Who rubs out flake and who just stuffs it in?

Brothers of Briar

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Stick":sifzsnqb said:
PanHandler":sifzsnqb said:
Anyway, couldn’t get it to stay lit.
.
Hey PH. Your folded roll could probably do with a little roughing up. Once I have my roll I grasp it between my thumbs and first two fingers and make an action like I'm rubbing my finger tips together. It's not a flexing / hinging action as if trying to snap a pencil. This loosens things up nicely. Just a thought. :)
Thanks Stick. I can see how that would work well. Definitely going to try that method next time. Seems like it would save some time for sure.
 
Both. And a third method, which works especially well with a Pot and a partially rubbed flake. Get a good idea of the size of the pipe’s bowl. Then take out a pinch that, when gently and carefully rubbed into a small ball, will expand just enough to loosely fill the pipe’s bowl. If you want to try this with a tall skinny bowl, just gently rub the tobacco into a mini-cigar that fits into and expands to fill the pipe’s bowl. After you have the knack of getting the size of the ball or “cigar” right, you’ll have many enjoyable smokes.
 
KevinM":646dg795 said:
Both. And a third method, which works especially well with a Pot and a partially rubbed flake.  Get a good idea of the size of the pipe’s bowl. Then take out a pinch that, when gently and carefully rubbed into a small ball, will expand just enough to loosely fill the pipe’s bowl. If you want to try this with a tall skinny bowl, just gently rub the tobacco into a mini-cigar that fits into and expands to fill the pipe’s bowl.  After you have the knack of getting the size of the ball or “cigar” right, you’ll have many enjoyable smokes.
A much more elegant description of my method. Thank you!
 
Zanaspus":u6y87wk7 said:
I don't prefer either of those methods, I do what I call the smoosh and stuff.
But your phrase “smoosh and stuff” takes the prize for originality. I wasn’t alert enough or something to recognize the method :D
 
Brewdude":9rg2fqxv said:
I always rub it out. No inferences implied!

:!:


Cheers,

RR
Hahahahahahahaha that’s funny right there I don’t care who you are
 
As a bit of an old timer in this flake game I have never understood the stuff and go method, rubbing it out is the way the blenders of the flake tobaccos intended it to be prepared. Let's keep in mind the original purpose of the flake form of tobacco production was basically twofold. In the early days of sail sailors would buy bulk pipe tobacco and press it together as tightly and compact as possible to be able to pack it into there tobacco bags so as to take as much to sea as possible in a small space. This tobacco was usually Virginia leaf with a tremendously high natural sugar content so the unforeseen advantage of this putting the tobacco under pressure literally forced the natural Virginia sugars out of the leaf thus reflavoring, if you will, the tobacco with its own sugars. That is why you find sugar crystals on well aged Virginias like Gawith's Full Virginia Flake, that sugar is from the leaf itself, not added. If you could go back in time and find old Sam Gawith and tell him you were trying to smoke his flake tobaccos by simply stuffing the full flake into the pipe he would laugh you right out of his tobacco factory and probably tell his co-workers, "check out the guy who was just here, he will probably use an entire box of matches and still will never get our flake to burn properly" and they would all have a good laugh. Rub it out thoroughly, let it dry for awhile and then pack it using the tried and true three step method. You will get a sweet smoke every time if you puff slowly. Keep puffin.
 
