. some homegrown tastes suprisingly good in a pipe by it self.
 

jolly

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I want to invest in a good pipe and start taking up pipe smoking again. A good pipe is very pricey, maybe I must just start with my Dads straight one.

How expensive depends on your definition of good. Most briars are considered "good" for aesthetic reasons, not necessarily because they smoke well. Bonehead's advice is best. Corncobs aren't pretty, but they outsmoke most briars because they have very open draw -- great airflow. Most pricey briars won't smoke quite that well without some break in. You probably don't want to learn to smoke a pipe while breaking in a pipe. I have a cob that's been in my collection for 15 years. It's on its second stem, and the color has darkened quite a bit, but it still performs very well.

PS, if you don't want that straight Peterson i'll take it off your hands...;)
 

Ben Brand

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i use a missouri meerschaum corncob pipe for testing my homegrown tobacco. they are under 10$ and if you don't abuse them they last years. i use mine a couple of times a week smoking air cured tobacco. some homegrown tastes suprisingly good in a pipe by it self.
Bonehead, I've never seen a corncob pipe, we in SA obviously don't import or make corncob pipes ( only seen them in pictures)
 

Jitterbugdude

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Ben, maybe you should get a Rhodesian pipe, after all you are from SA. As for the tobacco you got from England it could have been Clan as Istanbulin pointed out or maybe it was Condor.
 

Knucklehead

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I'd start with one of your Dad's old pipes. Post some pictures of what you have just cause we like pictures, lol. You can make your own Perique, make your own Cavendish, and if you have some flue cure and an oriental or two you are on your way.

Something I like to do is try out all my tobacco varieties in a pipe by themselves, without blending. Just tear off a piece of leaf and stuff it in your pipe. Burley, cigar tobacco, oriental, anything. Just get the taste of each variety by itself. It really helps to know what that tobacco will bring to a blend.
 

Planter

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Don't smoke pipe anymore, reason, the tobacco burns my tongue!!

One of the great unsolved problems.


I know quite a few people who prefer a cigar over the pipe for that reason (although they won´t admit it...). And the main difference between cigar and pipe is that a cigar provides natural filtering through its length. Actually, my own search for the right pipes and tobaccos was mainly led by the idea that a pipe should be smokable as slow and relaxed as a good cigar.


The standard advise from experienced pipe smokers is that you just need "good smoking technique". But that will only take you so far.


Here´s what I´ve learned:


Tongue burn is different from tongue bite. The temperature of the smoke stream near the mouthpiece is normally not very high, even when the bowl is so hot that it can´t be held comfortably anymore (I never felt an ebonite mouthpiece was getting soft in these instances, while hot water can be used to bend such a stem). Fast deep draws during initial lighting may indeed cause some burn, so just being more careful here can already solve the problem.


Tongue bite seems to be of chemical nature and an entirely individual matter. Some people cope better with sweeter and more acidic tobaccos, others better with alkaline ones. The same for additives. Basically all commercial pipe tobaccos regarded as "natural" contain additives like invert sugar, flavours and PG, too, and are therefore not a priori better than balanced "aromatics". The only way to find out what agrees with you personally is to test. I have sampled many highly praised tobaccos and often enough they simply didn´t agree with me. I routinely add my own Oriental and/or cigar leaf to commercial mixtures now, which smoothens things out.


In my observation, even experienced pipe smokers may feel tongue bite again after not smoking for a while. This suggests that similar to eating very spicy food there´s a certain component of "being used to it".


The mouthpiece: One of my favourite pipes was distinctly more prone to bite than the others. From the outside, the mouthpiece had the same straight slot. But on closer inspection it was actually very shallow, and the smoke stream came sharply out of the unopened bore. I could actually feel the stream hitting the tip of the tongue in a very concentrated manner.
Re-shaping the slot to a deep V-shape made a huge difference. (Pipe makers seem to spend a lot of time on that in more expensive models). The diffused smoke feels much smoother. (Note the similarity to cigars.)


Dry tobacco with good burning properties helps a lot. If you have to draw continuously just to keep the pipe running something is wrong. I prefer tobaccos which allow for half a minute to a minute between draws, and still come back. You may have to experiment with different cuts and packing techniques here (flake tobacco cut into cubes usually works well for me, but my Orientals don´t need more treatment than an ordinary ribbon cut).


Aged tobacco helps a lot, when most of the more aggressive components have mellowed. Some cigars can bite, and I think that´s for the same reason.


An absorbent pipe helps. Light briar, porours meerschaum or corncobs seem to be less troublesome. Changing the pipe often (and letting it dry out properly) can make a difference if you experience tongue bite only after 2 or 3 bowls.


Long pipes help somewhat if one resists the temptation of drawing harder, I guess some of the heavier components of the smoke condensate on the way through the stem before reaching the mouth.


Metal condensation filters in pipes don´t do anything for me except perhaps keeping small tobacco pieces from traveling up.


Paper filters can work well against condensation, Balsa filters too, the 9mm Savinelli´s seem to absorb as well a bit of nicotine. I found they help somewhat against burn, not necessarily against bite. Paper filters should be removed after each bowl, the Balsa filters can be left in for a second bowl, if smoked soon after. Meerschaum filters or Meerschaum granulate in the bowl are similarly effective, while perhaps tasting a bit chalky.


What makes the biggest difference for me (after following all of my own advice above) are activated charcoal filters. They are (like aromatics) despised among "serious" pipe smokers, but I do not feel they alter the flavour to the worse, and I never had an instance of tongue bite anymore. I only know Stanwell 9mm filters first hand, but there are others with (supposedly) a bit more or less filtering effect. An interesting side effect is that the pipes are totally dry after smoking, smell much better and the stems stay clean.
The charcoal filters do decrease nicotine quite a bit, which I welcome, since it allows me the enjoyment of tobaccos I had to be careful with before.
 

deluxestogie

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Nice discussion.

My opinion about bite is that the number one cause is humectants and flavorings added to commercial blends. The blends by Cornell & Diehl (including G.L. Pease and a few others that C&D manufactures) seem to have the least humectant.

For home blending, slow burn can be achieved with:
  • a wider shred--much wider than that used for cigarettes
  • coins or flake that are not fully rubbed-out (just lightly crumble it, and stuff it in the bowl)
  • firmly packing a relatively dry mixture in the pipe
  • slow puffing
For Virginia blends, the addition of Perique makes a number of changes:
  • Perique reduces the bite of Virginia
  • Perique increases the nicotine absorption from the blend
  • Perique alters the pouch aroma and room note
  • Perique slows the burn
Bob
 

jolly

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I agree with Bob.

If you're going to smoke commercial blends, you'll have to do a lot of experimentation to find what works to help mitigate tounge bite. I've not been bitten by anything I've grown. Stay away from anything with the word MacBarren and you may survive.

Ben, try going to http://corncobpipe.com. I'll bet they'll ship you one. If there are none over there, you'd instantly be the coolest dude in South Africa. I'm a fan of the diplomat style, nice bowl size and natural finish.
 
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