How do you prepare a flake?

Flake tobaccos provide a wonderful marriage of flavors that other cuts don't always share. A beautiful craft that takes time and precise calculations. The intricacies of the leaf's "grain" of some flakes is more stunning than some briar pipes even .

I could be wrong but it seems to me that most people tend to rub their flakes out. For me, that's like eating pizza with a knife and fork or separating a hamburger and eating the individual components. Although, flakes don't always burn the most evenly and can be fickle when folded and stuffed.

Typically I employ a standard fold and stuff; fold lengthwise and then crosswise followed by a little twist. But there are some pipes that have a shorter chamber. This usually means it will have a substantial amount of tobacco sticking out of the bowl. For those I use the "Z" pack method.

No matter what method I always pull off a very thin lengthwise strip from the side of the flake and rub that out using it as kindling for the top of the bowl. Using either of these I have come to love flake tobacco and prefer it over ribbon cuts.

Do we have any dedicated fold and stuffers? Die hard rubber outers? Is there a method that you created on your own?

Senshi said:

Die hard rubber outers?

Click to expand...

I have a small cutting board and ultra sharp knife dedicated my tobaccos. I lay out a flake and cube it up, fill the bowl, ease it down, too it off with the remainder and light it up. I find that opens up the flavors quite a bite more than the fold/fold/twist method or the rub out method.

It's like amateur hour at the Apollo in Motoyoshi! How could I forget the cube cut!?!? Thanks DC!

@poorboy hehe

For serious though, I've never smoked flake. Recommendations?

poorboy said:

For serious though, I've never smoked flake. Recommendations?

Click to expand...

What tobaccos do you enjoy the most?

we've helped each other out then - I've never heard of the Z pack before and just watched the YouTube video on it - I'm trying this now! That makes a lot of sense how it near perfectly fits.

Navy flake (pick one or a dozen brands haha), and then I'd grab Stonehaven, it's on every street corner these days jk - grab a tin of Full Virginia Flake (it's nearly legendary and easy to come by) or Old Dark Fired (it too is easy to find and near legendary status).

poorboy said:

For serious though, I've never smoked flake. Recommendations?

Click to expand...

Senshi said:

What tobaccos do you enjoy the most?

Click to expand...

I've smoked a lot of the McClelland aromatics and enjoyed them. Also been smoking Frog Morton lately and enjoy that. Ermmm... Dunhill Morning Pipe and Carter Hall are a couple others that come to mind.

For Burley- Solani Aged Burley Flake

For VA, wow there are a lot. Samuel Gawith's Full Virginia Flake, Best Brown Flake and Scottish Autumn Flake are stellar

VaPer- Solani 633, Orlik Golden Siced, Samuel Gawith St. James Flake

Latakia- MacBaren Latakia Flake, Samuel Gawith Winter Time Flake (never tried it but gets rave reviews)

Misc- MacBaren Old Dark Fired, Solani Silver Flake (never had it but also gets rave reviews)

Not a fan but many like MacBaren Vanilla cream flake as well.

DC_MPA said:

we've helped each other out then - I've never heard of the Z pack before and just watched the YouTube video on it - I'm trying this now! That makes a lot of sense how it near perfectly fits.

Click to expand...

It works really well on my smaller bowled Canadians and Billiards.

Senshi said:

For me, that's like eating pizza with a knife and fork or separating a hamburger and eating the individual components.

Click to expand...

I normally eat pizza and burgers by hand, the common way, but sometimes I do eat pizza with a knife and fork or separate my hamburger and eat the components. Sometimes I even order a chopped beefsteak, which is basically just a big ol' burger patty.

Pizza with a knife and fork is a little bit different experience, like smoking the same blend out of a different pipe.

A componentized burger is a delicious change of pace. You get to concentrate on enjoying the taste of the meat...and of the bun...etc. Then another day I'll pile my fries into the burger and eat the whole vertically integrated thing by hand, also delicious!

This all just made me remember: My sister used to eat just the meat from her roast beef sandwich (decades before carbs turned evil) and I'd enjoy her beef-flavored bread after I finished my sandwiches.

Typically I employ a standard fold and stuff; fold lengthwise and then crosswise followed by a little twist.

Click to expand...

I need more practice. When I try that it just disintegrates, even if I don't dry it first. Then I do my best to hold it together long enough to get it stuffed.

Since I normally have trouble keeping it lit (I believe more trouble than most), anything that affects burn behavior is a big deal, so I do rub out sometimes...but since I have so few flakes and they don't seem very compatible with my usual acquisition strategies I feel like it's a waste.

I've never got the food and stuff method I've tried over and over again and it seems that I always over stuff it. I guess I just need more practice. Ill cube cut or just rub out if I'm lazy.

I sometimes fold and stuff, occasionally cube cut and often do the full rub out, but most often I lightly wad it up and stuff it in.. I find it similar to the fold and stuff, but I get a better burn by jumblin' up the grain a bit.

I almost always Z-pack it. Just seem to get more flavor than when I rub it out.

I fold and stuff, cube cut, and rub out, depending on the flake and the pipe and my mood. Most of the time I rub it out fully, followed by doing a partial rub out so its like a broken flake, followed by fold and stuff, with cube cut being my least used method.

When I fold and stuff, I'm also all over the map and just do what seems right at the time with the shape of the flake and the bowl. I find the key with flakes is to not stuff then too tight. They need a little room to expand when lit.

It depends on what tobacco I'm smoking, what pipe, and how lazy I am. Penzance always gets rubbed out, just because those flakes practically explode when I try to fold them. My only other experience with flakes is with Capstan, OGS, and Erinmore, which all came in my last P&C order, so I'm still learning. Those behave better than Penzance, so I can fold & stuff them, and I usually do. I didn't know about the z pack, so I've been trying to learn which of my pipes can accommodate a full folded flake. I haven't rubbed any of them out yet, but I'll try one tomorrow. I'm usually too lazy to do it. Maybe I'll try cube cutting tomorrow, too.

I Z-Pack it 90% of the time. When I want a shorter bowl I'll usually cube cut it or rub it out.

Most of the flakes that I smoke don't work well with z fold. When I do GLP flakes (and the old London broken flakes) is and dark strong, I will call the little bit to get it to loosen up and stuff it in the pipe.I think Philly pipe smoker on YouTube has a video that shows a similar technique. I do have some Virginia flakes, but I will smoke that often because I smoke too hot.once I get that figured out I'm sure I will mess around more with the Z fold.

I'm a rubber outer.

Every time ive tried the fold/stuff, I've ended up with a cruddy burn. Maybe I'll give it a shot again next time.