Thread: enjoyed my first pipe

found a little tobacco shop up the road. kind of a hole in the wall. not much of a selection. the lady working there said captain black was there best seller. picked up the white and the black. also picked up one of there house pipes for 30 bucks. the ones i have are used and still need cleaning. smoked a bowl and it was pretty good. its an aromatic. anyone ever smoke captain black. not bad

Congrats on the new pipe!

Captain Black smells and tastes good. However, pay attention to the cleanliness of your pipe. Captain Black is very heavily cased (coated in sugar water and flavorings) and it tends to get syrupy in the bowl and can be difficult to clean.

All aromatics are cased with some flavored liquid, usually some form of sugar, maple syrup, or other syrup and flavorings. So you will find that a lot of pipe smokers have dedicated pipes to particular blends or blend types so there is no cross talk between them. I have pipes for Virgina and virginia perique blends, ones for aromatics and ones for English blends.

I digress - please enjoy your new hobby - relax and puff! There now, can you feel the stress leaving?

thanks. i was watching a you tube vid last night and the guy said the same thing. i will use the pipe i smoked today for the captain jack. going to the tinder box in the morning and check out try some other blends and smoke them out of a different pipe. dave

Originally Posted by buckeye

thanks. i was watching a you tube vid last night and the guy said the same thing. i will use the pipe i smoked today for the captain jack. going to the tinder box in the morning and check out try some other blends and smoke them out of a different pipe. dave

Buckeye - that's the spirit! Start getting some blends and trying them. Especially if you can buy small amounts to try first. Problem with the tinned stuff is that you have to buy 4 oz, 50 gram or 100 gram tins only to find out you don't enjoy them.

Have you watched any of the dubinthedam stuff yet? Especially the older ones. He does not do many on the beginning stuff anymore.

David

Congrats for your new pipe,

What alembic said makes 100% sense. Would be good idea to use some pipes with aromatics and some for others.
If you bought your pipe used, remember to clean it to get the best aromas from your tobaccos.

Congratulations on your new pipe. I have only two pipes and both are estate pipes. I recently cleaned them both with sea salt and alcohol. One was very bitter and now smokes fine. Enjoy your new hobby.

Ken

Both of the Tinder Boxs I've been to have had a great selection and wonderful staff so I hope yours does as well. One of my favorite Tinder Box blends is Crown Royale. And as always,relax,puff slow,and enjoy.
BTW, as said before, dudinthedam on youtube has some great videos as does 1968eric. Check those out, eric has some nice step by step vidoes as well a bunch of reviews.

Originally Posted by ThePhill

Both of the Tinder Boxs I've been to have had a great selection and wonderful staff so I hope yours does as well. One of my favorite Tinder Box blends is Crown Royale. And as always,relax,puff slow,and enjoy.
BTW, as said before, dudinthedam on youtube has some great videos as does 1968eric. Check those out, eric has some nice step by step vidoes as well a bunch of reviews.

thanks i will check them out. i was a little dizzy last night after smoking.

Hi Buckeye,

Like everything else, there is an art to smoking the pipe. The toughest part is developing a puffing draw and rhythm.

The draw on the pipe should be like a little sip of fine cognac and the frequency should be just enough to keep the pipe lit. Beginners often draw too hard and too frequently thinking this will keep the pipe lit. In reality beginners have trouble keeping the pipe lit because of their draw and rhythm technique. The pipe itself will give a lot of feedback here. Wet smoke, tongue bite and a hot bowl are all signs of bad puffing rhythm and too hard a draw.

The other part is learning to tamp. Every 10 puffs or so you need to tamp the ash down using just enough pressure on the tamper to collapse the ash down to the firm layer of tobacco. If you do not tamp the pipe will go out and you will be relighting often.

As far as dizzy, you ain't seen nothing until you load a pipe with Peterson's Irish Flake - whooo boy that one makes your head spin. Slow gentle puffs is a must with that one or the Vitamin N will get you (nicotine).

Oh yes - packing the pipe is a developed skill too. Not too tight not too loose. Fill your pipe to the top with loose tobacco and press that down to 1/2 of the bowl height. Fill to top again and press down to 3/4 of bowl height. Fill to top again and press down to even with bowl top. There are other methods, but I find the 3 layer method gives pretty consistent results.

Enjoy!
David

hey david, my second bowl went better. packed it the way you told me and drew slow. burned to the bottom. no relights. thanks dave