Pipe Smoking 101 Videos – How to smoke pipe tobacco
I put together these videos hoping they might help out a new pipe smoker. There are a lot of other videos on Youtube that will be helpful as well as a wealth of information on the various pipe smoking forums, blogs, and other web sites.
As always, if you have a question, feel free to contact me - there's a link to the contact form at the top of this page.
Enjoy!
Introduction
If you might be interested in giving pipe smoking a try, watch this video.
Things you'll need
You'll need a few things besides a pipe and tobacco. I go down the list in this video.
Choosing your first pipe
A really good pipe can be had very cheap. I provide some tips on how to get the best pipe for the money.
Choosing your first tobaccos
My advice may be different for the new pipe smoker than that of many other well-meaning mentors.
Filling your pipe
This is one of the most important factors in enjoying a bowl of pipe tobacco - how the bowl was filled. Hopefully, this will help you learn to fill your pipe correctly with a minimum of trial and error.
Lighting your pipe
Go about this the wrong way and you can run into trouble. It's not as simple as you may think, but it is easy to light your pipe correctly.
General pipe smoking tips
These are some general pointers about pipe smoking.
[...] Blog I think I needed about one more mug of tea before making this video. Oh well. The “Pipe Smoking 101” videos were a little more …oh… refined maybe? (Too strong a word.) Just throwing [...]
Hi again Eric,
I thought I’d say that after studying your videos, I had one of the best smokes in my nearly decade long (on and off) pipe smoking career. I had not appriciated the importance of tamping DURING the smoke (I had thought you only needed to do it before a light).
I’ve got a couple questions for you.
1)Maybe 3 to 6 times during a bowl, my pipe starts to go out, over the course of half a dozen puffs, the smoke gets thinner and thinner, and no amount of careful puffing can restart it. Do you think this means I am packing too lightly, too firmly, lighting it wrong, anything else?
2) I really like your pipe lighter (I’m using good old matches) what brand is it, and is there any you reccomend?
3) I’ve got a new pipe in the mail from IwanRies.com, and I’m very concerned about breaking it in properly. I think I read that you’re not a fan of the 1/4 full style of breaking in, but my question is, how far down should I try to smoke the pipe? When you get to that last 1/4 inch or so, I always have trouble. Should I even bother?
Thanks for your help.
Bill, I’m truly glad to hear that. This kind of news makes my day.
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1. Relights are normal, but if you believe something is wrong with the pack, its usually a matter of packing too tightly rather than too loosely.
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2. Corona Old Boy – this and Zippo pipe lighters are the only ones that I have had consistent good luck with. Zippos I only use when I leave the house because I don’t want to risk losing the Old Boy. However, I have not tried even half the available pipe lighter brands so take my recommendation with a grain of salt.
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3. I don’t bother. I’ll only smoke a bowl of tobacco as long as it remains pleasant. Problems with uneven cake buildup and the like can be addressed much more easily than the bigger problem of not enjoying the last 1/4 of every bowl.
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Most likely, over time, your filling technique and everything else will evolve to the point where problems vanish on their own. I say just enjoy yourself until then. The purists will vehemently disagree with me on this. I’ve seen people say “no matter how bad it is, I smoke to the bottom.” To each their own.
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Incidentally, I cover this in detail (if I recall correctly) in the mini-ebook you get when you subscribe. If you don’t want to subscribe, no worries, just use the contact form and I’ll copy/past that part into an email, but I hope you’ll consider subscribing so we can stay in touch.
Eric, Thanks for putting these videos up. I am sending a link to this page to a new pipe smoker buddy. Its great to say “here watch these videos” instead of “read my 5 pages of wild ramblings, and watch for future updated on things I forgot in the original email”. I did have to dig a bit to find them, maybe a link on the main page might be easier for new pipers to find?
Great job friend!
Thanks again!
That’s an excellent idea! Coming soon…
Thank you so much for the video instructions on packing a pipe as well as tamping. I just got into pipe smoking and I had a problem with the pipe always going out. I would have to constantly relight it and really puff on the thing. But packing it per the instructions on the video, it is a much cooler burn, more pleasant and enjoyable, as well as I do not have to relight nearly as often. Again thank you!!!
Hi Eric,
I watched all your videos they were great information. I am a cigar smoker and have always wanted to try smoking a pipe. My dad’s friend was a pipe smoker and I always loved the aroma. My first few lights did not go so well as the bowl got really hot, and i got tough bite. ouch! Anyway i didn’t know about pipe cleaners i hope i am not to late in cleaning the pipe. Is there any thing I should do before I get started again? This time I have a much better Idea on what to do….Thanks to you.
could it be possible i damaged/burned the inside of the pipe? how can i tell? how do i clean it?
Again thanks for the videos
Its possible but I wouldn’t worry a lot about it now unless it gets in the way of smoking the pipe. Its something that can be fixed down the line.