How many lights?

[puros_bran]

How many times on average do you light your pipe during a bowl?

 

[hazmat]

I never bothered to keep track, so I guess my best guess is "as many as it takes". Probably around 4-5 on average, but I tend to not worry so much if the pipe goes out while I'm smoking. A flick of the bic and I'm back in business.

 

[jhuggett]

Average about 4-5 I think... much more than that and I start to get bugged. :lol:

 

[thomas james]

Hey HAZMAT!,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,WELCOME :cheers:

I am a completely non attentive smoker,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,about a hunner!

Seriously?,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,At the end of the day, my ashtray contains about 15-20 pipe cleaners and 40-50 spent matches over the course of usually 3-4 grp. 5/6 bowls,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,ABSOLUTELY NO DOTTLE! JUST ASH. DOTTLE WOULD BE A BREACH OF DISCIPLINE; GET PUSH UPS FOR THAT AROUND HERE!

:king: tj

 

[Midnight Blues]

When I'm home and reading or just sitting and smoking 2-3 matches on average. At work probably more like 5.
Every now and then at home I hit the perfect storm and use just 1 match. Doesn't happen all that often but its cool when it does...

 

[Slow Puffs]

At the end of the day, my ashtray contains about 15-20 pipe cleaners...

:king: tj

Wow that's a lot of pipe cleaners...

Hmmmm maybe that's why my pipes aren't as clean as yours. I keep a pair of wire cutters nearby and snip the dirty ends and reuse them.

-Paul

 

[thomas james]

At the end of the day, my ashtray contains about 15-20 pipe cleaners...

:king: tj

Wow that's a lot of pipe cleaners...

-Paul

OK! Maybe 10-12

:king: tj

 

[thomas james]

I keep a pair of wire cutters nearby and snip the dirty ends and reuse them.

Parsimonious Parson

Mizerly Monk

Stingy Celebate

Frugal Father

Befuddled Brother

Conserving Confessor

Just Plain Cheap!

:king: tj

 

[Slow Puffs]

Just Plain Cheap!

 

[Davey]

Wow. So if I am at around 5-6 relights as a noobie, i am not doing toooo bad?

Related question, TJ et al:

If your dottle is wet, what do you do then? Do you suffer thru the steam etc..to finish ( assuming you are trying to get better at not soaking the bottom of your bowl!)?? :shock:

 

[thomas james]

Wow. So if I am at around 5-6 relights as a noobie, i am not doing toooo bad?

Related question, TJ et al:

If your dottle is wet, what do you do then? Do you suffer thru the steam etc..to finish ( assuming you are trying to get better at not soaking the bottom of your bowl!)?? :shock:

Maybe your tobacco is too moist to begin with.

Maybe you are a clencher, that can draw moisture from your mouth.

Bent pipes "generally" are a little wetter.

Straight pipes are "generally" a little dryer.

Your pipe may be drilled high causing difficulties with burning the bottom of the bowl.

# of relights mean nothing.

As your technique improves, all things start to fall in place,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,just let it happen,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,enjoy the smoke,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,it'll all "come."

Don't listen to :king: tj.

:farao: tj

 

[Anonymous]

Davey ---

Too damp toward the end can mean you are filling the bowl too firmly. Especially true with VA flakes. Pack that stuff far more loosely than feels "right" intuitively.

 

[Davey]

TJ,

I don't not keep the pipe ( yet) in my mouth between draws really, if that is what a clencher is. Good to know relights should not bother me. i am really trying to just enjoy the ride. Bit of as tranistion from cigars ( and I thought a cigar was relaxing...I need to dial down a couple more notches when i pipe).

LL,

Does this packing refer to only initial pinch placed first in bowl? I have been trying the Frank Method. Should i switch up a bit with VAs?

 

[thomas james]

Davey,

Try different things with different tobaccos,

Different things with different pipes.

The possibilities are endless.

There is no right way to any of this, just YOUR way!

We're all learning something new and better every day. That's why we're here.

tj

 

[Davey]

I THINK I am beionning to get the concept.

