About a week into it -- some random, unrelated noob questions ...

[JCinPA]

Well, it's been a fun week! Got two briars from home, bought two new briars, about 5 cobs, a bunch of replacement cob stems, pipe/baccy combo pouch, rollup pouch and, lessee:

• Dunhill (5): Early Morning Pipe, Deluxe Navy Rolls, Royal Yacht, Standard Mixture Mellow, My Mixture 965
• MacBaren Vanilla Cream loose cut
• McClelland CORPS Vanilla Ice
• Solani aged burley flake blend 656
• Esoterica Penzance
• Pipesandcigars.com Butternut Burley
• Gawith Hoggarth American Delite

I've got quite a range of styles/tastes to play with and I am looking forward to it. Herewith, some random questions I've accumulated. Feel free to comment on just one, or all of them, they are numbered for your convenience. Thanks!

1. I've read and seen a lot on YouTube about tobacco storage. Many recommend getting a tin of tobacco into a Ball jar as soon as it is opened. This makes no sense at all to me, as the seals on the tins are similar to the seals on the mason jar lids. For a plastic pouch of bulk tobacco, it makes perfect sense to me, but I can't see them being any more effective than the tins with good seals. Am I wrong?

2. Obsidian pipe oil--does it work? I already bought some, so I hope so. How often do you apply it?

3. About this dedicating a pipe to a tobacco thing ... sounds a bit too anal for me, although that should be right up my alley. Is that really necessary? I can understand keeping certain classes in separate pipes, like all vanillas in one pipe, all light English blends in one pipe, all really heavy English blends in one pipe. But can I not smoke several vanillas in the same pipe without a problem? I can imagine swapping from Penzance to MacBaren Vanilla Cream is likely not a good idea, but how about my MacBarens and GH vanillas sharing a pipe? How about Penzance and 965 sharing a pipe? The Early Morning, Royal Yacht and Std Mix Mellow sharing a pipe? That's OK, isn't it? If not I better invest in more cobs.

4. This is an oddball question and I doubt there is a solution. One of my bents that I really like (not an expensive pipe, it's a Velani) has the air hole drilled a little too high above the bottom of the bowl, which is kind of narrow. No matter what I do I cannot smoke it to the bottom, and you can't light the very bottom because the air hole just draws the match flame over the tobacco. So I always end up with a little conical plug of usually damp tobacco to pry out of the bottom, about the thickness of two stacked nickels. Can this pipe still develop into a good smoker, or is it doomed? Here is the dumb part of the question. Is there any inert, nontoxic, non-flammable material I can put in the bottom to raise the floor to the air hole, like a wood putty of some kind? I kind of doubt it, but I thought I'd ask.

5. How long can you let a partially-smoked bowl sit and still have it be an enjoyable smoke when you come back to it? Can you smoke half a pipe in the late afternoon, and finish it after dinner, for example? I'm not talking about days here, I'm talking hours. Sometimes you just can't finish a bowl for some reason.

6. All this cleaning with salt and alcohol I've read about, and the need for reaming--I know it depends on how many pipes you rotate and how much you smoke, but how often do you have to do that, really? In terms of bowls smoked? I would think it is quite high, is it not? Cake does not build that fast. Also, I've seen at least one poster say he uses cotton balls instead of salt. Is salt a necessary part of the process or will cotton balls work as well?

Thanks for all the knowledge you guys share in here for us noobs! Because I smoke a pipe in college I have the basics down, like filling a bowl, keeping it lit, avoiding tongue bite, and such. But that's it. I never really was too knowledgable about tobaccos or the care and feeding of pipes.

[jwhite]

Well, it's been a fun week! Got two briars from home, bought two new briars, about 5 cobs, a bunch of replacement cob stems, pipe/baccy combo pouch, rollup pouch and, lessee:

• Dunhill (5): Early Morning Pipe, Deluxe Navy Rolls, Royal Yacht, Standard Mixture Mellow, My Mixture 965
• MacBaren Vanilla Cream loose cut
• McClelland CORPS Vanilla Ice
• Solani aged burley flake blend 656
• Esoterica Penzance
• Pipesandcigars.com Butternut Burley
• Gawith Hoggarth American Delite

I've got quite a range of styles/tastes to play with and I am looking forward to it. Herewith, some random questions I've accumulated. Feel free to comment on just one, or all of them, they are numbered for your convenience. Thanks!

1. I've read and seen a lot on YouTube about tobacco storage. Many recommend getting a tin of tobacco into a Ball jar as soon as it is opened. This makes no sense at all to me, as the seals on the tins are similar to the seals on the mason jar lids. For a plastic pouch of bulk tobacco, it makes perfect sense to me, but I can't see them being any more effective than the tins with good seals. Am I wrong?

