How to Puff a Tobacco Pipe
From J. S. Bach to John Coltrane, Bing Crosby to Albert Einstein, history is packed full of famous pipe smokers. Pipe smoking is lauded by its practitioners as relaxing and pleasurable, and connoisseurs will go far and wide to find their preferred kind of pipe tobacco. For the first-timer, however, pipe smoking might seem a bit daunting. It's not as easy as just putting it in your pipe and smoking it, as the old saying goes; there's a particular technique you'll need to puff your tobacco pipe.
Instructions
-
-
1
Pack your pipe. Don't pack it too tight---you want the tobacco to still be a bit springy in the pipe bowl. Take a wad that looks a little too big for the bowl of your pipe, and stuff it into the bowl, keeping your pipe over the tobacco tin to collect whatever falls out. After you're done, there will be some tobacco left over the top; pull most of this out, and tamp the rest down gently with your tamper.
-
2
Take a few pulls after you're done packing to make sure that air flows well. If it's difficult to get air through the pipe, take the tobacco out and start again, as you've packed it too tight.
-
-
3
Strike a match, and pull the flame across the surface of the pipe bowl. As you do so, puff deeply but not too hard into your mouth. Try not to inhale. The tobacco should fluff up and be scorched after 10-20 seconds of this puffing and burning.
-
4
Tamp the tobacco down again with the tamper to create a flat surface once more.
-
5
Light the pipe again, passing a flame over the top of the tamped-down tobacco as you puff slowly. This puff should bring the flame down into the tobacco in the bowl. Continue with this for another ten seconds or so, then your pipe should be lit.
-
6
Puff away. Take a slow, deep draw a few times a minute to keep your pipe lit. You can either keep the smoke in your mouth for a few seconds and then blow it out, or hold it in your mouth until your next puff, allowing it to escape as you draw in more. Either way, don't inhale. If your pipe goes out, simply re-light it as above.
-
1
