Smoking Down to the Heel

bubblehead33 · Mar 31, 2012

sorry if this is a repeat question ppl but i couldnt find anything relevant in the search. im having a problem finishing all the tobacco in my bowl. i always seem to be digging a bunch out at the end cause it wont stay lit. any advice would be great.

ohin3 · Mar 31, 2012

What are you smoking? Whatever it is it is too moist. Try letting your tobacco dry out until it barely forms a clump when tightly pinched between your fingers. If you take most tobacco straight from the tin or pouch and tightly pinch a wad of it between your fingers it will stick together and form a sticky clump. Dry your tobacco out until that clump forms and then falls apart. Half hour to an hour usually does it. Sticky heavily cased aromatics may take longer and may never dry out if they are loaded with propylene glycol. If that is what your smoking, I don't know what to tell you. Perhaps some of the other gents here who smoke those kind of tobaccos can advise. I smoke everything down to ash.

portascat · Mar 31, 2012

To some, not smoking everything in your pipe to the bitter heel and then pouring the ashes into your hand and rubbing them int your eyes while punching a brick wall with barbed wire wrapped around your fist makes you less than a man.
However, dumping some of the dottle out at the end of a smoke is no big deal to those of us who have experience in such things.
If half of what you packed comes out unsmoked, you may want to practice a different method of packing or smoking. But if you get a bottom layer of junk when you dump, I wouldn't cry over it.

marmal4de · Mar 31, 2012

+1 portascat

portascat · Mar 31, 2012

Ohin does have a point, however.
I can smoke Price Albert down to a few loose molecules.

marmal4de · Mar 31, 2012

That's the point, if it's effortless do it and if not who cares?

rigmedic1 · Mar 31, 2012

Does sound like a wet dottle, and I know that many aromatics are quite moist and will do that. Smoking on the bayou I get a lot of condensation regardless of what I smoke, but a tamp and relight at the base will still give me a couple more minutes of smoking time. Letting the tobacco dry a bit helps prevent that sort of thing, but not entirely. Some folks save the dottle in a container and after some drying time will crumble and smoke the them, but I haven't gone to such an extreme, so I don't know how that would taste. For the smoker on a budget though, it might get a few more smokes out of a package.

cynyr · Mar 31, 2012

+1 portascat
...and on a single light.

bubblehead33 · Mar 31, 2012

all right guys sounds good. i just got some C&D Blockade Runner and its giving me the worst trouble, but it does seem kinda damp. also, good description there portascat had a good laugh over it hahaha.

dylan793 · Mar 31, 2012

I gotta admit, there's something very satisfying about dumping out nothing but fine dust after a delicious smoke. Some blends do it on their own, some you have to smoke just right, and some leave dottle no matter what you do. It really doesn't matter either way.

spartan · Mar 31, 2012

The level at which the draft hole is drilled will of course impact whether or not you'll be able to smoke all the way to the bottom.
Excuse the crude drawing, I only have paint on this computer lol But the higher the draft hole is off the bottom there is NO WAY you can smoke tobacco that is UNDER your draft hole. Many will either not buy a pipe that is drilled this way, or will buy the pipe (at a reduced price) and use water and ashes to form a concrete-like substance at the bottom to raise the floor to the draft hole. Allowing you to then possibly smoke to the bottom of the bowl. And saving you a tiny bit of tobacco that otherwise would have been below that hole and would be wet and unreachable.
The red dot is the draft hole and the blue is the wet tobacco. :rofl:

But often even if it is drilled perfectly you must smoke slowly and allow the wet leaf at the bottom to dry before the ember gets to it. Otherwise the ember goes out, because wet tobacco doesn't take to flame very well.

bobby46 · Mar 31, 2012

"got some C&D Blockade Runner and its giving me the worst trouble,"

-------------------------------------------------------

Blockade runner is wonderful stuff. It's a crumble cake, and is tinned moist. You have to peel off a corner, and rub that clump loose-to-shreds before air drying.

stogie37 · Mar 31, 2012

Ohin3 & Spartan are spot-on in their wisdom. I would add only that you might be tamping a bit aggressively. It tends to be a rare occurence when I leave more than ash and a few charred strands of tobacco at the bottom of the bowl. When I see unburned tobacco (as I just did a moment ago with some C&D Night Train) I am usually guilty of creating a firmer than needed pack. Sometimes I catch this happening mid-smoke,and can either fluff it lightly with my tamper, or, better yet, will run a pipe cleaner up the stem which gives a little lift to the pack from the bottom of the bowl.

bubblehead33 · Mar 31, 2012

this is all great stuff guys! i had another bowl a few minutes ago and it seemed to burn better. thanks for the tip stogie, im still trying to get my tamping right.

spartan · Mar 31, 2012

The way I have improved my tamping (still far from great) is that I would just smoke without tamping and when the smoke went out I would get the timing for when I should have tamped.
Then I would tamp once at the appropriate time, and again smoke til it goes out without tamping. Sooner or later you will get a feel for when to tamp, when to fluff, dump out top layer of ash, etc.
Just keep doing it over and over and you will develop your own technique. : puffy

:
P.S. I still get those stubborn few wet strips of dottle at the heel of the pipe. So I still have room for improvement.

marmal4de · Mar 31, 2012

When I feel like I am tamping too much (I am a serial over-tamper) I cut myself off for a few bowls.

bubblehead33 · Mar 31, 2012

right on! thats another thing ive wondered about, the ash. do you just leave it til the end or dump it once and awhile? i came over from cigars and flicking the ash off was simple but im unsure what to do with the pipe :?

spartan · Mar 31, 2012

Well it wasn't there when you STARTED smoking so dump it out as often as you like. Or keep it there for the whole smoke.
I've done both.
I've even turned the pipe upside down (with straight pipes only lol) in order to keep the pipe from going out and to help dry out the tobacco at the heel. Because when I turn it upside down the heat that is rising is now directed at the tobacco in the heel of the pipe. It helps me when it's humid outside and a little difficult to keep the pipe going for long.
No hard-lined rules. Do what works for you. But if you need help there are no shortage of advice here. Love this place. :D

ohin3 · Mar 31, 2012

I never dump ash. When I tamp, I simply ease the tamper onto the burning ember and let gravity do the tamping while puffing. If you push on the tamper you end up tightening your pack and by the time you get to the bottom of the bowl it is tight and smokes hot, wet and sour. Maybe a little pressure now and then if it is stubborn, but as little as possible. I find that if you smoke till your pipe goes out and then tamp you develop a sense of how your pipe smokes when it needs to be tamped. Soon you will notice that familiar lack of draw and smoke and know that you need to tamp to ease that burning ember back down to your unburnt tobacco.

stogie37 · Mar 31, 2012

Yep, I pretty much always leave the ash. Seems to provide a bit of ember "insulation" and, with the exception of chimney / stack billiards, ash build-up doesn't hinder the relights if there is a need for one or more.

Smoking Down to the Heel

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