Once the seal is broken on on a tin it can't reseal, so if you have a large rotation of tobacco or smoke infrequently a container with a good seal is important. Ball jars are cheap and available so they're the most common and because they're glass they are gas impermeable and reusable.

2. Obsidian pipe oil--does it work? I already bought some, so I hope so. How often do you apply it?

never heard of it most use a paste wax, those with a buffer may load a buff with carnauba. all of those products are as needed. If it looks dull use it if not don't.

3. About this dedicating a pipe to a tobacco thing ... sounds a bit too anal for me, although that should be right up my alley. Is that really necessary? I can understand keeping certain classes in separate pipes, like all vanillas in one pipe, all light English blends in one pipe, all really heavy English blends in one pipe. But can I not smoke several vanillas in the same pipe without a problem? I can imagine swapping from Penzance to MacBaren Vanilla Cream is likely not a good idea, but how about my MacBarens and GH vanillas sharing a pipe? How about Penzance and 965 sharing a pipe? The Early Morning, Royal Yacht and Std Mix Mellow sharing a pipe? That's OK, isn't it? If not I better invest in more cobs.

Sounds like you got the idea, most keep latakia blends in one, aroes in another, VAs in a third. You may one day come upon a VA, that for you, surpasses all others and decide to have a pipe dedicated to that one blend but no need to do that for everything.

4. This is an oddball question and I doubt there is a solution. One of my bents that I really like (not an expensive pipe, it's a Velani) has the air hole drilled a little too high above the bottom of the bowl, which is kind of narrow. No matter what I do I cannot smoke it to the bottom, and you can't light the very bottom because the air hole just draws the match flame over the tobacco. So I always end up with a little conical plug of usually damp tobacco to pry out of the bottom, about the thickness of two stacked nickels. Can this pipe still develop into a good smoker, or is it doomed? Here is the dumb part of the question. Is there any inert, nontoxic, non-flammable material I can put in the bottom to raise the floor to the air hole, like a wood putty of some kind? I kind of doubt it, but I thought I'd ask.

You can use a thick mixture of water and pipe ash called pipe mud, that can fill up a bottom but it can take a long time to dry up.

5. How long can you let a partially-smoked bowl sit and still have it be an enjoyable smoke when you come back to it? Can you smoke half a pipe in the late afternoon, and finish it after dinner, for example? I'm not talking about days here, I'm talking hours. Sometimes you just can't finish a bowl for some reason.

For tobaccos that take to it within the same day is fine. Some don't seem to DGT as well.

6. All this cleaning with salt and alcohol I've read about, and the need for reaming--I know it depends on how many pipes you rotate and how much you smoke, but how often do you have to do that, really? In terms of bowls smoked? I would think it is quite high, is it not? Cake does not build that fast. Also, I've seen at least one poster say he uses cotton balls instead of salt. Is salt a necessary part of the process or will cotton balls work as well?

I think kosher salt works best, but cotton balls will do in a pinch. I tend to do it maybe every year to year and a half and I probably don't need to do it that often, I clean my pipes with pipe cleaners and alcohol after every day a pipe is used. Reaming again hard to say maybe every month to six weeks for me those who smoke less or have large collections could need to far more infrequently.

Thanks for all the knowledge you guys share in here for us noobs! Because I smoke a pipe in college I have the basics down, like filling a bowl, keeping it lit, avoiding tongue bite, and such. But that's it. I never really was too knowledgable about tobaccos or the care and feeding of pipes.

My opinions in italics.

[JCinPA]

Thank you, James! I appreciate that very much. I will have to search on this pipe mud stuff. I love the look of the pipe.


Later Edit:Wow, James, that pipe mud tip is fantastic! Look what I found this morning! I am so glad I can salvage that pipe!

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topi...ing-giant-post

The guy posting happens to be a cement chemist, believe it or not.

[JCinPA]

On tobacco storage ... I've been doing a lot of reading on pipe forums and watching YouTubes. I could be wrong, but here are my thoughts on it so far. Obviously bagged tobacco, or large amounts should be jarred. But small tins should probably be left alone for stuff in your current smoking rotation. If you open a tin and decide to lay it down for a few years, maybe you should use a jar, but after much thought, it makes no sense to me to move the stuff in your current smoking rotation out of the small tins (like the Dunhills) into jars. Here's why.

1. Most folks mention putting tobacco in jars once you open the tin because, "you can't reseal the tin." If what they mean is you can't get a vacuum on it again, they are correct, but so what? They are not putting a vacuum on their small jars for their smoking stuff, short term, either. Yes I have read about people heating their jars in the dishwasher or even in boiling water, then putting loose tobacco in the hot jars because it pulls a slight vacuum on the lid as it cools. But nobody does this every time they fill a bowl. They do it for long-term storage. Nobody in their right mind is going to empty the jar, put it in the dishwasher or boiling water, then put the tobacco back in the jar again at every smoke. And this would cause the tobacco to dry out while waiting to go back in the bowl. It's not practical and will dry out your tobacco if you did this.

