Generally I slow down by adding more time between puffs.... [emoji14]
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Seriously, to slow down your puffing rate will take practice. If you feel your bowl getting a bit too warm, you know to slow down. If it gets HOT, put it down and let it go out. Once cooled, re-lite. If you get it HOT again, put it down again. It is not a race to see who can finish first.
I find the easiest and most satisfying way to slow down is to smoke stronger tobacco. If I smoke a low nicotine smoke, I puff like a freight train trying to get more from the smoke. That is why I smoke mostly Royal Yacht and fill in with other high octane tobaccos like Irish Flake, sliced Brown Twist and University Flake.
This first thing is to quit looking at the clock. Forget about time. True pipe smoking is leaving the material world for a bit, to unplug and reset. The world was here for a long time before you arrived, and it will be here a long time after we leave it. Enjoy your smoke. The world will be there when you get back. Businesses, governments, and other institutions functioned fine before you got involved. I assure you, they will not collapse during the 30 mins to 1 hour you spend enjoying a pipe.
Next, quit thinking about how you are smoking your pipe. Instead, ponder the Human Condition, solve the worlds problems, explore the limits of your mind, and expand them. Read, play chess, or best of all, engage in deep conversation with another pipe smoker. This is what pipe smoking is all about.
Do that, and you find yourself smoking slower automatically, and you will also be more relaxed, and your IQ, may not increase, but you will learn to use what you have much better.
Its funny, as a new piper I started off with a MM and it provided a very good smoke with little effort on my end. Once my interest in pipes was piqued I started looking at briars and thats where all my problems started. A MM is cheap and does the job well. Not much to look at but great smokers. I think I need to light one up today.
I realize you weren't specifically asking me but I can tell you I have a #67 briar and it smokes wonderfully. The bowl is a little thin but it handles all my English blends (that's the only ting I smoke in it) like a champ. It doesn't gurgle. The stem is a little plasticky feeling but it's solid enough that I don't feel like it'll shatter if I drop it or something.
I dropped a whopping $25 on it and it's probably one of my better smokers. I'd grab one.
I also have the churchwarden #14. It's pearwood and it's kind of cheap feeling. Smallish bowl with a really plasticky feeling stem. I hardly smoke the churchwarden. It cost about the same ~$25.