From: Ron Renken <?????????????????>
Subject: Starting a PIPE!

Steve, 

[ Administrativa deleted. -S. ]

Now to the meat..
   I have been a subscriber for about a year or so now, and have up to
this point been a cigar smoker.  With the prices and availability, as
well as the love you all seem to have for them, I have decided to try
pipes.  I have purchased a used Petersen.  Most people I've talked to
says If I like Cigars, get an English or Virginian blend.  I've got a
tobak called "Old English" from my local tobacconist, it smells like
burnt wood, but no TATSE?!  I expected a bold robust taste much like a
good Honduran cigar!  Now to problem number TWO:  My pipe will not stay
lit, and I get very little smoke, I puff and puff and puff, but the
damned thing just goes out.  I'm used to a large, full cloud of smoke
form my cigars, I hardly get anything unless I'm holding a match right
over the bowl.  I don't want to give up..some help??

Ron Renken

HTTP://mtco.com/~chiefron/ron.htm

[ Congrats on the new pipe, Ron!  I think the two problems may be
related: you haven't got the pipe well lit, and aren't getting much
taste. 

First, make sure the bowl is packed so the draw is _slightly_ harder
than the unloaded pipe.  You may need to rub the tobacco out before
you pack it, if it's stuck together in large clumps or flakes. I've
recently heard a good mnemonic for packing. Pack three pinches: the
first pinch like a baby, the second like a boy, and the third like a
man.

Then light once, making circles with the match around the edges of the
bowl as you puff. Finally, tamp the tobacco down and repeat the
process.  The object is to get a fine white ash over the entire top of
the tobacco.  

And don't give up; it takes practice.  Maybe your tobacconist could
have a look while you light up, and see what you're missing.

If you get the bowl lit right, and you still can't taste anything,
consider switching to perhaps a cigar-leaf tobacco or a stronger
English blend. BTW, I've had the same thing with cigars; don't really
care for the milder ones on the few occasions I smoke them. -S. ]


~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U ~\U