Have any of you fine folks tried and more importantly succeeded with using this method?
For those who don't know what I'm talking about...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0XHYPso7TXs&feature=related

Spiral smoke, eh? Seems like a nice enough guy. I'm half convinced he did that as a joke.

If not, perhaps he has another video about how to properly turn down your lighter so you don't char the edge of your bowl as you light.

Who knows. If I had a dime for every "...now THIS is how you load a pipe..." bit. I guess some people are really into method and variants thereof.

I just want to smoke my pipe. If I have issue with doing so, I adapt.

Well I hadn't heard of this method (heard of many, many others) until you posted this link... I decided to try it with some rubbed out Marlin Flake and a little Shell briar Canadian that has a somewhat narrow chamber... I'm about 2/3 through the bowl now and I have to say it's a cool, cool smoke. And I have not needed to relight.

I think I'll keep using this method with my smaller pipes (most of my pipes are small) because I feel like it's given me a better pack than my usual two-part tamper method. The chamber on this pipe is too narrow for my stubby fingers so I am forced to use a tamper...

Thanks for the link!

I've tried and it works surprisingly well. It's been around for years. The first time I saw it done was by an old rancher. He fired that old pipe up, stuck in it his mouth and didn't touch it with his hands again until it was time to knock out the ash. I was impressed at the time.

I've seen that video before but haven't yet tried it myself as the bulk of what I smoke are flakes. However, I could see this working amazingly with the shag cut Dark Birdseye by GH. I'll have to give it a try sometime!

We all eventually find a method that works well for us.

I may flirt with other methods, but in the long run for fully rubbed out tobacco I always return to one simple rule that works every time: "Pack the pipe looser than you think you ought to".

When I deviate from this rule I end up with tung burn and relights.

Todd

It sounds like this method has been working for some folks. Looks like I may have to give it a try!

taharris wrote:

We all eventually find a method that works well for us. I may flirt with other methods, but in the long run for fully rubbed out tobacco I always return to one simple rule that works every time: "Pack the pipe looser than you think you ought to". When I deviate from this rule I end up with tung burn and relights. Todd

Interestingly enough, I've followed this method for a few years and had terrible luck. Constant relights, tons of dottle left that I couldn't get to light, the works. Over the last few weeks, I've done the opposite: pack the pipe tighter than I think I ought to. Since I've started doing that, it's been false light, light about halfway, light the dottle a few times. I may just have a gentler hand at the pack than others, but this has been working beautifully for me.

I'll give this new youtube method a shot and report back when I do!

That's actually a really good point, Uber. That school of thought of "pack lighter than you think you need to," applies beautifully for those that have a heavy hand, but if you tend to go light anyway, I can see it having the opposite effect. I think I'm somewhere in the middle, meanwhile also a slave to my own whimsy--sometimes I have to make a conscious effort, undistracted, to how I'm packing, or else I'll get outside after lighting 300 times and say, "...stupid pipe, stupid tobacco...what the hell did I do?"

Can someone give me a the basic idea of what's going on? I can't watch youtube videos at work.