Tamping your way to better smokes

I received the following question on the Contact form from a fellow pipe smoker who is experiencing some problems.

...sometimes when smoking, the smoke I am drawing starts to get thinner and the flavor tastes ashy. I imagine that the ember is not igniting more tobacco than the ash on top. I have read other recommendations from people who say they gently stir up the top most layer of the ash and dump it out, leaving the ember and tobacco behind. Is this a standard practice? I try this, but I find I have to do it far too often or it doesn't really remove the ash taste. I keep my pipe pretty clean, so i don't think it is a dirty pipe causing this. Is there something I am doing wrong, am I not tamping properly, etc?

I believe what you are experiencing is a problem that tamping will solve right away. The only hitch is that tamping is something that is easy to do wrong. If you tamp too hard or too often you cause more problems. If you don’t tamp often enough you’ll leave the problem unsolved. Your timing needs to be right too. The time to tamp is right before you notice you need it.

Tampers are one of the most important tools a pipe smoker has, right up there with fire and pipe cleaners. It doesn’t really matter what you use whether its the tip of your finger, a two dollar pipe tool, or a hundred dollar handmade work of art. It just has to be something you can nudge the ember gently against the unburned tobacco. Technique is far more important than the tool.

I can almost guarantee that if someone isn’t tamping right they either are not tamping often enough, tamping too hard, or both. The first thing you want to do to get in the habit of tamping properly is tamp more often. But tamp very very gently. If you have a very light tamper, the weight of the tamper by itself is probably more than enough. The idea is to nudge that ember down against the tobacco without disrupting the structure of the ember. Imagine trapping a housefly against a pillow without harming it - that’s how gentle you need to be.

Practice this while you are still getting full puffs of smoke. If you feel even the slightest crunch of the tobacco you are pushing too hard. As you take a normal, slow and gentle puff, touch the ember with your tamper. Wait another minute or two and do it again. While you are growing used to making tamping part of your smoking cadence better to tamp too often than not enough. Eventually you’ll learn the feel for it and it will become second nature.

If you forget and the smoke gets thin, don’t worry. Do not try to compensate by tamping harder or puffing more. Just give it a slight tamp along with a few puffs. If it doesn’t come right back relight. There really is no penalty for relights outside of slow smoking competitions. Smoke at your own pace and make sure you are enjoying everything you smoke.

Some people like to scrape down the edges of the tobacco chamber. I usually aim for the middle. This part really doesn’t matter. Do what feels best, just don’t disrupt the tobacco.

If the friends who suggested you stir and dump are getting good results doing that, that’s nice for them. I never stir anything and don’t dump until I’m finished with the bowl. The compressed ash from tamping doesn’t seem to hurt anything. The heat from the flame either goes directly through it or around it during relights. If you are tamping properly tamping won’t extinguish a pipe it will help keep the ember going and strengthen the smoke.

Filling a pipe properly is probably the most difficult thing for new pipe smokers to master and mastering that provides the greatest gains in carefree pleasurable pipe smoking. Next in line is tamping. Polishing your tamping technique may lead to some of the greatest improvements in your pipe smoking enjoyment.

Please comment. Has improving your tamping technique improved your pipe smoking?