I am the Flake Whisperer.

Flake tobacco is fantastic. I hardly smoke anything else and it has been that way for years. I mean to say, I LOVE me some flake pipe tobacco. If you are stuck in the uber-simple ribbon- or shag rut you need to see what the cat daddy of pipe tobaccos has to over. But, I have to be honest here - there's a catch.

Seems like folks think you can just take a flake and roll it up (or fold it), jam it in a pipe and be flake-smoking in one minute. I my experience, this is pretty much myth. Here's the deal. There are more kinds of flakes than Carter has pills. There are wet ones, dry ones, thick ones, thin ones, floppy ones, crumbly ones, leathery ones, ultra-compressed ones and practically everything in between. Let me add that, unlike ribbon or shag, flakes will often warm up and expand slowly (unlike most ribbons that just go "POOF" when the match hits the rim).

Here's my take on fold and stuff. If you're just getting acquainted with flakes (square, rectangular, thick, thin or round), do exactly that - get acquainted with one type of flake. Maximize lighting and burning potential by busting or shredding the flake to pieces. This creates more surface area and promotes easier combustion. Gently moosh, don't mash, the mess evenly in a pipe and fire it up topsides good and hard. Like most tobacco it will quickly go out. Here's the trick when you tamp and relight - tamp ever so gently because what's in the bowl hasn't gotten near hot enough yet to expand. If you mash it down it will compact and, as it heats up, compact some more and plug up the pipe. No pipe tool pick will save you from this, by the way. Keep lighting and keep tamping very gently until you find the sweet burning spot. Thereafter, you may find it's a perfect sweet smoke and you'll stick with mooshing a rubbed out mess in your pipe. Or you may gradually learn the burning and expansion characteristics have some leeway and you can improve step by step toward less shredding and more tamping.

Really leathery well compressed flakes (like SG Full Virginia Flake or 1792) can wear you out unless you rub them out or unless they are quite dry. How dry is dry on the Three-Point Moo Scale?

1. Really dry. Bend a flake in half and it snaps cleanly. This is not a bad thing for some flakes.
2. About right for most flakes. Bend a flake in half and about 50% of it fractures - half breaks and half holds together.
3. Wet enough to wear you out. Bend a flake in half and nothing breaks. In fact, you might be able to tie it in a knot.

Until you're experienced with a flake take the time to go partial bowl of something well rubbed out. Light it hard and tamp it like a butterfly kiss.

Fold and stuff for rookies? Sure. Try MacBaren's Navy Flake after it airs out for a few minutes.

A range of tasty, easy to manage gear for the new-to-flake?

1. MacBaren's Navy Flake (predominant burley - very nice)
2. Erinmore Flake (mildly aromatic - tasty as heck, known as the Juicy Fruit of pipe tobacco)
3. Samuel Gawith Navy Flake ( hint of latakia - very nice)
4. Dunhill Flakes (aka GAF - sweeet to grassy to piquant straight virginia)
5. MacBaren's Stockton (a cute little curly-cut flake, virginia and cavendish - rich but not too strong)

So many more but each needs a little patient exploration to find the limits. When you crack the code and expand your horizons (and flakes) I guarantee the effort will have been worthwhile.