"In front of you I have made some drawings. Now please don't laugh at my drawings." I really enjoyed that line.

I just bought my first pipe 3 weeks ago and I have learned a tremendous amount of knowledge from you! I love the video's. Thank you sir!

As a new pipe smoker, I want to thank you for your tutorials ! I was about to quit, but with your videos I am enjoying it !

This was a game changer for me, in terms of getting the entire bowl to pleasently smoke to the bottom. When the bowl reaches down the 1/3 level, I begin using the small poker of a 3 part pipe tool to tamp the outer diameter down, then barely tamping the middle with the tamper. It makes for a great tasting smoke all the way down , that burns with minimal relights.

Another great video! Thanks for taking the time to make these; it's always a good day when I log on and see you have posted a new one.

Great suggestion, I'll give it a try, glad to hear that your mom is doing good Chris, I know where your coming from. I took care of my mom until she passed 6 years ago, she had a lot of health issues, glad your mom's in good health.

I was too newbie at first when I first watched this video and didn't really understood. Just revisited it and now I do. I'll surely try that on my next bowls and see what difference it makes. Very intresting. Thanks!

A ball shaped tamper, like a mallet for playing xylophone or whatever, leaves the concave ash shape for slow caking. My cat broke a handblown glass teardrop off the chandelier that fits as a pipe tamper like that's what it was made for. I really appreciate your videos, and actually i really would like to make my own soon. If i do, i will give you a shout-out! Thanks

Just tired it yesterday, it made my pipe smoke cooler , Thank you for the great videos.

Excellent illustrations, Muttnchop! I'm gonna have to give that a try sometimes.

Very informative.My favorite of your tutorials thus far.

Thank you for this video, I'm 23 and have been smoking for a little more than a year now. I have had some difficulty forming an even carbon cake and when it does form I never knew how to stop or slow that build up. I made a horrible mistake about 5 months ago when I ruined one of my older pipes from an estate sale trying to remove some of the very thick carbon cake by scraping some of it away and I gouged into the wall of the pipe and it started to burn a hole into it. This will help me maintain my other pipes from now on. Thanks again.

These type techniques take some pipe smokers years to develop through trial and error. I think this is one reason in the past that some new smokers gave up the hobby too quickly out of frustration. Lucky for us, the internet allows so much valuable info to be shared. One technique I use to get my pipe smoking a little cooler, is to use my pick to aerate my ash, similar to the way a lawn is aerated, in order to allow it to breathe. This can allow heat to escape vertically, that would otherwise be trapped under the ash, and then transfer to the sides of the bowl. Since some tobaccos create a very fine ash, this technique can keep a pipe smoking cooler throughout the entire bowl. Another great video Chris!

Great! These videos are so useful, have learned lots of stuff that otherwise would take me a lot of time and puffs to learn.

Dear Chris I really like your videos there's so much to learn . thank you so much my friend for all the great knowledge you put out there

Where was this guy 20 years ago when I started smoking a pipe. This is why I gave it up and found it a ton of work. I may pick it back up again. Thanks dude.

I enjoy watching your video's. In my pipe shop I taught all these things. I have always tamped my pipes in this fashion. One of the joys of pipe smoking is experimenting with many different ways of loading, tamping, smoking. Been at this now for 52 years. It is one of the great pleasures in my life.

This makes a lot of sense. I am currently breaking in a few briars. I'm going to give this method a try. Thanks for the tip.

Chris you are the Alfred Dunhill of YTPC. Using wooden matches better than lighters in my humble opinion.

Sir, thank you for all you share. You have saved my life

Muttnchop so good to have you back glad all is getting better amen..... Great video as always thanks brother take care 👍👍👍👍👍👍

Hi, Chirs, very informative , again something new to discover,Thank you for sharing , I shall keep this lesson in mind,Greets, Paul

Miss you Muttnchop, especially since matches' passing.

One of the best explanations of ember burning/manipulating that I have seen. If you would do this same exact way but using colored markers for easier recognition it would be even better than it already is. Thank you!!!

Great video Muttnchop! I really enjoyed it and learned a lot!

Great consideration! I never think about this! I will gonna try, but I think it gonna be a good way to not overheating the sides of pipe (who already have carbon cake) and have a greater smoke!

