Reverse Pack Method?

[dshpipes]

Thanks for the detailed analysis, Kyle! I still have to give this a whirl myself, but I'll report back when I do.

 

[idbowman]

Just tried it.

Meh.


I didn't notice much of a difference between this and a properly packed pipe using my usual method (somewhere between the 2- and 3-layer method). I'm guessing that they key to this technique is that it will provide a consistent pack with every bowl, and not so much the "vortex" idea. I'm no scientist, but if I had to wager a guess, I'd say:


1. When the flat surface of the palm/tin meets the rigid rim of the pipe, no more pressure can be applied to the tobacco in the chamber. At some point, no matter how hard you push your pipe into your palm, your palm doesn't go inside the chamber, so there is a definite threshold for pressure applied to the tobacco, allowing for some variation for palm shape (whereas there is no limit to how much pressure once can apply using a normal method, and there is nothing stopping your finger or tamper from packing the tobacco down too densely). (EDIT: I suppose this only makes sense if you don't overload your palm and purposely try to cram every shred of tobacco into the pipe).

2. The swirling of the pipe would also keep the tobacco moving such that it fills in as much of the empty space as possible, given the pressure constraints. This translates to an appropriate air-to-tobacco ratio within the pipe chamber.

3. The swirling also promotes and even distribution of tobacco throughout the chamber. Thus, the tobacco is not only uniformly packed vertically within the chamber, but radially as well.


So to me, if you have trouble packing a pipe using a normal method or are having some difficulty accounting for tobacco moisture, environment, or just dealing with an unfamiliar blend, this video should help sort out some problems. If you're not prone to packing problems, the "vortex" isn't likely to give you a better smoke than you are already getting.



Just my 2 cents.

 

[s.ireland]

Hand versus lid: Shane, I hate to say it, but the lid idea sounded great, but there was something about how the hand can be "cupped" a little and not allow the tobacco to be pushed around that seemed to work a little better, and you can kind of control how it gets loaded. It was even worse with some some of the wider-brimmed pipes--the hand, messy, seemed to work better.

8)

Well I never said use the lid. I said use the rest of the tobacco in the tin (haven't tried it with a tin that only has a few bowls left). There's nowhere for the tobacco to go if it's surrounded by more tobacco.

And I think the award for most over-complicated trial of a packing technique goes to: Kyle!

Which I find hilarious considering how many times Kyle has claimed to dislike "complicated and stupid" methods... Just pack the pipe and smoke it. In the time it took to try all that stuff and then sit down and type it all up you could have just smoked a few more bowls which might have actually yielded more insight... What does all that other stuff prove or disprove anyway??? :lol!:

 

[Kyle Weiss]

Well I never said use the lid. I said use the rest of the tobacco in the tin (haven't tried it with a tin that only has a few bowls left). There's nowhere for the tobacco to go if it's surrounded by more tobacco.

And I think the award for most over-complicated trial of a packing technique goes to: Kyle!

Which I find hilarious considering how many times Kyle has claimed to dislike "complicated and stupid" methods... Just pack the pipe and smoke it. In the time it took to try all that stuff and then sit down and type it all up you could have just smoked a few more bowls which might have actually yielded more insight... What does all that other stuff prove or disprove anyway??? :lol!:

I never said I paid attention fully to exactly what you said, it seems, so neener. Now that I get what you're sayin'... erm... uh... yeah. Heh. Hey, at least we now know the lid isn't useful! :albino:

Of course I dislike complicated and stupid stuff! Look at what I'm capable of! :lol: Hi, I'm Kyle, maybe you didn't notice, but...I'm nuts! :cheers: Thanks for reading my drivel, though.

In any case, I wanted to know why it was more or less effective than anything else, because it is so simple. It seemed to work for me, anyway, I just needed to adjust how much I "sprinkled on top" ala the video and pack it down a tad. I'm going to have at this method a little more because it takes me just as long (minus the scale and crazy ideas) to do this as it does to fill up the sucker, pack it down and smoke it--what it DID do for me is regulate how much went into the chamber on the first go...which sometimes I don't pay attention to. With that, there's some value.

Stop me, before I keep on typing. 8) :lol:

 

[kieveryuu]

First, I want to say way to go Kyle. I appreciate your exploration into this as it provides some additional, and useful, information in going forward as I continue to test this.

Secondly, to Shane, your idea of fluffing the tobacco in the tin and packing with this method straight from the tin rather than the hand is simple and elegant. The mess as always been the primary barrier to my using this method. If this works well for me, I think you have just made my smoking life that much more enjoyable.

(This is why I like hanging around here with you crazy cats... 8) )

 

[huffelpuff]

I used this method for years when I first started smoking. It works well for rubbed out rope tobaccos. Which was all I had access to back in those days.

Jim

 

[Boxerbuddy]

Okay, okay okay. Okay.

So, I have to say part of my grumblings about a new (or new-to-me) packing/filling technique was--there's too many of them. I've tried a lot of them, and most of them are complicated and stupid. I finally found an adaptive method I use that takes about three techniques and combines them, in a simple manner: fill loose, pack a little, add some to the top, check for "pack density," and have at it. This is for rubbed-out flake, ribbon or cube cut... that is, unless I do the flake-stuff variant where I ball it up in the palm of my hand to roughen it up a little, and put it in the pipe.

