>>1052241Flakes are actually pretty easy to live with, since it basically forces you to smoke it properly.
The big thing to remember is it's compressed tobacco, so it's harder to get lit and you need to use less tobacco than you think you will. It naturally smokes slower too.
For non-aromatic flakes in most average size pipe bowls, I'll tear a flake in half and then fold that half flake in half and stuff it into the bowl. For more aromatic flakes (Erinmore, lots of Mac Baren flakes), I'll rub it out between my palms then ball it up and do a reverse fill on my pipe (put pipe bowl over the tobacco and then roll it around my hand until it's all in there). Both fills will produce a smoke that lasts the better part of an hour, and neither needs to be tamped much.
For those who need to see for themselves what a reverse fill looks like, here's a video:
https://youtu.be/0XHYPso7TXs 