2. I've looked at the rubber seals on the tobacco tins I have and they are very similar to the seals in Ball canning jar lids. Why would Ball have a better sealing compound than the tobacco makers? This technology is not rocket science. The tins are non-permeable, just like the glass jars are. There is no sealing advantage to a jar over a tin if you are not going to be doing the heating to pull a slight vacuum on long-term storage. As long as the tin is undamaged, the edge is not dented, the lid is flat and true, the small tins will seal every bit as well as a Ball jar.

3. The small tins are more compactly packed and get more tobacco into a smaller space than the jars. Here the tins have a distinct advantage. If you have a small tin of Dunhill, for example, just pull enough out for your current bowl, trying not to disturb the remaining, tightly-packed tobacco, then close the lid again right away. Your current smoking supply is going to fare much better under this kind of treatment than transferring it to a small jar which is frequently opened/closed. Based on newly opened tins in good condition, with screw threads there is no advantage to be gained by removing the tobacco to a jar, and keeping it more compactly packed in the original tin gives the advantage to the tin over the jar. Again, assuming the heating the jar process is not contemplated.

4. What about flake tins? True, they have no threads so may not seal as tightly. However, after examining the seals, again I find no advantage to the seal material in a jar, the only issue is can you create enough pressure to seal the tins? For this, I find those really stout, blue rubber bands they use on bunches of broccoli are ideal. Put a couple of these babies on your flake tins and you are good to go! If you are really worried about good contact, I've heard folks remove the flake carefully from their tins, wrap them in plastic food wrap, and put them back in the tins. But again, moving them to a jar with much more free air space than the tin is probably less than ideal. Both the tin and jar are impermeable, the seal material is equivalent, and the much smaller free air space in the tin and leaving the tobacco compressed without much handling give a distinct advantage to the original tin over a small jar.




Anyway, I'm curious to hear if you think there are holes in my logic. Again, this assumes tins in good condition that you are currently smoking out of. If you open a tin and want to put it down for several years, then jarring it is probably a good idea, and any large supply of bulk tobacco is going to fare better in jars than what it came in. For smaller tins Keep the little cardboard inner lid, get your tobacco quickly and close it up again (no need to gorilla the lid closed, either, finger tight should do it) and I am pretty positive you are going to have fresher tobacco for smoking than moving it to a jar.

The only good reason I have heard for moving small amounts of tobacco from their tins to small jars is if they are not at the proper smoking moisture to begin with. The Penzance flake I had the other day was much too wet to smoke without drying first. Then, removing the tobacco, letting it air for a short while and putting it in a jar may make sense, to prevent the delay in drying your tobacco out before lighting it. On the other hand, if I can get the tobacco out of the tin to dry it for a bit and can carefully get it back into the tin with a couple of those stout rubber bands, I think I'd be just as successful as using a jar.

[Argonaut]

The tins don't seal back airtight. Even the ones that have a twist on lid like Dunhills. Your tobacco will dry out if you store it in the tin once the seal has broken. You can prolong it by keeping the tin in a ziplock bag once opened if you don't want a bunch of jars lying around.

[Uncle Jackie]

Well, it's been a fun week! Got two briars from home, bought two new briars, about 5 cobs, a bunch of replacement cob stems, pipe/baccy combo pouch, rollup pouch and, lessee:

• Dunhill (5): Early Morning Pipe, Deluxe Navy Rolls, Royal Yacht, Standard Mixture Mellow, My Mixture 965
• MacBaren Vanilla Cream loose cut
• McClelland CORPS Vanilla Ice
• Solani aged burley flake blend 656
• Esoterica Penzance
• Pipesandcigars.com Butternut Burley
• Gawith Hoggarth American Delite

I've got quite a range of styles/tastes to play with and I am looking forward to it. Herewith, some random questions I've accumulated. Feel free to comment on just one, or all of them, they are numbered for your convenience. Thanks!

Some mighty fine tobaccos you have already accumulated there!

1. I've read and seen a lot on YouTube about tobacco storage. Many recommend getting a tin of tobacco into a Ball jar as soon as it is opened. This makes no sense at all to me, as the seals on the tins are similar to the seals on the mason jar lids. For a plastic pouch of bulk tobacco, it makes perfect sense to me, but I can't see them being any more effective than the tins with good seals. Am I wrong?

Unfortunately once a tin is opened, one will never get a good seal again to the tobacco will dry out rather quickly. Plastic bags also allow a small amout of air through so the same thing will happen. For the 50 cents each a mason jar will cost, they are without a doubt the best bet for tobacco storage.

2. Obsidian pipe oil--does it work? I already bought some, so I hope so. How often do you apply it?

Never tried it, but I use probaby a similar thing when I clean my pipes every couple of weeks or so after smoking them.