giubileo":acbuwuqq said:
As a bit of an old timer in this flake game I have never understood the stuff and go method, rubbing it out is the way the blenders of the flake tobaccos intended it to be prepared. Let's keep in mind the original purpose of the flake form of tobacco production was basically twofold. In the early days of sail sailors would buy bulk pipe tobacco and press it together as tightly and compact as possible to be able to pack it into there tobacco bags so as to take as much to sea as possible in a small space. This tobacco was usually Virginia leaf with a tremendously high natural sugar content so the unforeseen advantage of this putting the tobacco under pressure literally forced the natural Virginia sugars out of the leaf thus reflavoring, if you will, the tobacco with its own sugars. That is why you find sugar crystals on well aged Virginias like Gawith's Full Virginia Flake, that sugar is from the leaf itself, not added. If you could go back in time and find old Sam Gawith and tell him you were trying to smoke his flake tobaccos by simply stuffing the full flake into the pipe he would laugh you right out of his tobacco factory and probably tell his co-workers, "check out the guy who was just here, he will probably use an entire box of matches and still will never get our flake to burn properly" and they would all have a good laugh. Rub it out thoroughly, let it dry for awhile and then pack it using the tried and true three step method. You will get a sweet smoke every time if you puff slowly. Keep puffin.
Each to their own I guess.

I swung by Sammy G's place in the Lakes a few years ago. Sadly he wasn't in ;) A lot of history in the building though. Would have been great to see it in its heyday.

As for me, I've never had a snag with folding and stuffing. Works a charm for me and am rewarded with a most satisfying smoke 95% of the time. When reflecting on life I'm an advocate of it's not about the destination, it's how you get there. With 'baccy I'd flip that because we're all hankering after the perfect smoke... doesn't matter how you get there as long as you're happy with the smoke.

 
giubileo":fzv094vv said:
As a bit of an old timer in this flake game I have never understood the stuff and go method, rubbing it out is the way the blenders of the flake tobaccos intended it to be prepared. Let's keep in mind the original purpose of the flake form of tobacco production was basically twofold. In the early days of sail sailors would buy bulk pipe tobacco and press it together as tightly and compact as possible to be able to pack it into there tobacco bags so as to take as much to sea as possible in a small space. This tobacco was usually Virginia leaf with a tremendously high natural sugar content so the unforeseen advantage of this putting the tobacco under pressure literally forced the natural Virginia sugars out of the leaf thus reflavoring, if you will, the tobacco with its own sugars. That is why you find sugar crystals on well aged Virginias like Gawith's Full Virginia Flake, that sugar is from the leaf itself, not added. If you could go back in time and find old Sam Gawith and tell him you were trying to smoke his flake tobaccos by simply stuffing the full flake into the pipe he would laugh you right out of his tobacco factory and probably tell his co-workers, "check out the guy who was just here, he will probably use an entire box of matches and still will never get our flake to burn properly" and they would all have a good laugh. Rub it out thoroughly, let it dry for awhile and then pack it using the tried and true three step method. You will get a sweet smoke every time if you puff slowly. Keep puffin.
Sailors were just as likely to chew as they were to smoke at any given time. This would indicate they favored small pieces of plug rather than a rubbed out product which might have been seen as a peculiar pursuit in the 16th century. Also, science has told us that those "sugar crystals" are not a mineral at all but a benign fungus. I have no problem lighting folded flakes, and since you're an old timer at the flake game you probably don't either.

There's just no historical evidence that fully rubbing flake is the "right" thing to do.
 
Lol, Stick. Great minds not only work alike, they seem to work simultaneously. :lol!:
 
Stuff it in for most of the bowl, then top it off with some broken flake for better lighting.
 
I prefer U-shaped bowls over conical. For me, they just smoke easier. For my pipes with U-shaped bowls, I rub out flakes and coins and pack the pipe as normal. My conical, tapered bowls get a little different treatment. I typically will only smoke coins from my conical shaped bowls. I cut one coin into quarters and I cut one in half. I roll a quarter of a coin between my thumb and index finger, until it will drop to the bottom of the bowl. I drop it in and let it expand to fit the contour of the bottom. I then do the same with a half coin and after it unrolls a little and expands, I gently press it into the quarter coin already in the bottom. I then fill the remainder of the bowl with a full coin, or a full coin and another half if necessary, using the same roll technique. When I do all this rolling, I make sure I roll each ball until the tobacco loosens up and separates, but I don’t roll so tightly that the ball won’t expand back out. For me, this technique gives me a perfect burn and a long, relaxing smoke.
 
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