Tongue Burn, Tongue Afire, Raw-tongue... What is WRONG?!

[Emperor Zurg]

Or, as @freestroke noted above, LBF might simply be poisonous to you. Jeepers, I hope not; LBF is a real pleasure to smoke once you know how to get it on.

Let me know how it goes, Zurgs.

The LBF didn't bite me, but it did get swampy and I tossed a bit at the end. Heck, for +2 hrs of smoking time on 2 flakes I don't think it owed me anything after that so I didn't mind tossing it. However, if I'd have gotten belligerent and torched it to ash, my mouth would have been burning for days afterword. This isn't the case just with LBF, it's with pretty much any tobacco.

I'll give your shredding and light loading method a try next time and see if it smokes drier.

[Mister Moo]

The LBF didn't bite me, but it did get swampy and I tossed a bit at the end. Heck, for +2 hrs of smoking time on 2 flakes I don't think it owed me anything after that so I didn't mind tossing it. However, if I'd have gotten belligerent and torched it to ash, my mouth would have been burning for days afterword. This isn't the case just with LBF, it's with pretty much any tobacco.

I'll give your shredding and light loading method a try next time and see if it smokes drier.

I am very much a smoker of flake tobacco - probably 90%. It is often the case that any given flake (brand) has a learning curve which denies fold-and-stuff. I don't think you can lose with letting it dry a bit, rubbing it out a lot and always tamping lightly.

Now, for what it's worth, MacBarens Navy Flake is a smallish and very tasty product. Out the tin it is ready to smoke by folding one or two flakes in half (so they break at the fold) and gently mooshing them in a pipe with the frayed ends sticking up. Easy for the average flake-rookie to fill, light and enjoy. After my struggle with Escudo I found MacNavyFlake - it restored my faith in pipe smoking ad returned me to the land of the normal-tongue people.