Thank you Youn for sharing your moldy horror pictures too 
Your leaves seem to color cure very nicely ! congratulations
Pipe smoking techniques require time to master, it's very different from cigars in many ways, it offers a different smoking experience and other flavors, I like cigars and pipes
My advices about pipe smoking :
1 smoke slowly
2 smoke SLOWLY !
3 take your time !
4 take care of your packing technique, the tobacco must not be to tight, it has to offer some resistance to your draw, but not too much (begin by making it too lose, it's easier to push more in the pipe to make it more "packed")
5 smoke slowly (did I mention it already ?)
When I really enjoy a good pipe, it's when I manage to smoke really slowly : the smoke is not hot, it's more flavorfull, it doesn't burn the tongue.
Some tobacco burns easily the tongue (virginia and their sugars and acid smoke are responsible, but other things influence it too : the pipe, the humidity of the tobacco, the packing, the pace...)
I do smoke churchwarden pipes too (well I only have one), from my small experience, I can say that the smoke is cooler (IF YOU SMOKE SLOWLY )
One other adivce : avoid bent pipes to begin, they are harder to master (and they are often not well carved : the hole in the bottom of the chamber is often too high, they gurgle more, etc...)
One important thing that impact the smoking experience : the size of the hole in the pipe and the stem and in the bit !
If the hole is too small, the smoke bite more and is hot.
You can drill in your stem to make it bigger, so the smoke have more room and can cool down more.
I had some pipes that did not smoke good before I open their holes and stems, now they are cooler and bite less and offer good flavors.
Take your time and it will come
I forgot to say that I love corn cob pipes ! they are cheap, and they smoke great (they have a good sized hole in the stem), the only thing to take care is that the chamber is often very small so you have to make the packing just "right"
Your leaves seem to color cure very nicely ! congratulations
Pipe smoking techniques require time to master, it's very different from cigars in many ways, it offers a different smoking experience and other flavors, I like cigars and pipes
My advices about pipe smoking :
1 smoke slowly
2 smoke SLOWLY !
3 take your time !
4 take care of your packing technique, the tobacco must not be to tight, it has to offer some resistance to your draw, but not too much (begin by making it too lose, it's easier to push more in the pipe to make it more "packed")
5 smoke slowly (did I mention it already ?)
When I really enjoy a good pipe, it's when I manage to smoke really slowly : the smoke is not hot, it's more flavorfull, it doesn't burn the tongue.
Some tobacco burns easily the tongue (virginia and their sugars and acid smoke are responsible, but other things influence it too : the pipe, the humidity of the tobacco, the packing, the pace...)
I do smoke churchwarden pipes too (well I only have one), from my small experience, I can say that the smoke is cooler (IF YOU SMOKE SLOWLY
)One other adivce : avoid bent pipes to begin, they are harder to master (and they are often not well carved : the hole in the bottom of the chamber is often too high, they gurgle more, etc...)
One important thing that impact the smoking experience : the size of the hole in the pipe and the stem and in the bit !
If the hole is too small, the smoke bite more and is hot.
You can drill in your stem to make it bigger, so the smoke have more room and can cool down more.
I had some pipes that did not smoke good before I open their holes and stems, now they are cooler and bite less and offer good flavors.
Take your time and it will come
I forgot to say that I love corn cob pipes ! they are cheap, and they smoke great (they have a good sized hole in the stem), the only thing to take care is that the chamber is often very small so you have to make the packing just "right"
