Anyone Use Gauzes?

[jpmcwjr]

Not likely to help at all.

Dry your tobacco more, and make sure the first pinch or two is of larger bits. Small bits in last.

 

[mso489]

I'm as cheap as any man here, he boasted, but I refuse to get excited about a few bits of unburnt tobacco at the end of the pipe bowl of tobacco. A number of bowls each week burn nearly all the way down, or completely in the case of MM cobs. With a few, I end up with a pinch. But mostly, by following the advice in earlier posts, you won't need to bother with a metal screen.

 

[Pierre1965]

I like the idea of putting some "sacrificial" tobacco in first then topping with my preferred blend. I have several blends that I've purchased only to find that I never want to smoke them again. They just lurk in my tobacco cabinet taking up space because I'm too cheap to throw them out. Thanks for the great idea Jeff540!

 

[jpmcwjr]

I do it a bit differently: I put good tobacco that's fairly dry in the heel, then top the last half or quarter with a really top blend. It smokes all the way down, and very pleasantly.

 

[diamondback]

It’s cool, you’re among friends.

Use pronged glass jacks. One prong is longer and fits down in the big hole

Just wait till later to clean up because you risk washing it down the drain.

 

[DarkButterfly]

I'd say smoke slower towards the bottom of the bowl.
I have a few times tried to relight ash thinking it's just simply gone out rather than end of smoke

 

[subsalac]

Some good advice so far but, have you tried smoking it in a tapered bowl? The bottom of a tightly compressed flake can become fireproof after its moistened from a bowl being ran past it for 45min+ if it's all spread out on a wide heel, but with a small taper, it may just light.

Best advice is probably to just not torture yourself lighting dottle(like I do sometimes). Okay okay, more than sometimes.

 

[Briar Baron]

I tried screens several times and they do work but now I tend to use the "sacrificial tobacco" method.

 

[Seeker81]

Traditionally people used silver three penny pieces with a couple of small hole drilled in them or small silver buttons. Over the years I have found small bronze buttons used on shirts and even steam engine bolts with a washer used since I have had to extract them from pipes. These 'Rube Goldberg' solutions were in essence the Coloring Bowl of yesteryear and I have a few pictures of these things on my 'All things cutty' blog that I infrequently update. You can use gauze circles that can be purchased at Head Shops but it is the devils own job to form them into little bowls and then seat them at the bottom of the pipe. I have found that Philt Pads work really well and aid coloring, however I have recently been introduced by Weezell to a new style of 'Philt Pad' made from meerschaum which are far superior to the one manufactured by Sharrow Mills and do not require frequent replacement. During the Victorian era you could buy glazed china versions of the 'Philt Pad' which I assume were used in meerschaum and clay pipes and they can often be found in the gardens of old Victorian Public Houses or jammed into the bowls of broken clay pipes. I assume this was more to do with avoiding airway blockages but who knows after all this time.

Thanks for the info. ?

 

[Seeker81]

Some good advice so far but, have you tried smoking it in a tapered bowl? The bottom of a tightly compressed flake can become fireproof after its moistened from a bowl being ran past it for 45min+ if it's all spread out on a wide heel, but with a small taper, it may just light.

Best advice is probably to just not torture yourself lighting dottle(like I do sometimes). Okay okay, more than sometimes.

Yes. As a matter of fact the least wasteful results I have had with flakes so far has been while using a slightly tapered Alco bowl. Also the metal (heel?) at the bottom of the bowl helps with the moisture. I tend to prefer using my alcos for the "Lakeland" flakes... 1792, Dark A Flake, and coniston...

Although saying that, I recently had what I would consider to be an almost "Zen" smoke in my Peterson Bulldog filled with Coniston cut plug... It was beautiful.
I put it down to a very nice pack, good drying and a good strong initial light. The stars were aligned perhaps.

 

[rushx9]

Its not going to help your issue. 1792 is hell when it gets to the heel of the bowl.

Glad to know it's not just me! I try to dry it out and smoke slow, but damn! That last quarter to third of a bowl is work!

 

[subsalac]

Yes. As a matter of fact the least wasteful results I have had with flakes so far has been while using a slightly tapered Alco bowl. Also the metal (heel?) at the bottom of the bowl helps with the moisture. I tend to prefer using my alcos for the "Lakeland" flakes... 1792, Dark A Flake, and coniston...

Although saying that, I recently had what I would consider to be an almost "Zen" smoke in my Peterson Bulldog filled with Coniston cut plug... It was beautiful.
I put it down to a very nice pack, good drying and a good strong initial light. The stars were aligned perhaps.

Those nirvana smokes are the best, one of the joys of pipe smoking in that you have this ephemeral experience that can't be reproduced, so we just savor those moments when they show up.

 

[rushx9]

That's what my 5-year old never ending tin of SWR regular is for: guilt free dottle disposal. Just put a small pinch in the bottom of a big bowl and then load with the good stuff on top. Once you start to taste the burley funk, time to dump.

I was gifted a bottomless tub of Carter Hall that I only ever use for this purpose!

 

[Seeker81]

Those nirvana smokes are the best, one of the joys of pipe smoking in that you have this ephemeral experience that can't be reproduced, so we just savor those moments when they show up.

awwww man! Don't say that hahaha...
Well yeah. But at least you know what you are aiming for.

 

[olkofri]

I throw away dottle, even when it's ~1/4 of the bowl. Tobacco might be expensive but I've only one tongue.

 

[smokiespipesmoker123]

I throw away dottle, even when it's ~1/4 of the bowl. Tobacco might be expensive but I've only one tongue.

Concur, it galls me that I end up having to chuck it, but life is too short to burn your tongue for the sake of parsimony