Mr Moo's "Flake Takes" as posted on PSF
Aug 2, 2018 16:12:00 GMT -5
antb, That Falls Guy, and 7 more like this
Post by Matthew on Aug 2, 2018 16:12:00 GMT -5
So many flakes, so many pipe shapes and sizes, moisture levels are all
over the board... weird burns and weird handling instructions compared
to nice easy ribbon tobak. How does a pipe smoker ever figure our flakes?
It took me a couple of years of by-guess and by-golly and, now, I mostly
prefer flake tobacco of one kind or another.
When someone says, "I just fold it and stuff it in the bowl" you might
find, like other filling methods, it isn't as simple as it seems if you're
expecting a quick light, even burn and ash to the bottom.
For new pipe smokers my general flake-take is this:
1. Get a few ounces of one certain flake and stick with it until you
figure it out. One of the great products in my view (it comes in bulk,
by the way) is Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake. There are many others
that are great introductions to flakes quality and technique but LBF is readily
available, consistent, not a hot smoker and easy to handle.
2. Smoke some half-bowls fill until you figure out expansion. Some flakes
will swell up quite a bit a few minutes after lighting and most require the
gentlest of tamps to prevent plugging up the works. Been there. Done that.
If you plug up a bowl with a flake best you just empty it and start again.
A lot of pointy-pipe-tool airhole-drilling into flake-plugs just isn't going
to further your education at the get go or probably ever. Like the pilots say,
"If it's wrong on the ground it only gets worse in the air.
3. Consider flakes can be:
quite moist (they bend 90* but don't really break - they're chewy like);
less moist (they bend and then tend to break somewhat); and
dry-ish (when folded the bend tends to break cleanly).
More moist can mean more swelling in the bowl along with the usual dribbles,
gurgles and tendency to a hot smoke. Take care with moist flakes as they may
bite and/or plug up your pipe. Less moist is mostly good. Dry-ish makes for easy
rubbing and, sometimes, a tastier smoke. Try a flake at diffferent moisture levels
to see where flavor and ease of smoking is best for you.
4. Most flakes can be reduced (rubbed out) to shreds before filling. The texture,
after rubbing out, is stringy or shag-like and fine to smoke. Some flakes (like
Krumble Kake/Penzance) tend to crumble rather than shred. If suitably suitably
dry most flakes can be folded and stuffed or screwed in a bowl.
5. When you just can't get a stuffed/screwed flake to light there is a lot to
be said for sprinkling some if it, finely crumbled, atop the bowl and trying a
relight. This method often get a flake burning easily AND evenly.
Knowing how to smoke flake tobak is one of those things you need to experience -
there's teriffic stuff out there in Flakeville. Go slow, learn the nuances and
don't mess yourself up by having a bunch of different flakes all going at the
same time.
Flake preparation is almost as personal as what color Speedo you prefer.
All the above is exactly right if you think it's right.
More to the broad strokes...
Flake tobacco is compressed and, since everything really is physics,
it must somehow come uncompressed.; When you light it and warm it up
and moisture finds its way through the bowl of tobacco the stuff is
going to expand. Fill or tamp a flake poorly and your pipe will be
plugged tighter than Dick's hatband and better than all the gulf BP
engineers could ever arrange. Plug a bowl with flake and forget messing
with a pick - you need to put it out, empty the bowl and start over. You
cannot smoke an airtight wad of tobacco with a single hole down the middle -
it won't happen.
If you are unfamiliar with a given flake tobacco and start out by rolling
and stuffing it into your pipe I believe you will probably have an unrewarding
experience. Each flake type is like a stranger, maybe an important stranger,
that you need to get to know slowly so as not to hurt anyones feelings by doing
the wrong thing.
Learn a flake by breaking it up thoroughly, adding enough to fill the bowl and
compressing down to halfway, approx; you're looking for a light load (about half)
and an even top plus an very open draw. If you can manage to light the bowl across
the top enough for a char, tamp it WAY GENTLY, leaving the draw slighly restricted,
and relight. have at it but never overcompress the bowl or you end up but a non-combustible
airtight wad (which, by the way, you will fry your tongue and suck your cheeks off trying
to relight and smoke).
