breathing with the pipe

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R

ragged claws

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Someone here, in an effort to help me avoid smoking my va/pers too hot, suggested that I learn to breathe with the pipe. I didn't know what that meant until a couple of days ago when I experimented with clenching, rather than holding, my pipe. My technique as a holder has been to puff a little smoke into my mouth, remove the pipe from said mouth, and exhale. While experimenting with the "clenching" technique I found myself exhaling through the pipe (at least partially). This seemed to cool the smoke resulting in a more flavorful and less biting next puff. I expanded on this epiphany by employing a technique offered by Kyle. He had suggested rehydrating tobacco that had become too dry by slowly breathing a couple of lung fulls of air into the pipe. I started doing this between re-lights and, coupled with an occasional exhale through the pipe while smoking, my va/per smoking has become a lot more enjoyable.

Just thought I'd share this newb's discovery of a technique that is probably obvious to the less obtuse.

Kim
 
I'm usually the guy looking for converts to The Pipe as Relaxation School, but, yep, that's how it's done :) Like Pease's guru, I'm a holder and believe this method is most conducive to the proper frame of mind. The problem with clenching, to me, anyway, is that it relegates the pipe to a mere part of multitasking. But holding and learning to control your breathing is a relaxing exercise and an end in itself. A psychologist chum observed that my pipe-smoking method of focus and controlled breathing to reach a relaxed state was a form of self-hypnosis. Maybe yes, maybe no, but it's quite pleasant.
 
Then again, some of us (me, mainly) fixate so much on something (many things) that it can swing the pendulum to the opposite direction--a smoke for me isn't so much distracted when I clench and, well, do what I'm doing now (hang out on BoB with a pipe on a sunny porch), but helps take my mind of any wayward intensity I might naturally have--which when I first began, hindered me a bit.

Otherwise, at night, I prefer to sit in darkness, listen to radio or music, and hold the pipe for a different experience.

Both schools of thought are (and can be) quite relaxing.

Breath-smoking kind of comes with the territory over time, it takes some learnin'. Once achieved, though, yields lovely results. That Pease link sums it up nicely--s'where I usually turn people, too, if the question comes up. Greg's a smart dude.

8)
 
Seems odd to me, but nonetheless --

Pease got his method from his guru. I got mine while half a snooze in front of the teevee one night. I was dozing in front of The Military Channel which was doing a piece on special forces training. There was a segment on what to do when the indians seem to be winning. The counsel was to relax -- inhale through the nose to a count of five, exhale through the mouth to a count of six. "Innaress'n, zzzzz," I thought. Next morning I was following my usual post-breakfast activity of loading a few pipes in preparation for the day's smokes. I remembered the inhale 5 / exhale 6 advice. I tried it with a loaded but not lit briar. Seemed to have definite possibilities. I've been experimenting with this method ever since. You never can tell when a good idea is going to fall out of the sky and land in your lap.
 
My variant of breath-smoking also came about quite by accident. I think it was Jackknife that I was afraid of the mule-kick of flavor and nicotine, so I ended up...breath smoking. It was great!

The "variant" part comes from an individual naturalness to the process...everyone's gonna do it a little different, of course. Just gotta play around with it and see what sticks...the tongue and palate know. Trust it implicitly.

8)
 
I have been working on the breathing through the nose method to smoke my pipes and after 3 days of trying it while enjoying a bowl it worked and it was a wonderful experience.
 
A Peterson 305 taught me to breath smoke. I love the style of that pipe but to say it smokes hot is an understatement that just won't quit.
One night I made up my mind that I was going to smoke as slow as I needed to keep the pipe cool. That night I got the best smoke from OBF that I'd ever had. The pipe never got hot.
I've since tried it with a couple of my thin walled billiards and got the same results. Sometimes the only way I can tell the pipe is lit is from a very faint curl of smoke from the bowl and the taste.
I really tasted FVF for the first time last night even tho I've smoked it off and on for the last 18 months.
I had no idea how good OBF and FVF really are until I learned to tame a hot pipe through breath smoking.

