A Question About Tall Bowls, Help Wanted

[khiddy]

I have one of the really tall cobs. My lessons learned include: Smoke shag, or lighter fare. If you don’t, prepare for relights. This is where the hemp twine excels. You can reach down in there with it and light specific spots. Tallboys clench poorly too. I can’t recommend tall pipes, but they look good tucked into the chest of my overalls.

I have two MM Generals that I do really enjoy smoking Virginia and VA-based blends out of. Peterson Sherlock Holmes is a fantastic thin ribbon cut, just shy of shag, that smokes particularly well in a General when given a bit of dry time. I may have to load a General up with D&R Ryback sometime, as most of my other bowls are too small to get a satisfyingly long smoke from the very dry shag of the Ryback.

I looked at getting an MM MacArthur when I was at the factory, and realized that the chamber was so deep that it would use half a tin of tobacco to load it, and I'd have to use a full-on candle lighter to keep it going. Those two facts, plus the realization that it just looked like a B-movie prop, made me opt for the much more reasonable (yet still kind of silly-big) General. I've been really happy with my decision, the General is one of the best smokers I have.

I use a Clipper mini lighter, it has a mini neck that allows me to easily get down into all of my bowls to relight, so I'm good there.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I smoke Stacks and Toppers often. I love them. They will get the dottle rather moist, because the bottom of the bowl is where the excess moisture from combustion goes, but pack a little loser. You can always adjust density of the bowl with a tamper. Mostly, i just clench them, light them, and forget about them. But, from time to time, I will just turn the bowl over as the OP describes, but not as a matter of practice.

I don't typically have issues with them going out, because I will keep them clenched, but when I do, I just hover the flame just above the bowl's rim and draw the heat down to get an even light. Sometimes the flame will jump back up from the bowl, similar to how most will light a cigar. There is NEVER a need to stick the flame down inside the bowl. This is not good for your pipe. I mean "my" pipes... you can do as you wish with your own.

Even though the dottle can get very moist, I can still smoke them to the bottom without forcing it with relights. The trick is just to keep it in your mouth.

 

[Choatecav]

I am currently smoking my tallest pipe, which isn't necessarily very tall. This also happens to be my favorite pipe I own. It's a cheap basket pipe stamped "Excelsior", "Imported Briar
Italy"
I really do not see any difference in smoking quality, but it definitely is a great smoker and very tasty and dry....hence why it's my favorite.
I do not believe its the shape that makes this one great, it's the wood, the stem material (Vulcanite) and the button shape....and it smokes tasty and dry 100% of the time. I do prefer large bowled pipes generally.
View attachment 340823

Sig, that bowl height is just about perfect in my opinion.............

 

[Choatecav]

I don't typically have issues with them going out, because I will keep them clenched, but when I do, I just hover the flame just above the bowl's rim and draw the heat down to get an even light. Sometimes the flame will jump back up from the bowl, similar to how most will light a cigar.

Good point here about hovering the flame just above bowl. We sometimes don't realize how hot "drawn" flame can get. And that point just above (or below in the case of a downward drawn flame) the "orange" of the flame is the hottest. You're almost getting a soft torch sensation.

 

[Egg Shen]

I have two MM Generals that I do really enjoy smoking Virginia and VA-based blends out of. Peterson Sherlock Holmes is a fantastic thin ribbon cut, just shy of shag, that smokes particularly well in a General when given a bit of dry time. I may have to load a General up with D&R Ryback sometime, as most of my other bowls are too small to get a satisfyingly long smoke from the very dry shag of the Ryback.

I looked at getting an MM MacArthur when I was at the factory, and realized that the chamber was so deep that it would use half a tin of tobacco to load it, and I'd have to use a full-on candle lighter to keep it going. Those two facts, plus the realization that it just looked like a B-movie prop, made me opt for the much more reasonable (yet still kind of silly-big) General. I've been really happy with my decision, the General is one of the best smokers I have.

I use a Clipper mini lighter, it has a mini neck that allows me to easily get down into all of my bowls to relight, so I'm good there.

i mainly only use mine camping because I can sit there for two hours and smoke through the entire bowl. It’s not practical for my everyday use, but I wasn’t considering these things at the time of purchase. I now know better.

 

[khiddy]

Good point here about hovering the flame just above bowl. We sometimes don't realize how hot "drawn" flame can get. And that point just above (or below in the case of a downward drawn flame) the "orange" of the flame is the hottest. You're almost getting a soft torch sensation.

