Heh this thread is funny.
I have heard about a method for forming cake, to shake the ashes of the bowl you just smoked around the chamber walls.
But you don't need to keep an ash supply to do this.
So if you need ashes for mud . Smoke a cigggar and your pipe and make your own . Cant say as I have never had to use it . What I mean to say is how much could you possibly need . Do you store it in quart jars in the cellar or what . I can see it now in stores eveywhere .I digress .
I have an empty SG Brown #4 tin that at the moment is about 1/2 full of sifted pipe ash.
Is it really that much of a stretch to want to have supplies on hand when needed?