Great info muttnchop always learn something from you👍🏻

Great info MC. I also use this conical ash technique, but I always thought it structured the ember in the opposite manner, i.e. with a hotter center. This explanation makes perfect sense though and I believe you are correct. I use a tamper with a concave foot (made by 8deco) for this reason. Or I did up until I lost it :) Cheers

Very interesting. I don't smoke a pipe, at least not yet, Growing up, I had a Friend, well, still do, My Friends Father who was from England always smoked a pipe and it was a Cherry tobacco aromatic (brand not known) and I used to watch him tamp his tobacco, He was very methodical about it as I remember, sometimes he'd spend a great deal of time "Tamping", at the time I had no idea what he was doing, but now I know. During your lesson, the first thing that came to mind is, tamping tobacco is much like tuning a carburetor on a engine, got to get the air to fuel mixture correct otherwise the Engine won't run correctly. With all that being said, great tutorial none the less.👍

I put the tamper in at an angle next to the wall of the bowl (kind of like a plow), then turned the pipe 360 degrees....waalah..domed ash. I also tried this technique: breathe in through the nose, less so through the mouth letting the vacuum pull the smoke in from the stem into the mouth (not the lungs), those three things together really let's your sense of taste and smell operate at max and brought out the full flavor of the smoke (in this case Classic Samsun). I could immediately get the "sweet and sour" notes you mentioned and it was the best smoke I've had so far. Can't wait to try this with other blends.

if you laugh at them the price goes down … haha! thx for the laugh mcp!

Great video, Chris! I've used this method the last three times I smoked, and I found that my briar pipes didn't get as hot as before and I experienced a cool smoke for the first time. I'm not sure if this is a side effect or perhaps my carbon cake is finally building up, since the pipes I used are about two weeks old. Either way, thanks!

Hello there Muttnchop, I am relatively new to the hobby of pipe smoking - just over the last couple of years - and I have found that I have naturally been employing this technique of pressing down the ash nearest to the bowl wall to give a sort of central cone. Something else I felt as though I discovered! was when I reach the last maybe 3rd of the bowl I use the spike tool part of the tamper to push between the ember and the pipe wall at the side furthest away from the shank air hole to try to give good air/oxygen access to the ember at that side. This should I believe aid in drawing the tobacco smoke through the remaining tobacco ember and encourage more smoke and full usage of the remaining tobacco. For me it seems to work and help to achieve an efficient usage of the lower bowl of tobacco. With tobacco being so expensive I want to reduce any dottle to an absolute minimum. Thanks for posting and best wishes. Oh by the way, are you a little late with the blend club video this year? I managed to purchase all your tobacco samples and had them delivered to the UK for 2019!

this video gave me an idea and I'm glad to say it works.so basically picture it evening time and your settled in for one to two bowls of tobacco. however after I have one bowl going and I'm done its a little annoying to have to go trough the hole charring and getting another bowl going to get to the effortless part of your bowl. so here's what I did. I took the fine white ash from my bowl and dumped it keeping it seperate from everything. I cleaned and refilled my pipe. then I just charred the tobacco and ramped it. I then took the fine powdery ash and pit it on top of my charred tobacco and tamped it to settle it in. lit my pipe and bam I had a perfect bowl going with an insulated ember. give this a try it works well for me.

thx for your videos... I'm waiting for your next uploading :-) (zsolt from Hungary)

Leonardo Da Muttonchop ..... Great informative video. Thank you

sick with a head cold, smoking and trying this method. It is working very well.

Have really enjoyed your series on pipes. I've been on and off a pipe and cigar smoker for years. Heres a though I had , tell me what you think. I've noticed that since we can't break off an ash like a cigar in our pipes. I will at times let the pipe go out before a tamping procedure, then turn it over above the ash tray and just lightly tap so burned ash falls out then tamp. The balance of the smoke retains more of the original flavor and not developing ash much of an ashy flavor. Seems to change my perception oc the flavors as I go down through the bowl. This also seems to make it stay lit more easily because of better aeration of the ember.

Very informative, thanks!

Thank you for the lesson.

