Is it normal?

[Sniperx]

I’m packing using the Frank method with a little extra push at the end. I ***** a tapered hole down the middle.

I’m getting fully burned white ash in the middle only with seemingly untouched leaf around the outside.

Is this how it’s supposed to go?
Am I doing something wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[ctr]

Don't know what the missing word is but ash should be across the bowl.

 

[Sniperx]

P r I c k e d


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kentos]

Poking a hole down the middle encourages the air to travel straight down that hole and not through any other part of the bowl so it makes sense it only burned down the middle.

Your ball of tobacco may have been too dense and didn’t allow air to travel through. When approaching pipe packing I think of it as trying to keep the entire bowl evenly packed so when you draw air it passes through the entire bowl. A good way to test this being able to light the entire surface of the tobacco from edge to edge. If only one part burns and not others despite moving the flame across the entire surface, it is unevenly packed.

 

[Sniperx]

I’ll investigate further….

Thanks.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[8 Track]

You might also use your tamper to move unlit tobacco towards the burn. Not a stir, just a gentle nudge....

 

[Salty O'Rourke]

If I have to poke around to improve the draw after the bowl is lit, I run a pick down the edge of the bowl over the draft hole and kind of push the whole business forward just a hair.

 

[steveclarkus]

Once lit well, I gently tamp the edges down without tamping the middle when I have a fussy tobacco. Take care to pack your tobacco loosely.

 

[RookieGuy]

I have never deliberately tamped the middle. Go gently around the edges and you'll get the middle.

Believe it or not lighting a pipe, the actual mechanics of placing flame to tobacco, was not intuitive for me. I was too used to cigarettes, one and done. With a cigarette, no matter how you light it, it's burning even by the time the lighter is back in your pocket. With a pipe, there's a lot more to light. It's a different process entirely. But that is just my experience.

 

[ctr]

Once lit well, I gently tamp the edges down without tamping the middle when I have a fussy tobacco. Take care to pack your tobacco loosely.

This. Can always pack down but the opposite never works out.

 

[Columbo]

I’m packing using the Frank method with a little extra push at the end. I ***** a tapered hole down the middle.

I’m getting fully burned white ash in the middle only with seemingly untouched leaf around the outside.

Is this how it’s supposed to go?
Am I doing something wrong?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This is not rocket science. And watching YouTube videos makes loading a pipe unnecessarily complicated and daunting to the beginner. I have no idea who Frank is. But poking airways in the load is not the best method, IMO.

Most pipe tobacco expands just a little once it is underway. So a tight pack is going to get tighter still. The biggest mistake more novice pipers make is stuffing too much tobacco in the bowl. You won't get a longer smoke. You'll get a shorter one in most instances when you do that.

Loading your pipe is an easily acquired art. While both the pipe and the tobacco choice will guide what you do, a good starting method is a relatively loose nearly gravity fill, with a gentle tap (perhaps a 1/4 way down with your finger or thumb), a little extra fill, and then some finger-ground smaller bits on top. The old dinosaurs would either sprinkle it in from the pocket tin, or scoop it into the tub at the easy chair. A quick finger tamp, a match, and then it's off the the races.

You want the fill to burn from top to bottom, not from the center to the perimeter. So keep it a looser fill, and resist the urge to poke 'air holes' in an otherwise suffocatingly tight load. If you've got to send in a oil drilling team to get air down there, it's definitely packed too tight.

Letting the pipe sit loaded for 15-20 minutes before you light it, or letting your tobacco air out for the same time before loading, can do wonders once it's lit. Most mass produced pipe tobacco is too wet. The cheaper aromatics are the worst.

I'll suggest it again: start with a humble Burley OTC blend. They are easy to pack, burn well, and won't punish you or the pipe when a miscue occurs. They'll teach you good habits. Once you are able to understand them, the rest of the pipe tobacco field becomes an easy conquest.

It's also very common to get what is known as a false light on many bowls. It burns for a minute or so, and then peters out. When that happens, just give it another light tamp, and relight it.

Good luck and happy puffs to you!

 

[Sniperx]

I’ve only packed once where it wouldn’t draw. The air hole was just part of the process.

The fill I’m doing isn’t complicated. Full to the brim, tap the pipe to settle, top if necessary, put a generous pinch on top, hold with thumb, compress the pinch from the sides focusing pressure inwards not downwards, work around the bowl until satisfied, give one last push downward to clear the rim of the bowl.

I’ve stopped adding the hole the last couple times. Both my meer and my Kirsten are burning middle out. The Kirsten makes sense, the hole is dead center of the bowl. The meer though….is a more typical drill.

I light with a butane lighter by waving across all the surface, not only sucking in the flame. Good way to a cooked tongue.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Kentos]

Everyone is different, but really taking the time to light the entire surface before the initial tamp really helped me. If the entire surface isn’t ash I keep lighting the parts that aren’t. I also hate scorching my mouth, so I light really slowly. Might take 3-4 lights to get the thing going. It will seem like the pipe is fully lit if you go only by how much smoke output you are getting, if it’s only partially lit all that smoke is from the center of the bowl, and it will just burn down the center. Eventually it hits the bottom and no matter what you do the flame travels down the center and won’t light the edges. You can try pushing the edges to the middle, but only that tobacco gets lit and it soon goes out. YMMV of course.

 

[Sniperx]

Everyone is different, but really taking the time to light the entire surface before the initial tamp really helped me. If the entire surface isn’t ash I keep lighting the parts that aren’t. I also hate scorching my mouth, so I light really slowly. Might take 3-4 lights to get the thing going. It will seem like the pipe is fully lit if you go only by how much smoke output you are getting, if it’s only partially lit all that smoke is from the center of the bowl, and it will just burn down the center. Eventually it hits the bottom and no matter what you do the flame travels down the center and won’t light the edges. You can try pushing the edges to the middle, but only that tobacco gets lit and it soon goes out. YMMV of course.

This is my story….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sniperx]

This is not rocket science. And watching YouTube videos makes loading a pipe unnecessarily complicated and daunting to the beginner…..

This applies to sooo many topics in the “information” age. The “science” that goes into make a lather. The “precision” in razor manufacturing. On and on…

A buddy of mine over here learned traditional katana sword polishing….the hard way, years of apprenticeship. He told me a story about a loooong discussion of how the location of the pin that retains the hand grip is determined. The arm chair scientists threw out all kind of mathematical reasons and formulas. He said, “The sword smith looked at the blade longingly contemplating its existence; precisely, guided by eons of experience, placed a couple fingers on the blade to measure with and unceremoniously punched the hole.” Basically….wherever he felt like that day.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[srgjazz]

Having the best results with the air pocket method.

 

[Sniperx]

I got a nice sized cherry going with a simple grab-shove-go the other night. Stayed lit perfectly fine too. I started by trying to light only the outside and let the middle take care of itself. It seemed to work….


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk