Small Pipe - Long Smoke

[cgraunke]

Whats the deal with flakes?
And what are plugs?

I am no pro but as I understand it, flakes and plugs are tobaccos that have been pressed. Basically, they take the tobacco and place an insane amount of pressure on it. Sometimes they heat it too. Anyway, once it's done, it kind of looks like a chunk of hash if you know what that looks like.
The benefits of the pressure is to draw out the sugars and to blend the tobaccos flavours. Some of the limited plugs I have smoked are incredibly well balanced.
Anyway - once the "chunk" is done, a flake is thinly sliced. The plug is left as chunk. I didn't like them when I started out because it takes a bit of practice to learn how to load and smoke them. But I have grown fond of them here lately.

To my understanding:
Plug is compressed whole leaf.
Kake is compressed loose leaf.
Flake is slices cut from Plug.
Broken Flake is partially broken up Flake.
Crumble Kake is, yeah, you get the idea.

 

[SeaGarr]

To my understanding:
Plug is compressed whole leaf.
Kake is compressed loose leaf.
Flake is slices cut from Plug.
Broken Flake is partially broken up Flake.
Crumble Kake is, yeah, you get the idea.

Nice - thanks man.

 

[herfdog]

thanks for the info @cgraunke
I tried the flake three times now and I assume I don't pack it properly as I need more relights than with ribbons, but I like packing flakes.... if that makes any sense.

 

[CVAC085]

My head hurts after reading that, but it's awesome information!!

 

[Sirspanksalot]

If I don't break it up, I'll roll flakes into a log type shape, and pop it in. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it fails lol

 

[SeaGarr]

If I don't break it up, I'll roll flakes into a log type shape, and pop it in. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it fails lol

I have seen youtube videos of dudes doing that - rolling it and popping it in. Maybe one day when I have time to mess around, I'll give it a go. As it stands now, I am having great luck just slicing it, and then very lightly rubbing it out. If I keep having the success I am having doing it that way, flake and plug tobacco might become my prefered delivery method lol.

I really like that by cubing it, it seemingly gives me a longer smoke. Were as rubbing it out sees it burn a bit faster.

 

[JustTroItIn]

I am a big fan of flake tobacco. Some of it burns great and others are fire retardent. I would recommend Peter Stokkebye offerings for the newbie flake smoker. Not only are they cheap and taste great, but they seem to burn fantastic regardless of the pack method. I normally lean toward fold and stuff but will resort to rubbing flakes out for those hard to burn blends.

 

[SeaGarr]

I am a big fan of flake tobacco. Some of it burns great and others are fire retardent. I would recommend Peter Stokkebye offerings for the newbie flake smoker. Not only are they cheap and taste great, but they seem to burn fantastic regardless of the pack method. I normally lean toward fold and stuff but will resort to rubbing flakes out for those hard to burn blends.

Great input - thanks.