| Author | Message | ||
     Steven Ivan Walk Member Username: Rembrandt Post Number: 46 Registered: 08-2005 |
Tonight was a good smoke. Three weeks ago I broke down and bought an old boy lighter. [To be honest, i was $40 short of free shipping, and the shipping was $25, so for about $35 more than the shipping charges, I got me a new lighter.] I've been strictly a wooden match guy, trying to be 'old school' I suppose. The past three weeks, I have been sick, bit the inside of my cheek to shreds, (I was grinding my teeth or something while sleeping.) and wanted to wait until my mouth was in better shape, along with my health, before smoking anything. Tonight was that night. I have some strawberry cased tobacco from 'Main Street Tobacco' in Bel Air MD. [They used to be a Fader's] and a few days ago I remembered someone saying something about 'rubbing out' tobacco in a blender to get it more uniform. Well .. 3 oz of bulk tobacco, one blender and two mins later - I had a signifigantly uniform, if not rather fine graded, bunch of tobacco. Thats what I packed my pipe with tonight. Since it was ground so fine - the Frank method was simply not gonna happen. I just did the basic 3 step packing job and tested the draw - which seemed ok. The old boy, worked *AWESOME*, I might even have been a little overzealous in my lighting - because it seemed so easy. I did a Charring light, then tamped, then lit the bowl for second time. The pipe didn't go out for an hour. I'm not sure if it was just a good initial light, or the fact that the tobacco was finely ground - but I only needed one relight - which i was happy to do .. new lighter after all. Pipe lasted about 1.25 hours. I did notice two things : 1) due to the grind of the tobacco, the pipe smoked a little hotter than normal. and 2) Because of either the heat, the keystone i dropped in the bowl, or the small particles of tobacco, my bent pipe almost clogged up. At one point I had to be a bit more agressive in my pull on the pipe - almost like DRINKING through a straw. This was towards the end of the pipe. Other than that, the flavor was nice. I was able to 'breathe' the pipe for a bit and scent the room note, and I didn't burn my tounge on a blend that I have done so before. I'm not sure if I am ready to put the rest of my tobacco in the blender - but so far, its not a bad experiment. Anyone else have any adivce, anicdotes, or similar experiences ? | ||
| smokey strodtman Member Username: Smokey422 Post Number: 225 Registered: 08-2005 |
I've used a coffee grinder on tobacco before and got results similar to yours. I don't do it very often as the normal cut usually works out for me. smokey | ||
| robert cane Member Username: Pipe_dreams Post Number: 278 Registered: 05-2005 |
It's all in the packing to achieve a consistent burn. BUT, every blend should be packed differently. Flakes-pack medium. Cube cuts-pack firmly. Mixed cuts (generally aromatics and/or 'stringy cuts'-pack firm but slightly springy. Many times if a pipe goes out, is from a pack that is to tight. This is when Your shank poker tool comes in handy, as You run it down the bowl to the airhole, this should then smoke fine. If Your getting tongue bite, You have packed the pipe to loosely. Gently use a tamper, and pack it down, the relight should smoke fine. |