First Smoke with a Stinger

[walkingpipeguy]

I just got my first estate pipe the other day, a very nice little "Short Snorter" pocket-sized pipe, with an aluminum stinger in it. I posted about it with pictures, here. I just smoked it for the first time. The infamous stingers are a frequent subject of beginner questions, so here is my experience with one, for the curious.

My first impression was that it's a fantastic cool and sweet smoking little pipe. The second thing I noticed is that it seemed abnormally difficult to keep it lit, despite drying my tobacco beforehand and packing loosely. Towards the end of the bowl, I really struggled with it. It went out constantly, just when I thought I had it going good. Frequent re-lights and smoking faster to try to keep it going adversely affected the flavor of the tobacco, although it was not a terrible experience overall. (A subpar smoke is still better than no smoke, I guess.) When I finally quit and dumped the bowl, I saw the problem. The tobacco in the bottom of the bowl was soaked like I've never seen before. Wet enough to wring drips out of it.

In theory, a "stinger" condenser makes for a drier smoke by condensing the moisture in it. But where does the moisture go? Nowhere. It condenses in the pipe and stays there. Must be why no pipe makers use them anymore. I have never had a major issue with moisture in any of my 6mm filter pipes, with or without filters, even when using wetter and more tightly packed tobacco than I typically do now.

It only took one try to answer the stinger question for me. I'm quite happy with the pipe overall, but the stinger had to go. Luckily it was easy to remove. I came across a blog post from Reborn Pipes that included de-stinging another Short Snorter, by heating the aluminum part with a candle to persuade the vulcanite stem to let go of it, and then pulling out the surprisingly long stinger. I was intimidated to try it, and worried about damaging my stem. I got out a candle, and gave the stinger a test wiggle with a pair of pliers. It turned out to be already loose, and came out easily, without needing any heat. It was only about 3/4 of an inch long. I'm guessing I probably have a late example of a Short Snorter. I can't wait to try it again without the stinger, as it was quite enjoyable to smoke until the condensation made the tobacco too wet to burn.

 

[Briar Lee]

It is dismaying to be the old gray headed cynic.

But in fifty years of pipe smoking and at least thirty of those removing stingers (two that I broke, without heating ahead of pulling) I’ve found a wet smoking pipe is not caused by a stinger, nor does removing one help a wet smoker.

Two remedies do help me.

Increasing the bore of the draft hole, is one.

And not smoking short snorters is another.

Why I cannot explain, but a pipe needs a five inch air draft chamber and six is likely better.

Not all short pipes are wet smokers.

But aside from full bent pipes, the short pipes sometimes smoke wet.

 

[walkingpipeguy]

It is dismaying to be the old gray headed cynic.

But in fifty years of pipe smoking and at least thirty of those removing stingers (two that I broke, without heating ahead of pulling) I’ve found a wet smoking pipe is not caused by a stinger, nor does removing one help a wet smoker.

Two remedies do help me.

Increasing the bore of the draft hole, is one.

And not smoking short snorters is another.

Why I cannot explain, but a pipe needs a five inch air draft chamber and six is likely better.

Not all short pipes are wet smokers.

But aside from full bent pipes, the short pipes sometimes smoke wet.

Interesting, that does make sense. I'll have to try it without the stinger and see if it's still wet. I have a similarly sized corncob that I didn't notice smoking all that wet, but it has more wood for the smoke to pass through, with a short plastic bit on the end.

 

[walkingpipeguy]

After a few smokes with the stinger removed, I found that removing it didn't make it smoke dry. But, removing it did mitigate the problem considerably by not trapping the moisture in the bowl. When it goes out, I put my thumb over the bowl and give it a whip to sling the moisture out of the stem. The tobacco burns much better now without constant relighting. Doesn't exactly burn down to the fine white ash of lore and legend, I still get some dottle left in the bottom when I'm done with it, but I've also only smoked somewhat moist aromatics out of it (first Captain Black, and then Sutliff Vanilla Custard.)

It's a decent little pipe after all, not perfect but I will continue smoking it. I might try enlarging the draft hole a tiny bit and see if it does anything for it.