Flakes. I love flakes and they are all my best tabak buddies but each one took a little
investment of time to get to know. Flakes have much to reveal to the patient puffer;
producers have taken generations to get their flake the way they want it - secrets will
not be given up instantly to the brash. There are hard flakes, soft flakes, dry flakes,
wet flakes, crumbling flakes, leathery flakes, easy flakes and damn-near-impossible flakes.
Some come too wet and need a little drying - some get too dry a day after the tin is cracked
and like a little moisture. At any given moment they may break, fold, roll, splinter, rip,
roll or bend, light easily, refuse to light or fire right up.
Find a flake and take your time - I'm talking a few days here, not years - crumble
it up and get to know it damp, middling and dry. Try short fills and don't overcompress.
Flame on!
... Packed well and started to smoke great. About half way down the bowl
it would not stay lit.
Click to expand...
Packed. You said packed and you got packed. Unpack and FILL...
1. If the draw felt more than a bit restricted then the tobacco couldn't
get enough air to sustain combustion. Things maybe got too tight down yonder
as you went along; the tobacco expanded a bit and, combined with a little too
much tamping pressure things got choked. Or
2. If the draw did NOT feel restricted then maybe things are just too soggy
at the bottom. Pick out the dottle and have a look see. If it isn't soggy at
the heel of the pipe...
3. Bad luck! Firedance Flake is one of those things that people say is just
plain hard to keep lit. Rub it out a bit more next time and don't let the bottom
half of the bowl get over compressed when you fill the pipe. Try half-fills and
see what happens. Gotta say this about flakes here - sometimes some of them just
want to char and get hard near the bottom of the bowl. Let the pipe cool, scrape
it out and have another go, no worries.
As flakes go we all have our preferences. I happen to love SG products but their
flakes, which tend to be moist and very well compressed (even leathery) are not
always the easiest to figure out. Try drier tobacco and make sure you're smoking
from a dry pipe; swampy at the heel does not help a bit. Rub it out well - don't
overcompress the fill or the tamps - try to get an even light across the top.
Here is a common language for flake moisture level.
If you bend a flake in half (180*) and:
1.0 the ends don't splinter, it's pretty darn moist.
2.0 the ends sort of fracture and sort of bend, it's not too moist.
3.0 the ends all snap it's real dry
4.0 but the stuff crumbles in your hand before it's bent 90* the stuff is dried out
Take two aspirin, try your tobak around 2.5 and call me in the morning.
Flame on!
over the board... weird burns and weird handling instructions compared
to nice easy ribbon tobak. How does a pipe smoker ever figure our flakes?
It took me a couple of years of by-guess and by-golly and, now, I mostly
prefer flake tobacco of one kind or another.
When someone says, "I just fold it and stuff it in the bowl" you might
find, like other filling methods, it isn't as simple as it seems if you're
expecting a quick light, even burn and ash to the bottom.
For new pipe smokers my general flake-take is this:
1. Get a few ounces of one certain flake and stick with it until you
figure it out. One of the great products in my view (it comes in bulk,
by the way) is Peter Stokkebye Luxury Bullseye Flake. There are many others
that are great introductions to flakes quality and technique but LBF is readily
available, consistent, not a hot smoker and easy to handle.
2. Smoke some half-bowls fill until you figure out expansion. Some flakes
will swell up quite a bit a few minutes after lighting and most require the
gentlest of tamps to prevent plugging up the works. Been there. Done that.
If you plug up a bowl with a flake best you just empty it and start again.
A lot of pointy-pipe-tool airhole-drilling into flake-plugs just isn't going
to further your education at the get go or probably ever. Like the pilots say,
"If it's wrong on the ground it only gets worse in the air.
3. Consider flakes can be:
quite moist (they bend 90* but don't really break - they're chewy like);
less moist (they bend and then tend to break somewhat); and
dry-ish (when folded the bend tends to break cleanly).
More moist can mean more swelling in the bowl along with the usual dribbles,
gurgles and tendency to a hot smoke. Take care with moist flakes as they may
bite and/or plug up your pipe. Less moist is mostly good. Dry-ish makes for easy
rubbing and, sometimes, a tastier smoke. Try a flake at diffferent moisture levels
to see where flavor and ease of smoking is best for you.
4. Most flakes can be reduced (rubbed out) to shreds before filling. The texture,
after rubbing out, is stringy or shag-like and fine to smoke. Some flakes (like
Krumble Kake/Penzance) tend to crumble rather than shred. If suitably suitably
dry most flakes can be folded and stuffed or screwed in a bowl.