3. About this dedicating a pipe to a tobacco thing ... sounds a bit too anal for me, although that should be right up my alley. Is that really necessary? I can understand keeping certain classes in separate pipes, like all vanillas in one pipe, all light English blends in one pipe, all really heavy English blends in one pipe. But can I not smoke several vanillas in the same pipe without a problem? I can imagine swapping from Penzance to MacBaren Vanilla Cream is likely not a good idea, but how about my MacBarens and GH vanillas sharing a pipe? How about Penzance and 965 sharing a pipe? The Early Morning, Royal Yacht and Std Mix Mellow sharing a pipe? That's OK, isn't it? If not I better invest in more cobs.

At this point, I wouldn't even worry about it. When I do dedicate, I just keep similar tobaccos together. Penzance and 965 would be a perfect match.

4. This is an oddball question and I doubt there is a solution. One of my bents that I really like (not an expensive pipe, it's a Velani) has the air hole drilled a little too high above the bottom of the bowl, which is kind of narrow. No matter what I do I cannot smoke it to the bottom, and you can't light the very bottom because the air hole just draws the match flame over the tobacco. So I always end up with a little conical plug of usually damp tobacco to pry out of the bottom, about the thickness of two stacked nickels. Can this pipe still develop into a good smoker, or is it doomed? Here is the dumb part of the question. Is there any inert, nontoxic, non-flammable material I can put in the bottom to raise the floor to the air hole, like a wood putty of some kind? I kind of doubt it, but I thought I'd ask.

Pipe mud would work, but there are also many times I don't even worry about getting right to the bottom. Sometimes it burns too hot, gets too wet, or I'm just plain done with smoking the pipe.

5. How long can you let a partially-smoked bowl sit and still have it be an enjoyable smoke when you come back to it? Can you smoke half a pipe in the late afternoon, and finish it after dinner, for example? I'm not talking about days here, I'm talking hours. Sometimes you just can't finish a bowl for some reason.

Absolutely, sometimes I will let it sit for a couple of days. It has a name... DGT (Delayed Gratification Technique). Many Virginia tobaccos actually taste better when one does this.

6. All this cleaning with salt and alcohol I've read about, and the need for reaming--I know it depends on how many pipes you rotate and how much you smoke, but how often do you have to do that, really? In terms of bowls smoked? I would think it is quite high, is it not? Cake does not build that fast. Also, I've seen at least one poster say he uses cotton balls instead of salt. Is salt a necessary part of the process or will cotton balls work as well?

Very, very rarely do I ever do this. Usually only when I buy an estate pipe and I want a really thorough cleaning.

Thanks for all the knowledge you guys share in here for us noobs! Because I smoke a pipe in college I have the basics down, like filling a bowl, keeping it lit, avoiding tongue bite, and such. But that's it. I never really was too knowledgable about tobaccos or the care and feeding of pipes.

You're welcome. Enjoy the journey.

[oc_in_fw]

With my Sqadron Leader, I have 4 pint jars that will remain in aging for a while (I know, I need to order more). I have two half pint jars for current usage. I withdraw enough tobacco for two days and place it in a ziplock bag. Those are good for keeping tobacco moist for a week, in my experience. Of course, SG tobacco is pretty moist to start with. I haven't had any Navy Flake or St. James Flake yet (I need to fix that today), so I haven't figured how I am going to handle those.

[KarlMaldensNose]

I felt the same as the OP about the sealing issue until my tin of Solani 633 started to dry out after only a few weeks. It was very wet when I broke the seal now it's just barely moist enough to smoke without issue. The mason jars (don't know what a bell jar is) with two-part lids have the ability to be to be tightened down as much as you can muscle it, whereas the tins have no thread mechanism to keep them sealed tight. I also noticed that alot of tobacco bits get stuck on the tin seal strip and that compromises the quality of seal you can get. I'll be using jars from now on, unless I know I'll be finishing a tin in under a couple weeks.


JCinPA, may I ask from where you managed to get your Penzance? PM if you want to keep your source under wraps. I've been scouring the internet for weeks and haven't been able to turn up anything.

[JCinPA]

Well, you convinced me on the tins! They certainly look tight, but if you are all getting dried out, I'll learn from your experience.

Heck, I'm not into that Penzance hype thing, there are plenty of great tobaccos out there, I'll be trying them for a while. It was not the net, it was a B&M store I found on the net. Went in, told him what I was liking, and he said, "Try this, you'll like it!" I had never even heard of Penzance before, frankly.

http://bullandbearcigars.com/

He has no more loose cut, some guy drives up to him and cleans him out when he gets it. But I think he has a half dozen tins of flake left.

Mind you, he likes people to come into his shop. I would not be surprised if he does not want to sell them to you through the mails. Maybe having it there is a draw for the shop, he did say it was hard to get.