I'm smoking my pipes too hot

[serif365]

I'm looking for some sage guidance from my fellow "pipers". I'm having problems with getting my pipes too hot when I smoke. I've read the "six second rule" and tried various packs and "sippings", but I still seem to get the bowls so hot that they blister the finish. I'm enjoying the smoke immensely and I'm not experiencing any palate burn but I'm afraid I'm damaging my collection. Granted, I have a few vintage Medicos and Grabows (I know, cheap pipes) but I have also bubbled the finish on one of my new Brebbias and a Peterson.

I'm sure that I could refinish the bowls but I would rather try to not heat them up so much in the first place. I end up most every smoke holding the stem because the bowl is too hot for my fingers. I smoke a broad range of blends but I seem to run into the same issue with most anything I pack in the bowl. I understand packing and drawing and I though I was doing both correctly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[monbla256]

I'm looking for some sage guidance from my fellow "pipers". I'm having problems with getting my pipes too hot when I smoke. I've read the "six second rule" and tried various packs and "sippings", but I still seem to get the bowls so hot that they blister the finish. I'm enjoying the smoke immensely and I'm not experiencing any palate burn but I'm afraid I'm damaging my collection. Granted, I have a few vintage Medicos and Grabows (I know, cheap pipes) but I have also bubbled the finish on one of my new Brebbias and a Peterson.

I'm sure that I could refinish the bowls but I would rather try to not heat them up so much in the first place. I end up most every smoke holding the stem because the bowl is too hot for my fingers. I smoke a broad range of blends but I seem to run into the same issue with most anything I pack in the bowl. I understand packing and drawing and I though I was doing both correctly.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

If you are getting them so hot that they "bubble" the finish how do you hold 'em to smoke? Some Pete's of recent production as well as some Italian made pipes have used a laquer finish but if you got them hot enough to effect the finish I don't see how you could hold the pipe! If you are doing as you say, this should not be happening. I've never had the finish on any of my Pete's do this and I have two I have bought in the last two years. Sounds like you are doing things correctly so I can't uderstand why this could be happening

 

[shootist51]

Stop smoking them so hard. Learn to just sip the smoke and if the pipe begins to feel warm, put it down until it is cool to the touch...

OR

go ahead and smoke the crap out of them and figure you're goona spend a lot more on pipes than most guys.

 

[gravel]

I have a friend who smoked his black Pete too hot and it bubbled up, so it old be a combination of technique and pipe finish. He admitted at the time that he was smoking too fast, too furious.

When you smoke are you preoccupied or are you only smoking?

Try this: pack and light as you would normally. Hold your pipe with your hand and pull it away from your mouth after each puff. With the pipe in your hand you'll be able to monitor the temp better. With it out of your mouth you won't be tempted to puff fast.

If the pipe goes out, relight it. Don't sweat the relights.

 

[MisterE]

Yeah, if the lacquer is bubbling up, it's getting pretty hot. I can only imagine what your mouth felt like the day after that. :silent:

Assuming you've explored your options with packing and puffing cadence it could be simply the pipe itself.

I have a couple of pipes which seem to conduct heat to the outside of the bowl better (or worse, maybe) than others. One of my Sasienis in particular will heat up much more than my smoking pace would warrant at precicely the halfway point. It doesn't matter what cut or blend is in it, it will just heat up, so I'll usually stop at that point to let it cool. What's more curious still, it that I have a matching Sasieni (exact same model and size) which doesn't have this quirk! That makes me think there's something unique to that pipe.

As an experiment, I reamed and sanded the bowl back to the wood to see what was underneath. I was expecting a possible burnout candidate. To my surprise, there was absolutely no charring, pitting, or soft spots whatsoever. That told me that the pipe never got hot enough to burn the wood even if the outside temperature suggested extreme heat.

One collateral benefit, however, is that I'm virtually guaranteed a tasty bowl when I smoke it. The "early warning system" won't allow for hard puffing and the bac stays at optimum flavor temperature.

 

[Dutch]

As others have pointed out, slow down the puffing process, and just hold your pipe in your hand, or clench between your teeth. The goal of pipe and cigar smoking is to taste the tobacco, and it doesn't take continous drawing, in order to keep the flavor on your palate. In fact, it's much easier when smoking a pipe, than smoking a cigar.

I was guilty of this, early on, as are a lot of pipe smokers. I think it is sometimes due to the effort to keep the pipe lit, but unlike cigars, letting the pipe go out, won't affect the taste of your tobacco after a relight.

 

[serif365]

Thanks to all of you. I think one of my issues is that I seem to try to smoke a bowl on one light and I've become fairly successful at doing this. I'll slow down the puff and maybe even let the pipe go out. I mentioned the six-second rule that I had picked up somewhere (if you can't hold the bowl for six seconds it's too hot!) :idea:

Good advice one and all and much appreciated.

