Covering a Tobacco Pipe while Smoking

Why do pipe smokers occasionally cover the bowl with their fingers while puffing on their pipes?

         Image source: news.bbc.co.uk

There are two basic reasons for this practice:

1. If the bowl begins to grow cool, or if the tobacco ember is beginning to weaken, a classic means of keeping the pipe burning is to quickly introduce air by "carbureting" the bowl. This is what you often see smokers doing when they cover the bowl with their fingers while puffing. By covering and uncovering the bowl while puffing more robustly than usual, a repeated rush of air is forced over the ember, which helps restore better combustion and keeps the pipe burning (or at least that's the idea).


2. Another reason for covering the bowl is the presence of too much moisture in the stem or shank of the pipe. Moisture is an unavoidable byproduct of combustion, but if it builds up too much, it can cause the pipe to gurgle or surprise the smoker with a mouthful of nasty juice. A simple technique for dealing with this is to blow gently but steadily INTO the stem for a few moments. This pushes the moisture out of the stem/shank and down into the heel of the bowl where it will no longer present a problem during the smoke. Of course, this process of blowing into the stem will cause ashes and debris to fly out of the bowl, creating quite a mess. So the smoker will momentarily cover the bowl with his fingers to prevent this from happening.