pipemakersforum.com

Greetings to all,

I've found myself scratching my head about how to get a short smoke out of my pipe. I often only have 15 minutes walk in the morning to have a smoke. I've been packing a full bowl(Frank method) for fear of an improper burn of the tobacco and I was wondering if anyone out there knows of a way to pack a 1/2 bowl so that I have less wasted tobacco. Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks,

Justin

This is gonna sound stupid, but uh, use less tobacco. There's no magic to it. Loosely (gravity) fill the pipe to the top, then tamp it to half way. It'll smoke. Most of my pipes are XXL sort of affairs, and I frequently smoke just a 1/2 bowl or so.

Yeah, I just measure a little pinch of tobacco between my index/middle-finger/thumb, do a little twist-and-poke to get it into the pipe, and go with it.

Alternatively, you can make yourself a few smaller bowl pipes for smaller smokes. These are always nice because they're generally easier to clench, being smaller/lighter.

A third way would be to set the pipe aside, half-smoked, and finish the other half later.

pierredekat wrote:A third way would be to set the pipe aside, half-smoked, and finish the other half later.

Yup, this is my typical situation. Like you, restever, I typically don't have more than 15 mins or so to smoke (until the deeps of night anyways) so I usually just fill 'er up and go through 1/3 or 1/2 and pick it up whenever I get a chance to finish it.

What is the maximum amount of time I can let my pipe sit safely between lights?

What about a smaller capacity pipe? I've made a few "break" pipes. Small (11/16 dia) bowl that will give a good 15-20 minutes. I have made a couple for myself that I use.

"Safe" time between relights probably is tobacco dependent. There are people who will partially smoke a virginia, and then leave it overnight. "Delayed Gratification Technique" it's called. I call it drying out your tobacco.

I find relights on "pure tobaccos", virginia and english much better than on cased aromatic blends. I try to smoke those in one go. But I'll often smoke one pipe throughout a day or over a weekend, cuz I just don't smoke that much, or have time to sit for 2 hours.

pierredekat wrote:A third way would be to set the pipe aside, half-smoked, and finish the other half later.

Yep. Many of my pipes are Oom Pauls, so I get 3 to 4 lights from a bowlful.

I wonder if I could convince my boss to let me smoke at work.

restever99 wrote:I wonder if I could convince my boss to let me smoke at work.

No problem - I'll have a word with him tonight. So, just go on in to work and light up indoors. No worries.

restever99 wrote:I wonder if I could convince my boss to let me smoke at work.

You can do anything if you put your mind to it.....

As opposed to cigs or cigars, many people love the smell of good pipe tobacco...

"Wow, that pipe smoke smells nice, it reminds me of my grandfather..."

And they always want to stick their noses in my tin.

I was under the impression that a pipe always needs to be filled to the top, for better cake build-up etc.
Not that 1/2 or 1/4 filled will work for me, I smoke way too much than is good for me

I found a pipe in my stash half full of tobacco the other day. I doubt I'd smoked it in over a month. But it lit up fine and smoked great.

Charl wrote:I was under the impression that a pipe always needs to be filled to the top. . .

The laws in SA are different than those in the USA. Over here we can pack our pipes any damn way we please.

You're really on a roll today, eh Fred.