Over Tamping

tarak · Apr 18, 2015

After a hiatus due to voice issues, I've been seriously enjoying the pipe again this spring, with one issue: every time I smoke, regardless of pipe or tobacco, I have a total loss of flavor half way through, and all I taste is ash.
After some thought, I realized it's always after the pipe has extinguished, and I relight. I then also realized I tamp a lot- some little OCD corner of my brain hates the loose look of the ember.
Putting two and two together, I stopped tamping so much....only when ashes were flying or relighting wasn't possible.
Instantly solved the problem.
Another lesson learned!

jkrug · Apr 18, 2015

I noticed the same ashy taste a while back too and came to the same conclusion. I try to pay more attention to it now but still get a little tamp happy now and then. I think I sometimes tend to smoke a little hot too. That ashy taste is awful!! : puffy

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mso489 · Apr 18, 2015

Definitely true. I find tightening down the packing a little before each relight can help, but only if you don't relight over and over. You have to have some smoking time between relights, and if you are working on something else and the pipe keeps going out, it's a problem. Tamping is a kind of art. A little gentle tamping usually works best. The fire will structure itself and accommodate relights, but only a few.
That's why, I think really nice tampers are something for experienced smokers. Beginners want to put them into play so much, they use them too much. Just a thought. The basic pipe or horseshoe nail will do it all, and you don't like it so well that you yearn to use it.

jkrug · Apr 18, 2015

That's a good point mso489. I have a small pottery jar full of various pretty tampers and Czech tools but it's usually my Brigham pipe nail I use to stomp the crap out of my tobacco! lol

elbert · Apr 18, 2015

I'll definitely give this a go. Lately I've been tempted to "solve" the problem with an ash dump, but I generally find that ash dumping just causes more problems.
Except with Dunhill EMP--that blend just gets sour, acrid, and ashy on me every time, so I always end up ash-dumping it. Any advice there would be appreciated...
-Josh

puffy · Apr 18, 2015

It's about what works for you.

tarak · Apr 19, 2015

I do ash dump probably once a bowl. I reach a point where relights and flavor just demand it.

newbroom · Apr 19, 2015

The ash dumping question was raised last week, and I find I must change my opinion, because I do find that I dump them more than I admitted.

Often I'll smoke the first 'half' of a bowl and put it down. When I go back to it, I'll take the pointy end of my nail set/tamper and swirl it around the bowl gently to determine the depth of the ashes and loosen them some, and I'll dump them. If the relight takes without messing with the remains...I'm good. After that, all bets are off.

elbert · Apr 19, 2015

See, and I've found that if I do anything to disrupt the 'structure' of the pack, I end up with some of that loose ash in my mouth. Which I guess isn't a huge problem--I just do a little 'pfftt' to get rid of it, and then she smokes like a dream again.
I've also been guilty of blowing air through the pipe to blow the really fine ash out the top of the bowl--another bad habit, I expect, and more likely to result in a wet smoke. But it's all part of the adventure, eh?

allan · Apr 19, 2015

+1 newbroom
I find if I relight without dumping ash, it becomes sour
I'll take a tamper and gently stir the top and dump

jkrug · Apr 19, 2015

I will dump my ashes too and do it the same as newbroom described. I don't always do it but will if the ashes seem to be suffocating the ember and my pipe keeps going out. I find the trick to this is to only stir up the top of the ash and not disturb the packed tobacco below. I'm just rying to dump out enough ash, not all of it, that the pipe will remain lit. : puffy

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oldredbeard · Apr 19, 2015

Great topic. It took me forever to learn not to tamp every time my pipe went out. I'm still bad about tamping too hard, but getting better.

jkrug · Apr 19, 2015

redbeard that's what I was doing as well and sometimes my pipe goes out alot so that's a lot of tamping. Took a while to learn to tamp occasionally and lightly. Still forget once in a while but getting better. : puffy

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jkrug · Apr 19, 2015

Sorry...double tap.

menuhin · Apr 19, 2015

The perfect experience for me during smoking a pipe would be puffing away, so focused (on something or daydreaming) with the good taste of smoke that I forget the burning of tobacco itself, and when it goes out and I take a look the tobacco has already burn to the bottom of the bowl with only white ash left. I had this only a few times.

That being said, I tried to tamp as little as possible, and usually it is the intensity of the smoke and the draw that prompt me to tamp. To tamp in time (at least for me), is to try to keep the amber which is on top near the ash in adequate contact with the tobacco around and underneath, in order to keep the burning continue, to avoid a re-light and to make the burning more even. Tamping too often or too hard will restrict enough oxygen to go under the amber for an efficient burn.

This is an art that I have to continue to improve and master throughout my pipe smoking, not to mention I have to master this on various shapes and sizes of pipes. :puffpipe:

cigrmaster · Apr 20, 2015

Anytime my pipe goes out, I will gently stir the ash and dump it. I then tamp the pipe and re light and it always tastes great. I hardly ever tamp while my pipe is going. If I find it may be going out, I will just cover the bowl with a couple of fingers and then hit it a couple of times to get it going again.

menuhin · Apr 21, 2015

Hi cigar-master,

I'm glad about the recovery from the back surgery as I've read on the forum.
Tamping when in need of re-lighting is also what Pease mentioned in an interview.

My general rule is not to tamp until the pipe requires re-lighting, and then, only if it’s been smoldering long enough to have a substantial volume of fluffy ash.

http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/ask-g-l-pease/ask-g-l-pease-july-2012-volume-15/
Another school of approaching tamping are those 'ember-chasers', such as a no longer active member (Lawrence) from this forum, pipe smokers using this approach seem to tamp more often.

http://pipesmagazine.com/dottlediggers/page/2/

http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/tamping-method-inadequate-when-do-you-tamp

joshb83 · Apr 21, 2015

I used to believe that tamping was a neccisity, that was what you did. Char light, tamp, re-light and smoke. If it went out, tamp, etc. now I find that if the char light never goes out its going to be a good day, and just keep puffing away

I hadn't thought about it until now, but I was a victim of over-tamping as well, but live and learn

Over Tamping

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