Avoiding Tongue Bite
Our goal for this web site is to reflect the personality of our club and members while offering fun and interesting pages for both the beginner and seasoned pipe smoker.
Tongue bite, or an irritation of the tongue, (the most common pipe smoking problem) is caused by one or more of the followingreasons:
1.Improper cake (or no cake) in the heel. This causes a Briar pipe to smoke hot, which results in tongue bite.
2.A "drug store" quality pipe fitted with a filter system which traps bitter fluids in the shank of your pipe. (Some "system" pipes, however, are effective in dealing with tongue bite).
3.Tobacco too tightly packed in the heel. This leaves no air pockets for good combustion.
4.Smoking low quality commercially packaged tobaccos containing preservatives and other artificial ingredients.
5.Not tamping evenly or often enough.
6.Smoking or puffing your pipe too fast. Cigarette smokers often have this habit when switching to a pipe.