Can I Top That Off?

[johnnyflake]

No real reason at all, just common sense!

 

[Hillcrest]

I gather conventional wisdom says you smoke, then remove leftovers, perform maintenance, and Only Then reload. And I wonder why.
I look at a bowl with relatively dry ungoopy but unsmokable bits. Looks like a nice filter to me.
Remind me why I can't add tobacco on top of that without dumping it, or shall Darwin have his way with me.

You can. I very occasionally do that but make sure to knock or scrape out the top gray ash before topping. If you don't remove it you will taste it when you reach that level. If you do, you will still taste a bit for a few seconds as the original pack reignites. Its your pipe ... if you don't mind most others won't either and those that do you don't want to be around anyway as they suck the joy out of life !
P.S. Works well with drinks too !

 

[dd57chevy]

I don’t think there’s any “poor pipe form police” that’ll jam you up for doing whatever you like.

Don't be too sure :

 

[tolstoyevsky]

Let the new year bring us all new experiences, and please... new tobaccos to try.

Amen

 

[tolstoyevsky]

P.S. Works well with drinks too !

Excellent. Case in point: I am learning to pair my tobacco with intoxicants, and I will frequently put frozen fruit at the bottom of the glass (rationale: why smoke a cherry tobacco when you can get the taste from actual cherries). The fruit retains the original spirit, and it can be fun switching from...say, brandy... to something else.

 

[elvishrunes]

I just came inside from doing that minutes ago…. Here’s why I do it. I consider 2 inches of tobacco a good session, most of my pipes I smoke now are 2 plus inches deep or more. But if I’m smoking a swallower bowl like the churchwarden earlier I re-load when it’s 3/4 burnt down, easier than cleaning and packing. You might get a slight bitter taste, but you also don’t have to mess with cleaning and re-packing…. Your choice.

 

[Chasing Embers]

most of my pipes I smoke now are 2 plus inches deep or more.

My minimum chamber size for that reason and due to my difficulty of holding smaller pipes.

 

[proteus]

If it's the same tobacco non-issue as I see it. If it's the same family say one aro and another aro then you'd probably end up mixing flavors a bit but still not too bad. This would happen with dedicated pipes. I would say if you smoked Latakia and left bits of it in the bottom and then tried a Virginia you'd not get the same experience with the Virginia as from an empty pipe or a dedicated pipe. But then again sharing and smoking different tobaccos in the same pipe leaves the old taste anyway so if that doesn't bother you then leaving those extra bits wouldn't change much from that baseline. The only thing I would caution is those last bits are usually more wet than originally loaded. That might make for gurgle or affect the draw a bit. Depends how much is left. The only way to know is to try it. Can't be none the worse than the loss of a few grams of tobacco.

 

[Hillcrest]

Excellent. Case in point: I am learning to pair my tobacco with intoxicants, and I will frequently put frozen fruit at the bottom of the glass (rationale: why smoke a cherry tobacco when you can get the taste from actual cherries). The fruit retains the original spirit, and it can be fun switching from...say, brandy... to something else.

They used to say that Jack Daniels sold the used oak barrels to France for cognac and brandy and every fine cognac had a little Jack Daniels in it ... or something like that ..,. so ... why not ?!