I can guarantee that holding the flame just above the bowl on an MM General is nowhere near close enough to relight the tobacco once it gets more than about halfway down that monster chamber. I do not let the flame touch the actual tobacco, but I do have to nuzzle the pointer down towards the bottom of the bowl to get the tobacco going again after it's out (or after a period of DGT). But that's just my experience smoking my pipes.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I can guarantee that holding the flame just above the bowl on an MM General is nowhere near close enough to relight the tobacco once it gets more than about halfway down that monster chamber. I do not let the flame touch the actual tobacco, but I do have to nuzzle the pointer down towards the bottom of the bowl to get the tobacco going again after it's out (or after a period of DGT). But that's just my experience smoking my pipes.

I can light the bottom half of a Tsuge Topper without directing any flame down into the chamber. You just have to give it a few gentle but strong draws or puffs. But, I am not in charge of how everyone else does their own thing. Whatever works for you.

 

[elvishrunes]

I smoke Stacks and Toppers often. I love them. They will get the dottle rather moist, because the bottom of the bowl is where the excess moisture from combustion goes, but pack a little loser. You can always adjust density of the bowl with a tamper. Mostly, i just clench them, light them, and forget about them. But, from time to time, I will just turn the bowl over as the OP describes, but not as a matter of practice.

I don't typically have issues with them going out, because I will keep them clenched, but when I do, I just hover the flame just above the bowl's rim and draw the heat down to get an even light. Sometimes the flame will jump back up from the bowl, similar to how most will light a cigar. There is NEVER a need to stick the flame down inside the bowl. This is not good for your pipe. I mean "my" pipes... you can do as you wish with your own.

Even though the dottle can get very moist, I can still smoke them to the bottom without forcing it with relights. The trick is just to keep it in your mouth.

interesting, I never understood why the Dottle burns so poorly, and you dump the pipe and still have lots of tobacco. It is water. I thought it was smoke resin, but Latakia is loaded with creosote and burns fantastic. I have recently figured out this year how to burn it though, it takes about 5 lights and it finally goes. It is not the tastiest part, but I don’t mind it.

as for the OP I mostly smoke 2 inch deep Neerups and haven’t found any problems with the height smoking.

 

[Hillcrest]

I sometimes, if the pipe isn't re-lighting quickly, invert the pipe and light it upside down until lit then hold it upright once lit. YMMV

 

[Searock Fan]

It's really simple. If you want to be able to keep the bottom half of the bowl burning without constant relights, here's the rule. The taller the bowl is the larger the diameter should be.

 

[georged]

Speaking of tall 'uns, this chamber is 1" wide by 3.0" deep:

 

[georged]

Speaking of tall 'uns, this chamber is 1" wide by 3.0" deep:

View attachment 341489

It seems I still can't type. The chamber is 3.25" deep, not 3.0"

As long as I'm at it, the other dimensions are 8.325" long, 3.5" tall, and 132 grams. A true giant.

Its name? Elsie Boostak, of course.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

I have gravitated towards larger and larger pipes in recent years, mainly because of my Mixed Martial Arts TV viewing. UFC events usually run close to six hours, followed by a post show that I watch right afterwards. KOs can happen in an instant, so I don’t want to be looking away from the action if at all possible. Taking the time to load up a pipe during a fight is not desirable, for fear of missing something that can occur in a split second. Turn away from the screen and you might miss a shocking, amazing knockout. @Humblepipe knows exactly what I’m talking about. The easiest solution has been to use pipes that give me the longest, uninterrupted smoking time with a single chamber load of tobacco, hence the big pipes below.



These are some of the longest smoking pipes I have. The 19th Century French pipe in the top middle routinely gives me four to five hours of smoking time with a single chamber load of Cornell & Diehl Folklore; the BST (Briar, Sweat, and Tears) Birdseye LC commission on the lower left consistently gives me five hours with Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding; I have yet to discover the limits of the smoking time of the unknown brand behemoth on the upper right—I have tapped out from the nic hit at seven hours before completing smoking the entire chamber load of tobacco. All three of these pipes has approximately a 2.75" chamber depth, but the monster on the upper right has a wider diameter, at 1.125"—I can fit my entire index finger inside the chamber:



I have yet to smoke the BST LC on the lower right. It has a 2.375" deep chamber, so I expect smoking times that might almost approach the other BST and French LC (depending on the cut of what I decide to dedicate to it). We shall see once I resume smoking (been on hiatus for almost three months).

