Flake Tobacco: Fold or Rub?

 

(Passion for Pipes) I had a lot of trouble making a fold-and-stuff loading technique work the first few times. Try as I might, I was unable to maintain an appropriate burn. The tobacco stubbornly refused to burn evenly or at all. I was so frustrated that I nearly decided to forget folding and stuffing and just stick to rubbing the flake out.
That would have been a big mistake.
The difference in flavor between smoking a rubbed-out flake versus a folded-and- stuffed flake can be so stark as to seem metaphysical. Continued