So Much Dottle
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It can be caused by severa things.
1. wet blends, if you are smoking a wet blend, (aromatics tend to be wetter) make sure you are allowing some time to dry before packing your pipe.
2. Tight packing, try packing your pipe looser.
3. Cadence, play around with how fast or slow you puff. This can make a big difference.
4. Relights are ok! For some reason some don't like to relight, or become annoyed when they need to do so. Don't worry about it and relight as often as possible. If you follow the other three though and have them right, it's likely that you won't need too many relights.
1. wet blends, if you are smoking a wet blend, (aromatics tend to be wetter) make sure you are allowing some time to dry before packing your pipe.
2. Tight packing, try packing your pipe looser.
3. Cadence, play around with how fast or slow you puff. This can make a big difference.
4. Relights are ok! For some reason some don't like to relight, or become annoyed when they need to do so. Don't worry about it and relight as often as possible. If you follow the other three though and have them right, it's likely that you won't need too many relights.
Try allowing your tobacco to dry a bit more before loading your pipe. The extra moisture in the leaf could be accumulating.
I do want to mention, there seems to be a popular idea that a bowl MUST be smoked all the way to the bottom every time. I don't follow this. I stop when it's no longer tasty and enjoyable. Sure a little leaf gets tossed but it's the tarry charred remnants.
I do want to mention, there seems to be a popular idea that a bowl MUST be smoked all the way to the bottom every time. I don't follow this. I stop when it's no longer tasty and enjoyable. Sure a little leaf gets tossed but it's the tarry charred remnants.
I tend to dump quite a bit of tobacco. As soon as the flavor isn't what I want it to be or the tobacco starts giving me fits and smoking poorly, it's done.
Easier to pack a new bowl than ruin an otherwise good smoke trying to burn every last crumb.
Easier to pack a new bowl than ruin an otherwise good smoke trying to burn every last crumb.
Also bear in mind that there are two different kind of "dottle". One is generally a wet, goopy mess of unburned tobacco. To me, that is not truly dottle, but it seems to be the closest word we have for it. The other are little chunks of black stuff; they are not fine white ash, but when you rub a chunk between your thumb and finger, they disintegrate into black powder. When I have a really tasty, cool smoke, that is usually what is left behind. To me, that means you have gotten all the flavorful smoke out of the tobacco, without reaching incinerator temperatures.
Dumping white ash and tamping a little before relights, especially the latter, may help. Also, loosening up the tobacco a little with the pick on your pipe tool. None of this needs to be overdone, or done every time. Many bowls you can bring along with just a bit of tamping. Finally, as already mentioned, some dottle isn't a terrible thing. When you smoke it all to white or gray ash, that's fun, but not necessary. A little dottle is fine, or even a little more.
Usually bout half way thru a bowl I'll poke the pack a bit to loosen the draw, think the extra air helps with a more complete burn, I don't have much problem with dottle
Dottle is going to happen no matter what pipe you smoke, what tobacco you smoke or what pipe you smoke it in. The more you smoke pipe tobacco the more you can garner the flavor out of the bottom of the bowl. Why is that? Because you become more familiar with how tobacco smokes in a pipe. As the years go by and you continue to some, the more you will realize that that bottom of the bowl doesn't taste like pure ass.
Then after years off enjoyment of bliss pass that pipe full of dottle to a friend or wife to see if it doesn't taste like ass. They will tell you it tastes like ass and then my rightous answer will be vindicated and you will realize you are smoking what most people would consider to taste like ass. But you will be enlightened. You will be smoking a flavorful pipe with a shit-eating grin on your face because you paid $4.00 an ounce for that baccy.
Then after years off enjoyment of bliss pass that pipe full of dottle to a friend or wife to see if it doesn't taste like ass. They will tell you it tastes like ass and then my rightous answer will be vindicated and you will realize you are smoking what most people would consider to taste like ass. But you will be enlightened. You will be smoking a flavorful pipe with a shit-eating grin on your face because you paid $4.00 an ounce for that baccy.
Wasn't it C S Lewis who used to save all his dottle in a little jar and them smoke it 'again' when times were lean or the fancy took him?
Regards,
Jay.
Regards,
Jay.
Could be. "Sherlock Holmes" saved the dottle from a day's smoke, left in on the mantle to dry, and it became his "early morning pipe" Whoa!!
Sounds like it would be mild in Nicotine, so no way. I'd just wash an aro and smoke that instead.
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