Excerpts from Hacker's Book

"..... The correct tobacco-filling procedure takes a little practice, but after a few times you will automatically develop this all-important skill and will be able to actually "feel" when you have a properly filled pipe full of tobacco."

We are now ready to light up, thereby inaugurating our potential pleasure with a baptism of fire. For this all-important act, use only wooden matches or a butane lighter. Paper matches are impregnated with chemicals that will taint the tobacco and its taste, as will lighter fluid. When using wooden matches, pause a second after striking the match, so that the sulfur will burn off and you will not get a bitter mouthful of sulfur smoke mixed in with your tobacco smoke. (A butane flame actually burns hotter than a wooden match, and care must be taken to avoid charring the rim of your pipe bowl during the lighting process.)

Pipe lighting is a two-part procedure. The first step is called the false or charring light. Its purpose is to create a completely charred "lid" covering the top portion of your abowlful of tobacco, thereby making a "fire platform" which will permit your carefully packed pipe to smoke evenly all the way down to the bottom of heel of the bowl. To begin the charring light, move the flame from your lighter or match slowly over the entire area of the tobacco, taking care not to scorch the edges of the pipe bowl-it may discolor soon enouvh of its own accord after a number of repeated smokes. As you light the tobacco, draw in on your pipe with long, smooth puffs, thereby sucking the flame down into the tobacco. When the entire top surface of the tobacco has been completely and evenly lit, take the pipe from your mouth and gently press down on the ashes with a pipe tamper (these ashes usually rise above the rim of the bowl during the charring light), pushing them down upon the unburned tobacco underneath.

Now you are ready for your second light. Once again, move the flame over the entire area of the tobacco as you puff slowly and arhythmically. That's all there is to it. Besides giving you a better smoke, getting these step-by-step pipe lighting techniques down pat can give you a decided advantage in an argument. For example, as soon as you feel you are starting to lose in a verbal match to your opponent, give him the last say for the moment, and noticeably pause from the encounter to fill, light, and tamp your pipe (furthering the popular conjecture that all pipe smoker are deep, philosophical thinkers). Then, as the first wave of gray haze lifts from your briar and your antagonist is starting to feel a bit uneasy because of the lull, look him squarely in the eye, slowly take the pipe from your mouth and utter the profound bombardment of words you have by now had ample time to conjure up.

Your pipe will stay lit longer if you periodically keep the ashes tamped down upon the remaining tobacco and if you gently blow a shisper of air into the stem occasionally; your breath will act like a miniature bellows to keep the tobacco burning. That is why pipe smokers who talk with their pipes in their mouths require fewer matches to keep their briars lit; the breath from their speech helps keep the glow alive. Thus we can say that these pipe smokers are stimulating conversationalists in the truest sense of the word.

As you smoke your pipe, moisture will invariably accumulate in the bottom of the bowl and within the stem. Somethimes this is evidenced by an annoying gurgling sound. This liquid is caused by the burning of your tobacco, for one of the by-products of combustion is the moisture and it is important to realize that some tobaccos burn "wetter" than others. In addition, some individuals smoke wetter than others and it is not uncommon for some saliva from your mouth to invariably mix in with these tart tobacco liquids. All too often, you will suddenly get a sharp acidic taste as those juices are drawn into the smoke. This moisture should be removed from the pipe before enjoyable puffing can continue. Thus, it will be occasionally be necessary during the course of your smoke to run a pipe cleaner through the mouthpiece of the stem and into the heel of the bowl in order to absorb the juices, removing them by withdrawing the pipe cleaner. Normally, one or two cleaners will do the job. But be sure to pass the cleaner through the mouthpiece; do not attempt to separate the stem from the bowl while the pipe is still hot from smoking, or you could crack the shank of the pipe.

The etiquette of using a pipe cleaner in mixed company is a problem that I have never seen dealt with in print before, for it is a somewhat unpleasant procedure: the pipe cleaner comes out looking rather dark and smelling quite rank. Therefore, if dining or seated with a group of people, I will excuse myself and venture off to some unobserved part of the house or restaurant to perform this brief pipe cleaning act in private. If in a car, business meeting or similar enclosed situation where I cannot get away, I will simply put my pipe down and let it rest until it can be cleaned discreetly. However, when in my own den or in the company of fellow pipe smokers, I use pipe cleaners wantonly and with little regard for their preservation whenever the situation warrants it. They are an extremely inexpensive means for insuring the continuation of "clean" smoke. One of the worst situations a pipe smoker can imagine is being stranded on a desert island with ten pounds of choice tobacco, a case full of quality high-grade briars-and no pipe cleaners! However, a word of caution: used pipe cleaners are rather smelly and are best disposed of in the fireplace or hidden deep within the darkest confines of a garbage bagt outside the house.

It is important to remember that any pipe will go out if left unattended. In fact, no matter how well you've packed it, no matter how thoroughly you've lit it, all pipes require additional lightings before the entire bowlful is consumed. That is part of the joy and relaxation of pipe smoking...the frequent lightings and re-lightings and watching the billowing clouds of smoke as they slowly rise playfully and stumble over each other until, exhausted, they finally disperse across the room. An average pipeful of tobacco usually lasts from thirthy to forty-five minutes (depending upon the size of the pipe bowl and the forcefullness of the puffing), and during that time I have used as little as three and as many as twelve matches just to kee my briar alive and well. Of course, many pipe smokers pride themselves on only using one match to keep an entire bowl burning right on down to the heel and ever since 1723 there have been pipe smoking contests to determine who can keep a bowlful of pre-measured tobacco (usually 3.3 grams of Burley cube) going the longest, using only two wooden matches."

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