Read all the FAQs, Still Having Trouble Keeping Pipe Lit

Hi everybody.

Well, I've been smoking the pipe a couple times a week for more than a year
now. I've tried all sorts of ways of packing the thing -- loosely, tightly,
Frank, gravity, upside-down-in-the-hand, the standard three-layers, etc.,
etc., etc. I've tried all kinds of tobacco cuts, too. Cubed, caked,
ribbon, etc., etc...

And I just can't have a satisfying smoke because I can't keep the thing lit
for more than two or three puffs, unless I really heat the thing up with
constant smokestack-puffing.

Look guys, I KNOW that I'm going to have to relight a couple times during an
average smoke. Six, seven, eight times -- that would be fine for me. But I
have to make this really clear:

Unless I puff the heat nearly to pipe-melting extremes, I literally have to
relight after every one or two puffs on my pipe. It takes me perhaps 12-20
relights just to get a third of the way through the bowl. It's insane.

And I've tried so many different ways of packing, and so many different
kinds of tobaccos, and three different pipes - and I'm just at my wit's end.
I've no clue how to get this working properly. And I hope you'll have some
further suggestions for me.

I've been lighting with hard wooden matches of the strike-anywhere variety.
I light two at a time, hold them alongside one another, and inhale through
my pipe, then as I'm inhaling (into my mouth, not my lungs,) I lower the
matches, leave them there a moment, then raise them. I wait a few seconds,
then repeat. I do this about six times, then start in on the smoke. This
is after having set the charring light, which is basically the same
procedure but repeated only twice. After the charring I let the pipe sit
for a few minutes before starting-up on the true lighting.

I live in Florida, where it's rather humid, but most of my tobacco is
extremely dry, so it's not the case that the tobacco has been made damp by
the humidity.

Any ideas?

Thank you!


.

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