Maybe breath smoking will help with a problem I've developed. There are times when I can't taste what I'm smoking. If I didn't know what I put in the bowl
I'd have no idea what it was. I can taste food and drink...just not the tobacco smoke.
 
Yeah, I've clenched solidly for 30 yrs. Can't imagine smokin a pipe any other way. When you clench you learn how to breath WITH the pipe. You also learn how talk with a pipe in mouth. Brings you closer to the Almighty, it does.
 
My gawds this thread saved my pipes. I switched from cigarettes to pipe two months ago and the first two weeks were great. After that it has been down hill. When I first tried Gawith FVF it was so good I could have smoked it nonstop. After two weeks I started to lose taste and finally I wasn't able to tell the difference between tobaccoes. This thread actually made me think of the early days and I realised that I did pipe breathing without understanding it. I practiced keeping the pipe clenched between the teeth and breathed through the nose. As soon as it got comfortable I started to keep the pipe in hand between the puffs.

All vi tobaccoes started biting my tongue and burning back of the mouth. At this very moment my pipe is hanging from my mouth loaded with Gawith Golden glow and I can taste it! Wohoo. This saved my pipes from being used to warm up the house in a fireplace.
 
I have always been a clencher and my technique developed out of two needs: to keep the pipe lit, and being able to smoke while I work.

My grandfather never really just sat in his armchair and smoked; rather, he smoked while doing yard work, he smoked at his workbench in the garage while fixing all the things his grandchildren broke around the house, and he smoked at the desk in his study while paying bills and writing letters.

My goal when I first started was to smoke while I worked in the yard and while I was driving home from work. I'm glad it happened that way because it seemed easier to just sit and relax and pay close attention when I had the time, after having mastered the "multitasking" technique
 
I go back and forth. I clench until my mouth gets tired and then I hold it. Breathing with the pipe came naturally to me, and to me gives the best flavor. Something about the faint whisp of smoke that gets caught up in my mustache just causes the whole experience to be so much better.
 
This may seem a bit of an overstatement, but as I've consolidated the gains of my move into slow smoking, I find myself playing with smoke, drawing with lips closed for a stronger pull, drawing short then long. When part of my mind has to consider what kind of draw is needed next, it's more interesting.

I'm sure many guys are further along in their smoking technique and that they don't need to think about it at all. I think it's one of the hardest parts of pipe smoking to master but one which, when so rendered, yields great benefits.

I've not yet found a way to get the pipe down to a smolder and to maintain it there, thereby producing those stellar flavors that a low burn is said to yield.
 
I have recently experimented with this method and it has increased my enjoyment immensely... I was scorching through everything way too fast and my tongue was paying for it... Not only do I get a cooler smoke, the flavors really shine through... More relights? Sure, but it's worth it to me.... Charing Cross has become an entirely new tobacco thanks to this method...
 
Tilley4":9bnyrstx said:
I have recently experimented with this method and it has increased my enjoyment immensely... I was scorching through everything way too fast and my tongue was paying for it...  Not only do I get a cooler smoke, the flavors really shine through...  More relights?  Sure, but it's worth it to me....  Charing Cross has become an entirely new tobacco thanks to this method...
Click to expand...
It definitely works!
 
Tilley4":cshmgtjz said:
I have recently experimented with this method and it has increased my enjoyment immensely... I was scorching through everything way too fast and my tongue was paying for it...  Not only do I get a cooler smoke, the flavors really shine through...  More relights?  Sure, but it's worth it to me....  Charing Cross has become an entirely new tobacco thanks to this method...
Click to expand...
If relights become a problem you might try packing the tobacco a little looser and maybe let the tobacco dry a little before packing your pipe. I would be willing to bet that the problem is probably cause by packing your pipe too tight. Drier tobacco and slower puffing will help eliminate tongue bite. :)

AJ
 
An addition to aj's comment above -- rubbing out the tobacco a bit pre-pack will help both drying and proper packing. As others might have mentioned, packing pipes and setting them aside a bit before use also seems to help, for me, anyway. When I began messing around with this method, the amount of tobacco I needed per bowl decreased a lot, relights decreased, though elapsed time per bowl stayed about the same.
 
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