Today, I got a little nerdy. Much more than my whimsical fill-check-go method that seems to work.

So, I thought about it, and attempted this with some EMP with my Danish Thrift straight billiard, which I seem to always reach for when experimenting, and went forward as the guy in the video demonstrates.

Some thoughts, before I get to how it smoked:

I tried this first with EMP, a pretty uniform ribbon. Just for kicks, I wanted to know how much was actually going into the pipe. So, I brought out my nice kitchen scale with pour-cup attachment, and weighed out 1 gram (1000mg) of tobacco. I limited my "twists" to 15 twists in the hand. I did this five times, and weighed the contents of what went into the pipe, by emptying it, back onto the scale--it was within 10mg - 20mg each time, and in this particular billiard, 650mg - 700mg went into the pipe each time. Points for consistency. For the hell of it, I then emptied everything and tried this in a different pipe, a cob, and tried Storm Crow's Connecticut Yankee, which is more of a cube cut--same deal, but a little more tobacco went into the chamber repeating this method, and weighing them.

I then tried this with different pipes--this is where it got interesting. Flatter-topped, freehands and really wide-brimmed bulldogs got varied results with weight of tobacco that went into the chamber, and sometimes was a bit too loose to justify a "good bowl," which would suggest to do this method twice rather than just once. Though I don't use CY in anything but cobs, I used the cube-cut stuff just to test--it had a tougher time getting in the chambers of "odd pipes."

So, back to the EMP and Danish Thrift, I loaded it up as per the video and smoked...very nice. I probably could have packed it down a little more and topped off with a bit more, because I only got about half the smoking time I'm used to. It was a two-match smoke--though it was VERY windy outside, and probably led to a bit hotter/faster burning than I would have liked. I think a few eddies made off with a few strips in the meantime.

Conclusion:

Tobacco: Ribbon, "fluffed flake" or cube works great.

Pipe: Varied. Plateaux-edge, freehand, wide brins and anything but "standard" shapes seemed to be a little weird and/or inconsistent, or takes some finesse I obviously need to practice on.

Hand versus lid: Shane, I hate to say it, but the lid idea sounded great, but there was something about how the hand can be "cupped" a little and not allow the tobacco to be pushed around that seemed to work a little better, and you can kind of control how it gets loaded. It was even worse with some some of the wider-brimmed pipes--the hand, messy, seemed to work better.

Smoke: Again, a windy day wasn't a good variable to add to this. It did smoke consistent, it added a bit more "breathability" to the smoke, which I wasn't used to. I think I'm used to packing a little more tobacco in the chamber and having a bit of a tighter draw. The pipe got a little hot, but again, new packing technique, plus wind, plus my favored draw method might have been a bit unfair to it.

Overall: I'm going to keep trying this and see if it gives me any different results in different pipes. I wasn't going to smoke three different tobaccos in different pipes all in one sitting, lest I lose my lunch. :lol: I don't think the "vortex" or twist of the tobacco lends itself to much more than just the amount that goes into the pipe, which is important. There's no way (that I could tell) there was this perfect helix of tobacco really making the smoke "better," so I'm inclined to assume it's just a way of really consistently packing the bacca.

I'm glad I went through the rigamarole and tested it out. Hooray for impromptu quasi-science. Heheheh

8)

I just read this whole post tonight. I'm gonna give this a try with my Ascorti and some Haddo's

Kyle.....I'm not going to enable your OCD by saying good job and thank you.

 

[Kyle Weiss]

It's become almost a status symbol for "problems" lately, but I think it's more Asperger's than OCD... OCD would likely mean I had to load and unload my pipe six times, spin a circle and wait for an exact time before I smoked my pipe (with the fear being the pipe might explode otherwise...) Heheheh

Honestly I found that technique to work really well for chunky stuff that won't rub out--like some Lane blends offered at Tinder Box, for example. It's alright to have in one's back pocket, but it burned really hot and fast for my style with ribbon and shaggy bacca. 8)

 

[Hater]

Hmmmm just came across this thread and tried it out. Just finished my first pipe packed this way and I have to mention that it was a long cool smoke that I didnt have to relight. I'll be doing this again.

 

[George Kaplan]

It's become almost a status symbol for "problems" lately, but I think it's more Asperger's than OCD... OCD would likely mean I had to load and unload my pipe six times, spin a circle and wait for an exact time before I smoked my pipe (with the fear being the pipe might explode otherwise...)

So is it OCD or Asperger's to have to explain the difference when accused of being one or the other?
Actually, I'm the same way, so I really would like to know...

 

[Kyle Weiss]

So is it OCD or Asperger's to have to explain the difference when accused of being one or the other?
Actually, I'm the same way, so I really would like to know...

It's called being "neurotically dodging," I believe. :lol:

 

[George Kaplan]

It's called being "neurotically dodging," I believe. :lol:

I guess that's better than what people usually call me...