I wanted a Falcon bowl that was taller than the tallest available stack from Falcon, which is a perfectly fine bowl, but not as tall as I would prefer (it’s about 2.2" tall with a 1.9" chamber depth). This Norm Triptow Falcon bowl commission (made from Bethlehem Olive) is 3.25" tall with a .75" diameter chamber, which I expect to give me a pretty long smoke.

 

[pappymac]

I have three pipe with chambers over 2-inches deep.
In addition to learning to pack these pipes looser, I had to learn to tamp more lightly.
If you tamp to heavily then you compress the tobacco at the bottom of the bowl and the pipe will go out. It can also restrict the draw.

 

[gord]

I have gravitated towards larger and larger pipes in recent years, mainly because of my Mixed Martial Arts TV viewing. UFC events usually run close to six hours, followed by a post show that I watch right afterwards. KOs can happen in an instant, so I don’t want to be looking away from the action if at all possible. Taking the time to load up a pipe during a fight is not desirable, for fear of missing something that can occur in a split second. Turn away from the screen and you might miss a shocking, amazing knockout. @Humblepipe knows exactly what I’m talking about. The easiest solution has been to use pipes that give me the longest, uninterrupted smoking time with a single chamber load of tobacco, hence the big pipes below.

View attachment 341534

These are some of the longest smoking pipes I have. The 19th Century French pipe in the top middle routinely gives me four to five hours of smoking time with a single chamber load of Cornell & Diehl Folklore; the BST (Briar, Sweat, and Tears) Birdseye LC commission on the lower left consistently gives me five hours with Seattle Pipe Club Plum Pudding; I have yet to discover the limits of the smoking time of the unknown brand behemoth on the upper right—I have tapped out from the nic hit at seven hours before completing smoking the entire chamber load of tobacco. All three of these pipes has approximately a 2.75" chamber depth, but the monster on the upper right has a wider diameter, at 1.125"—I can fit my entire index finger inside the chamber:

View attachment 341537

I have yet to smoke the BST LC on the lower right. It has a 2.375" deep chamber, so I expect smoking times that might almost approach the other BST and French LC (depending on the cut of what I decide to dedicate to it). We shall see once I resume smoking (been on hiatus for almost three months).

I wanted a Falcon bowl that was taller than the tallest available stack from Falcon, which is a perfectly fine bowl, but not as tall as I would prefer (it’s about 2.2" tall with a 1.9" chamber depth). This Norm Triptow Falcon bowl commission (made from Bethlehem Olive) is 3.25" tall with a .75" diameter chamber, which I expect to give me a pretty long smoke.

View attachment 341538

Beautiful Display. and well photographed. I've basically gone the other way, to smaller pipes, not necessarily miniatures, but bantam size bowls. Out of some of these, like the Ropp J07, which could very well be my favorite smoking pipe, I can pull a full 75 minutes with the right tobacco. When I want the longest smoke, I have a Brigham, Savinelli and Peterson I go to. Sometimes especially mornings, I don't want a long smoke so a small selection of miniatures that give me the most pleasure in smokes of around 25 minutes max. When I'm on task, I don't smoke, period. This includes teaching my music students, outdoor activities except for breaks where I usually have a small cigar, and so forth. When I'm smoking a pipe now, especially that I'm better at long smoking, I want to enjoy the pipe, it's flavours and just simply relax and let my mind wander wherever it wills.

PS Than Falcon bowl is bizarre!! I could make a few comparisons but decorum prevents

 

[TheIronMonkey]

All three of these pipes has approximately a 2.75" chamber depth ...

*Correction: All three of these pipes have approximately a 2.75" chamber depth ...

This error has been bugging me and it was too late to edit.

I thought I would add that with these deeper chambers, I sometimes stir up the ash and tip the pipe (to get rid of the ash to get better airflow for easier relighting when I’m at the lower third) .

 

[gord]

*Correction: All three of these pipes have approximately a 2.75" chamber depth ...

This error has been bugging me and it was too late to edit.

I thought I would add that with these deeper chambers, I sometimes stir up the ash and tip the pipe (to get rid of the ash to get better airflow for easier relighting when I’m at the lower third) .

Been there and done that re being too late to edit

 

[jpmcwjr]

I love my stacks, sometimes called chimneys, sometimes just tall pipes. I'd get some more if I were in acquisition mode.

I wouldn't smoke a cob stack for love nor money, but I have no problem with smoking or strolling with a nice briar stack/chimney/tall pipe.

 

[shikano53]

I think it depends if you believe in Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.
It’s a pipe. Smoke it. Enjoy it.

 

[Steddy]

Sigh, now none of my pipes are big enough. Ardor giant, here I come.