I remember when I first started smoking a pipe. My wife’s parents had just gotten me this beautiful French briar for Christmas. I had no idea which blend to choose, or how to properly smoke a pipe at all for that matter. My initial approach was a brute, “what’s the big deal? Just fill it up and smoke it!” But after holding that work of art in my own hand for a while I realized I should learn how to smoke it and care for it. After a few hours worth of YouTube videos and blog posts, it was time to give it a go. Now I’ve been smoking a pipe since 2019. I wouldn’t consider myself particularly seasoned at this point but I’d like to think I know my way around a pipe. Now, I’d like to pass on some of the valuable information I’ve gathered, and I hope it proves helpful to the new or aspiring pipe smoker.
Conditioning Your Pipe
So you’ve just gotten your hands on a brand-new, unsmoked briar? Before you smoke a full bowl, you’ll want to condition or your pipe. Conditioning your pipe is the process of building up a layer of carbon in the bowl. This protects the briar from cracking and overheating. The classic method is to fill the bowl a quarter way, and smoke it. The next time you’ll fill half way. Then three quarters. And finally a full bowl, allowing the pipe to rest in between smokes. This allows the carbon cake to gradually build up without your pipe getting hot enough to char the briar. You’ll want to let your pipe rest between bowls, at least long enough for the bowl to cool completely. A quality pipe should last a lifetime with proper care, and that all starts with conditioning
Packing Your Pipe
Now that you’ve conditioned your pipe it's time to enjoy your first full smoke. The first step is filling your pipe with your preferred tobacco. You’ll want to fill your bowl and very gently pack it. Repeat and pack slightly firmer this time. Do it once more with the firmest pack saved for last. The whole idea behind this technique is that it keeps the tobacco condensed enough to allow for good combustion, but it doesn’t overpack and block the air flow. Remember, there’s a tiny little hole at the bottom of the bowl, and all the smoke you get has to go through that hole. And I can promise you, there’s nothing worse than an overly packed bowl. It’s an unpleasant smoking experience, and should be repacked. Draw can be a matter of preference but it shouldn’t require much effort if any at all to draw on your pipe.
Lighting Your Pipe
Now it’s time to light up. This is something that took me an embarrassingly long time to nail down. I used to overfill and over pack my bowls, then char the heck out of the rim trying to light up. I was not gentle on pipes. Thankfully I cut my teeth on cobs and clays before I had the chance to do any real damage to my first briar. But I digress. The golden rule of lighting your pipe is to use a soft flame. By soft flame I mean cigarette lighter, pipe lighter or a match. You must absolutely never use a cigar/torch lighter unless you want to incinerate your pipe. Remember, briar is wood, and wood is combustible. Tobacco requires relatively low heat to burn, and a soft flame provides more than enough heat. In fact, even with a soft flame you will still char the rim of your bowl unless you’re careful. Hold the soft flame over the center of your filled bowl and gently draw in. You’re not holding the lighter down into the bowl. It’s best to hold the lighter sideways over the center of the bowl and actually draw in the flame. Try to evenly light the top layer of tobacco. This should be a few seconds at the most. Now, your pipe will immediately go out, but don’t panic. You’ve just done the char light. Very gently tamp your tobacco and relight. Now you’re ready to smoke
Smoking Your Pipe
Enjoy your pipe, gently puffing every so often. It’s just drawing the smoke into your mouth. I’d advise against inhaling. Please don’t worry about keeping it lit. I’ll have a whole separate article on that. If it goes out just relight. You can’t be in a hurry. Now just enjoy the pipe with a good book, good conversation, some music, or your own thoughts. When you’re nearing the bottom of the bowl the tobacco might start to taste sour. Once you’ve hit a flavor that’s more carbon than tobacco you know it's time to quit. Don’t ever try to smoke all the way to the bottom of the bowl (this one’s hard for us fiscally conservative types). The tobacco’s still hot and the bottom of the bowl will become damaged over time if you consistently smoke the bowl all the way down.
Cleaning Your Pipe
Now that you’re done it’s time to clean your pipe. Please for the love of all things good, don’t bang your pipe against a hard surface to get rid of the ashes. Just take the scoop from your pipe tool and gently scoop out the ash. Don’t scrape the bowl either. Remember the carbon cake is good, and you could easily damage your bowl by scraping it. Now, run a couple of pipe cleaners from the bit all the way into the chamber until they’re coming out clean. If your pipe stem has a steep bend it’s usually easier to take them apart and clean the bowl and stem separately. Make sure your pipe has cooled before taking it apart. Doing so while it’s still hot can damage the connection between the stem and shank.
So you’ve conditioned your pipe, packed it, lit it, smoked it, and cleaned it. Most people will tell you that you should ideally have one pipe for every day of the week if you’re going to smoke every day. I can’t necessarily jump on that train because a good pipe is not cheap, but a good pipe is meant to be smoked. Either way you’ll want to rest your pipe for a day or so in between bowls. After all, if your first few smoking experiences go about as well as mine did, that pipe’s earned a rest.
Note On Corncobs
This article is tailored to smoking a briar pipe. You can use this entire process for smoking a corncob pipe and that would be just fine. The only real exception that comes to mind is that it’s not absolutely necessary to condition a corncob pipe prior to smoking. They’re a little more forgiving so the barriers to entry aren’t as prominent. However, it’s my personal experience that corncob pipes are a little more sensitive to overheating than briar pipes. So it’s important to take your time when smoking any pipe, but particularly a corncob.
Daniel, Owner
Plymouth Rock Tobacco Co.
Soli Deo Gloria
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