Smoking too hot

I have recently picked up pipe smoking again. Never got really good at it, probably under 50 bowls in my lifetime. But I have been more concious about pipe temperature this time. i try not to pipe like a factory and relax with it but everytime the pipe gets screaming hot and its a fine balance between the pipe going out or getting screaming hot. How do you hit that happy place? I am smoking aeromatics from CAO and East India Trading Company.

I am mostly using a cheap cob pipe. But I just bought a new Savonelli Churchwarden that I've only smoked once because I am afraid of burning it out or getting it soured by my lack of experience.

Cadence is your key. A soft sipping of the pipe should do the trick. The object is to taste the smoke. Not to create billowing clouds of smoke. The faster you smoke, the hotter it gets. The hotter it gets you run the risk of tongue bite and burn out of your pipes. If your pipe has a good cake built up, this will help smoke cooler, but if that pipe gets too hot it could crack the bowl.

Small sipping is the best way to go. It is learned. If you tamp and keep a steady yet gentle draw on the pipe, you should have a good handle on the hot pipe issue.

I am still trying to get my technique down as well, but it has helped me to slow down and not worry about having to relight now and then, concentrate on the enjoyment rather than keeping it lit - I think the majority of pipe smokers will have to relight more than once throughout a normal bowl.

Riff Raff said:

Cadence is your key. A soft sipping of the pipe should do the trick. The object is to taste the smoke. Not to create billowing clouds of smoke. The faster you smoke, the hotter it gets. The hotter it gets you run the risk of tongue bite and burn out of your pipes. If your pipe has a good cake built up, this will help smoke cooler, but if that pipe gets too hot it could crack the bowl.

Small sipping is the best way to go. It is learned. If you tamp and keep a steady yet gentle draw on the pipe, you should have a good handle on the hot pipe issue.

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Right on. Cigarette smokers usually have this problem initially. Don't worry about relights. id rather relight anyday and taste the tobacco and not burn my tongue. It comes in time and packing technique also.

I suspect that drying out your tobacco will help a lot. Aromatics tend to be wet, which can lead to puffing too hard to keep them burning well. Next time spread a bowls worth out on a plate for 30-60 minutes before you smoke and see if there's any improvement.

So when we are talking drying we are talking hours, not days out?

Elfmaze said:

So when we are talking drying we are talking hours, not days out?

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Yes. Or even less. Depending on the humidity where you are, even 10-15 minutes can make a big difference. For aromatics though the time tends to be a little more, like half hour to hour. If it's really humid where you are, you can help dry it out but putting it on a plate and putting a light bulb over the plate for 10 min or so. Some folks also spread on a plate and microwave for like 5 seconds to dry out.

Excellent advice above about slowing down and not worrying about relights. Sure, I've had a few "one light" bowls but that's not the norm. If it needs relit and a tamp or placing my fingers over the bowl won't bring it back I just hit it with a Bic, which is the majority of the time.

You said you were mostly using a cheap cob. Cheap as in the price of an MM cob, or cheap as in a Chinese cob? My Dr. Grabow and Dad's old no-name basket pipe can get pretty hot pretty easily. I'm guessing it may be related to the briar quality and the bowl thickness. My rusticated Savinelli 315, along with my Charatan Diplomat, both smoke cooler...at least it seems so to me. I recently got a Peterson's estate pipe that seems to smoke in between the Grabow and the Savinelli and Charatan as far as getting hot easily. Slow down and smoke a bowl in your cob, then later smoke the same 'baccy, at the same slow pace, in your Savinelli and see if the Sav. smokes cooler than the cob. YMMV.

Sip away, if it goes out, light it back up. You won't hurt that briar unless you use a torch lighter.

DC_MPA said:

Sip away, if it goes out, light it back up. You won't hurt that briar unless you use a torch lighter.

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^^^^ What he said.

I am not an aro fan, but Hirsute's advise on giving it some drying time is sage advise. You may also want to try a non-aro like Peterson's Irish Oak, Samuel Gawith Squadron Leader, or Dunhill Royal Yacht. Something that's not an aro.

Have you tried Prince Albert or Carter Hall?

I am a fast smoker too and that's the way i prefer it so I've made a bit of a study on this subject.... and I hate to keep relighting time after time. Once I get it started right (which usually takes several lights) it should burn pretty much on it's own or something is wrong.

Different tobaccos smoke hot, especially aromatics, but some aro's don't have this problem. An overly dry tobacco and an overly moist tobacco can smoke hot. Use pipe cleaners a lot while smoking to keep moisture out of shank.

Some pipes smoke hotter than other with the same tobacco. Some pipes feel hotter to the touch than others. The shape of the pipe, the length of the shank, the material the pipe is made from, the thickness of the bowl's walls all effect how hot the smoke is and how the pipe feels in the hand.

I had a local guy suggest a wind screen as i smoke outdoors. ill have to see if it was a waist of $3 in a few days

Wind will stoke up your bowl regardless of your puffing. I think that I'm towards the heavy puffer end of the spectrum and I found that using balsa filters (even in my cobs) has helped me enjoy it far more despite my fast puffing, while I work on the sipping technique.

I had this same issue when I started out. Not every pipe would do it, but there were 1 or 2 that would get unpleasant to touch after only a few minutes.

The solution I found was three fold.

1) Let the tobacco dry before using it. If it feels wet to the touch, then it's still too wet.

2) Try out some different blends in that pipe. The one that was my main culprit started out life as an aromatics briar, but ended up being my English smoker. It just seems that some blends didn't work in certain pipes, and it was just a matter of finding the right match.

3) Blends require a different tightness to the pack depending on what pipe they're in. Try packing the same blend several different ways in one pipe, and see if it makes a difference. In my experience most burley-based tobaccos are a middle of the road pack, many English blends require slightly firmer pack, and heavily cased aromatics require a lighter touch.

Hope this is helpful.