Smoke This

Early in December I was at an antiques/thrift type place and found a wooden pipe. For some reason I felt compelled to buy it. It was made in Germany (East), as printed on the side. The next weekend after that I was at a tobacco shop and picked up some pipe tobacco. An English Blend that smelled nice. Then I proceeded to smoke a pipe. First, I decided to do some googling and youtubing to see if there was anything special about lighting it. Turns out the answer was yes.

There is a whole art to lighting a pipe which is designed to produce a nice ember that will last through your entire smoke, which if packed well will last a good 45 minutes or so. The first step is packing the bowl of the pipe. Basically put some in, pack it down, repeat. Keep doing this until it’s full but where you can still draw air through it. Then you can light it, but your first light is called a “false light”. You puff maybe a half dozen times with flame, but it’s not lit yet. You then pack down the tobacco and light it again. This is your “true light”. This is done to prevent you from having to keep relighting your pipe. Both times I have smoked, it’s gone out after 10 minutes and I repacked it and lit it a third time. After that it seemed to not want to die and lasted forever. They sell little tools for the packing but I just used the flat end of a stick.

This pipe was also "broken in" already since it was used. A new pipe needs to be broken in by smoking half bowls for a little while. I think it conditions the wood so it doesn't burn. Also, if it gets really hot in your hand that means you're smoking it too fast and the fire is getting too hot. Anyways, I’m not going to turn into a big pipe smoker, but I will enjoy it once in a while, much like I do cigars.

Cheers