Relax and enoy the ride!!!...right? lol

 

[thomas james]

:cheers: TOUCHDOWN!

tj

 

[chksbak]

i have never really counted how many lights to get to the bottom, i just count the bowls i smoked all the way down with out any relights, which was 1 time in 5 years.

 

[puros_bran]

Davey, buddy your a hoot.

When I started with the pipe a couple years ago I was just like you, I tried to figure out the technical side of piping. Took me several months to figure out there was no technical side.

I used to smoke a bowl on 3-5 lights. Now it seems like I keep the pipe in one hand, the lighter in the other, the pipe tool tucked under my leg and an elbow on the steering wheel.

I have finally learned that a cooler smoke is the best route with any blend, that means I let it go out a lot more because its always right on the verge of going out anyway. If I miss that rythm by half a mile I'm relighting, oh well. That's better than having the firey pits of hell in your pipe.

I asked the question so I could gage how others do it. Not really because there's a right or a wrong answer.

 

[Anonymous]

If your dottle is wet, what do you do then? Do you suffer thru the steam etc..to finish ( assuming you are trying to get better at not soaking the bottom of your bowl!)??
Davey

Give it a little time to dry out a bit. Then re-light

:face:

 

[Vito]

How many lights? As many as it takes.

For the tobaccos I smoke most often and have learned to pack "just right" instinctively in their respective pipes, one light is all it takes...er, excluding 'baccys like 'Ginnyweed flakes, where a charring light or three saves a burst of poach-mouth on light-up. Ditto for any weedage that's just plain too doggone soggy; I'll spend as many lights and tamps as it takes to gently bring the sumbi'h up to a more energetic and more readily combustible state, wherein the application of the slightest amount of fire makes the burn spring to life.

The truth is that I seldom want to stop to take that kind of time when I'm in the midst of whatever I'm doing. I want to stick the pipe in my mouth, set fire to it, and keep going without losing any focus. When I burn one pipe to the bottom, I want to pick up another one and keep going. So, I usually load up 4 to 6 pipes at once, stick them in a tray, and then I'm ready to go. If they need charring lights, I'll do it then, and set 'em down to DGT. Then when I pick them up...ZAH!! Instant smokage with no fuss. One light, and I'm off. It works for me; YMMV. If all other conditions are conducive to doing so, I probably could smoke such pipes all the way down on a single light. I've done it. That's definitely true of my smaller pipes.

However, I seldom smoke a pipe all the way from top to bottom. In some cases I set the pipe down to preclude nico-buzz—which is always the case with the high-octane weedages (e.g., all ropeweed, GawHogg's Dark Flake, Kendal Kentucky, GLP's Cumberland...or any number of normally tame terbaccys when I happen to be smoking them in a humongous pipe). Also too, I always set the pipe down if it's getting too warm, and I often set it down to avoid poach-mouth when I'm smoking straight 'Ginnyweed. Considering the fact that I haven't figured out how to get the pipe to run at "idle" in the interim or auto-relight when I pick it up, I am compelled to make additional burnt offerings to the butane and match gods in order to get to the bottom of a bowl.

Otherwise, my answer defaults to the stuff the othah brothahs said; depends on the pipe, depends on the 'baccy, but it mostly depends on whether I'm paying attention. I smoke when I work, and for me working is thinking, and I can't think about the pipe and whatever else I'm thinking about at the same time. Usually I don't have to. But some pipes and weedages take more focus than others. So friggin' what? (Where's the emoticon for "Who gives a rip?") It takes as many lights as it takes.

With the pack I use most often now — a Vitoized version of the Frank method — I probably could smoke certain tobaccos to the bottom of the bowl on just one or two lights if I paid attention to the pipe and nothing else. It would take a yeoman effort—one I'm not inclined to make. This is s'posed to be fun, not work. :no: :evil:

By the way, PB...the image of the mad, weed-crazed piper, hands and limbs bristling with pipe, tamper, and torch, careening down the road in the road in an 18-wheeler piloted by an elbow on the wheel...well, it's pretty scary. :affraid: I'm thinking it's prolly more the exception than the rule, or you'd have been a statistic long before now.

Vito