 

[user 2031]

I used to try to not relight too, like I was doing it wrong if I had to relight my pipe. Now I just slow down relax and enjoy my smoke, often I'll have a cup of tea with my pipe. If (when) my pipe goes out, I'm not in a hurry to get it smoking again, I might sit 3 or 4 minutes or more and just enjoy my tea and my surroundings before I light it back up. Pipe smoking is about pleasure... cigarette smoking is more about "getting a fix" so to speak. Just slow down, it will make you be more contemplative in other areas of your life too. As Martha Stewart says, "It's a good thing."

 

[monbla256]

Thanks to all of you. I think one of my issues is that I seem to try to smoke a bowl on one light and I've become fairly successful at doing this. I'll slow down the puff and maybe even let the pipe go out. I mentioned the six-second rule that I had picked up somewhere (if you can't hold the bowl for six seconds it's too hot!) :idea:

Good advice one and all and much appreciated.

Where this ".... smoke it with only one light" thing came from is just plain STUPID ! Unless you are in a slow smoke contest, what does it MATTER how many re-lights it takes to smoke a bowl ? Sounds like some kind of "what kinda MAN are you" sort of thing! STUPID Buy a BOX of matchs, load your pipe and SLOW DOWN and re-light as many times as it takes! Your pipes and mouth will like you for it!

 

[Growley]

This may be a "one-off", but I find that I smoke my pipes much hotter when I can't see the smoke. If it's dark out and I can't see how much smoke I'm producing, I mentally feel like it's not lit well and therefore puff it harder to product more smoke.

When I can see those lovely clouds of smoke clearly, I smoke it much cooler.

I just realized this the other night.

 

[serif365]

Okay, I think I've been sufficiently humbled by now. I want to assure you all that at no time have I not enjoyed smoking a pipe. And yes, I do get a little preoccupied at times because I like to read while I smoke. Maybe I'm at a particularly exciting part of the story and just go to puffin' like an old locomotive. I've received good food for thought today and I'm looking forward to having a cooler smoke tonight!

Onward and upward...

 

[Ocelot55]

This may be a "one-off", but I find that I smoke my pipes much hotter when I can't see the smoke. If it's dark out and I can't see how much smoke I'm producing, I mentally feel like it's not lit well and therefore puff it harder to product more smoke.

When I can see those lovely clouds of smoke clearly, I smoke it much cooler.

I just realized this the other night.

I have the same problem. I think when you cant see the smoke you assume that yourself not puffing hard enough, when in reality the smoke is just getting blown away.

 

[J Soshae]

And the same thing on a day with a slight breeze.

 

[Dave_In_Philly]

This may be a "one-off", but I find that I smoke my pipes much hotter when I can't see the smoke. If it's dark out and I can't see how much smoke I'm producing, I mentally feel like it's not lit well and therefore puff it harder to product more smoke.

When I can see those lovely clouds of smoke clearly, I smoke it much cooler.

I just realized this the other night.

You're not alone brother. Same happens to me.

 

[tiltjlp]

Here's the advice my dad gave me back in 1959, and it still works for me. You need to try all of it for at least two weeks to see if it works for you.

Dry your tobacco more than you think you need to.
Pack looser than you think you need to.
Smoke slower than you think you need to.
Tamp less, and more lightly, than you think you need to.
Clean your pipes after every smoke, using pipe spirits.
Don’t worry if you have a few relights.

 

[Anthonyx2b]

Bubbling finish? sounds dangerous! :cyclops: burn your finger prints off?

 

[awoodby]

I have almost the same problem, I think I have a solution for the both of is! Genius in it's simplicity!!

Lets just start smoking 2 pipes at once and alternate!!!



--Alex

 

[serif365]

You know, that's exactly what I was thinking last night as I was putting my little Peterson canted egg down for the umpteenth time to cool down. Since I started taking the sage advice from this forum I rarely smoke a bowl all the way through because I simply don't have the time it takes to smoke/cool/smoke/cool... a bowl. I have plenty of pipes so tonight I'm going to pack two and alternate.

Thanks for confirming a great idea! :sunny:

 

[awoodby]

Lol, yah, when I said it I was kidding... but it's been sticking in my head all night. I'll try it tonight as well. Probably all sorts of against the "slow down and enjoy" principle but hey, it's my choice, and it will let me slow down even more...

I DID try to just pack a pipe way looser, and that seemed to work, for other ideas on the subject. Pack it until the draw is still very easy, the pipe didn't last as long, but it didn't get as hot and gave big mouthfulls of smoke.

 

[williamcharles]

Thanks to all of you. I think one of my issues is that I seem to try to smoke a bowl on one light and I've become fairly successful at doing this.

I got good at that too and it didn't take me long to knock that off and slow down. That turns that bowl into a micro furnace.
A couple of lights (sometimes more) to get it going and three or four relights seems to work best for me.
I've got pipes that burn hot so they get relit several times during a smoke.