Ive found the concave ash pile works best for me in my Sav Tortuga 305.

lol I find your humour hilarious lmfao

Hey Chris I did learn something. Thank you. Bob

I've been having trouble with my pipe burning down the middle instead of down the sides. This video was VERY helpful. I'm assuming that this would work when breaking in a cob as well?

Doesn't the hot ember on the sides risk damaging your pipe more than the more traditional way or angled in the centre? Even if you smoke the pipe using the breathe-method you taught us? Many thanks for the videos, I find them very useful and calming! 🙂

Lol at your humor. So funny

exelents tips, thank you!!

fascinating

Hi, interesting theory about fast caking the pipe. But why caking fast? I think as a pipe connoisseur we should have time. In my opinion your method includes the risk of damaging the wall chambers through a higher temperature. When I smoke flakes e.g. in the 320 KS the problem is that the tobacco isn`t burning down all over the surface. If I use a tamper which is 45°(not 90° like regular ones) degrees shape which allows to scoop the ashes from the edges of the chamber towards the center. As result I create a rounded surface of the tobacco (and the ashes as shown in your drawings!) which allows a better airflow and a lighter draw. Also the temperature on the wall will lower through a more centered and efficient combustion. Fore sure this way will cake my pipes slower but safer regarding the temperature of the wall chambers. And I get a cooler smoke for a better tobacco taste. Wish you a good smoke and relaxed x-mas, cheers Ralph

Why do you want a carbon cake in the first place? What does that carbon cake do? How wide should it be? Does it alter taste?

this is pretty interesting I'm going to give it a try!

I always thought the burn order would be: Ash over Char over Ember setting on top of the fresh tobacco beneath! Help?

I was looking through your vids to find out whether you've recorded something on pipe shapes and how they affect smoking different types of tobacco. Have you done something like that and I just can't find it? or there's something to look forward to in 2017? ;)

Can anyone tell me if he has a video describing his post smoking routine?

Would a concave tamper or a convex tamper accomplish the same thing?

awesome subject for us beginners. i have 2 questions: when i smoke my pipe & near the end of the bowl, the ash layer got thick that i can't light my tobacco. when i empty the bowl i find some unburned tobacco at the bottom. do you think it is better to scrap some of the ash layer?

I'm so sorry Mr Muttnchops, but I laughed, won't happen again I promise

interesting. thanks!

Muttnchop, great video! I am relatively new to pipe smoking. I find that my ember is usually only on the half of the bowl that is closest to the stem and it rarely covers the whole bowl accept in the beginning. What am I doing wrong?

I have an issue with my lighter, i just don't know how successful my attempt to refill it is. It seems like it's going empty very fast enouthough I ade sure my flame size is average to small. I ended up using matches but when it's windy it gets hard to use them.

Hey again Muttnchop how you doing, Can you tell me how much tobacco that is ''normal' 'to smoke each month - I bought 250 gram of Tabacco (The weakest) Is that enough for a month of too much?

You need to show us how you make those stickers for your jars! :)

Picasso would approve.

I do something similar but I don't find it alters how the cake builds up. I do it because it results in a better burn and a better smoke. Furthermore, I believe you are incorrect as to the mechanism of action here. Fundamentally, loosely packed ash acts as an insulator while compressed ash acts as a conductor of heat. This is why you can't easily re-light easily without tamping and yet you can after tamping. By tamping at an angle around the edges you are creating loose ash in the center of the bowl which insulates the center of the bowl from ignition while promoting ignition around the edges of the bowl.

Fine lesson indeed,but let me say that the cone ash is only possible in a bowl with a reasonable proportion depth-width.I see that your pipes have usually a good relation d-w,but with very narrow ones,chimneys,or very shallow ones,pots,we´ll find some problems.Thanks for share your knowledge and experence.Greetings from Spain.

I bid one million dollars

Good day to you sir....was wondering if you still your bowl at all while puffing ? .

How much for the sketch? I'm the first to bid!

hey i won a pipe sweepstakes..the haul brand new 320 joker,16 ozs carter hall/4 ozs special reserve m.river,orliks mellow mix/100percent free.............woooooohoooooooo

well I didn't laugh until you told me not to.

Good morning sir. I would like to do know this pipe tipe, the "Curvy". You can see it in this web site www.alpascia.com It is a very funny pipe, interesting. It isn't a spot. Best regards. Alberto from Italy.