5. When you just can't get a stuffed/screwed flake to light there is a lot to
be said for sprinkling some if it, finely crumbled, atop the bowl and trying a
relight. This method often get a flake burning easily AND evenly.
Knowing how to smoke flake tobak is one of those things you need to experience -
there's teriffic stuff out there in Flakeville. Go slow, learn the nuances and
don't mess yourself up by having a bunch of different flakes all going at the
same time.
Flake preparation is almost as personal as what color Speedo you prefer.
All the above is exactly right if you think it's right.
More to the broad strokes...
Flake tobacco is compressed and, since everything really is physics,
it must somehow come uncompressed.; When you light it and warm it up
and moisture finds its way through the bowl of tobacco the stuff is
going to expand. Fill or tamp a flake poorly and your pipe will be
plugged tighter than Dick's hatband and better than all the gulf BP
engineers could ever arrange. Plug a bowl with flake and forget messing
with a pick - you need to put it out, empty the bowl and start over. You
cannot smoke an airtight wad of tobacco with a single hole down the middle -
it won't happen.
If you are unfamiliar with a given flake tobacco and start out by rolling
and stuffing it into your pipe I believe you will probably have an unrewarding
experience. Each flake type is like a stranger, maybe an important stranger,
that you need to get to know slowly so as not to hurt anyones feelings by doing
the wrong thing.
Learn a flake by breaking it up thoroughly, adding enough to fill the bowl and
compressing down to halfway, approx; you're looking for a light load (about half)
and an even top plus an very open draw. If you can manage to light the bowl across
the top enough for a char, tamp it WAY GENTLY, leaving the draw slighly restricted,
and relight. have at it but never overcompress the bowl or you end up but a non-combustible
airtight wad (which, by the way, you will fry your tongue and suck your cheeks off trying
to relight and smoke).
Flakes. I love flakes and they are all my best tabak buddies but each one took a little
investment of time to get to know. Flakes have much to reveal to the patient puffer;
producers have taken generations to get their flake the way they want it - secrets will
not be given up instantly to the brash. There are hard flakes, soft flakes, dry flakes,
wet flakes, crumbling flakes, leathery flakes, easy flakes and damn-near-impossible flakes.
Some come too wet and need a little drying - some get too dry a day after the tin is cracked
and like a little moisture. At any given moment they may break, fold, roll, splinter, rip,
roll or bend, light easily, refuse to light or fire right up.
Find a flake and take your time - I'm talking a few days here, not years - crumble
it up and get to know it damp, middling and dry. Try short fills and don't overcompress.
Flame on!
... Packed well and started to smoke great. About half way down the bowl
it would not stay lit.
Click to expand...
Packed. You said packed and you got packed. Unpack and FILL...
1. If the draw felt more than a bit restricted then the tobacco couldn't
get enough air to sustain combustion. Things maybe got too tight down yonder
as you went along; the tobacco expanded a bit and, combined with a little too
much tamping pressure things got choked. Or
2. If the draw did NOT feel restricted then maybe things are just too soggy
at the bottom. Pick out the dottle and have a look see. If it isn't soggy at
the heel of the pipe...
3. Bad luck! Firedance Flake is one of those things that people say is just
plain hard to keep lit. Rub it out a bit more next time and don't let the bottom
half of the bowl get over compressed when you fill the pipe. Try half-fills and
see what happens. Gotta say this about flakes here - sometimes some of them just
want to char and get hard near the bottom of the bowl. Let the pipe cool, scrape
it out and have another go, no worries.
As flakes go we all have our preferences. I happen to love SG products but their
flakes, which tend to be moist and very well compressed (even leathery) are not
always the easiest to figure out. Try drier tobacco and make sure you're smoking
from a dry pipe; swampy at the heel does not help a bit. Rub it out well - don't
overcompress the fill or the tamps - try to get an even light across the top.
Here is a common language for flake moisture level.
If you bend a flake in half (180*) and:
1.0 the ends don't splinter, it's pretty darn moist.
2.0 the ends sort of fracture and sort of bend, it's not too moist.
3.0 the ends all snap it's real dry
4.0 but the stuff crumbles in your hand before it's bent 90* the stuff is dried out
Take two aspirin, try your tobak around 2.5 and call me in the morning.
Flame on!
