Yeah, no point in smoking it unless you enjoy it and then there's enjoying it until you get a mouthful of ashes.?
Do You Do the Dottle?
- Thread starter Old_Newby
- Start date
I used to fuss about smoking the last of anything in there but found that different blends / pipes / days / weather / star alignment was just going to make it different every time so I go with what is given to me.
I get much better results by tamping 1st, sometimes dumping a little ash 2nd, but never stirring and tamping again. That just never worked for me.
Cheers
I get much better results by tamping 1st, sometimes dumping a little ash 2nd, but never stirring and tamping again. That just never worked for me.
Cheers
I enjoyed a nice bowl of aged PS Navy Flake...2008 I think. Gave it a good rub and airing out in the cold winter air on the back porch here in Florida. 60 degrees out...frigid. Packed my favorite Radice Dublin with the Frank method. Been using that a lot lately. I must report...got a lot of nice grey/white ash out of that bowl and was left with a bit of we dottle at the end, but it was just the right amount to my reckoning. I lost track at one moment and got the bowl a bit to hot so slowed down, set it down as a matter of fact. Came back to it a few minutes later and finished it off. Very satisfying.
I'm not yet at the point where I can smoke a pipe well without giving it some consideration and thought. I need to be in the moment with it...if you know what I mean. It was a good bowl.
I'm not yet at the point where I can smoke a pipe well without giving it some consideration and thought. I need to be in the moment with it...if you know what I mean. It was a good bowl.
proper packing does a lot to reducing dottle. Almost like the bottom should be a few strands mostly just enough to hold up the rest.
@Morrison Jeremiah decided to do an experiment, for science.
Packed a Savinelli 904 with 3 rubbed out and 1 intact coin on top of Samuel Gawith's Cabbie's Mixture (had let them dry for an hour or so which means they retained some moisture). Had exactly two lights, the charring light + tamp, and the true light. No other lighting or tamping. Smoked for about 40 minutes walking my dog. Here are the results.
The ash retains some of the shape of the intact coin, to prove I didn't dig or tamp mid smoke.
I knocked out the ash at home, trying my best not to mess with it, you can actually see the tobacco strands, as well as a good 10-15 minutes' worth of smoking left in the chamber unburnt.
And this is the chamber with the ash knocked out, no wiping, pipe cleaners or other shenanigans. It had almost imperceptible moisture in the chamber, but really not much. If I'd dried the Cabbie's to how I usually dry it the chamber would be dry.
Was it an enjoyable smoke? Sure it was, most are. Will I smoke without tamp+relight in the future? Absolutely not, don't see the reason for it.
Packed a Savinelli 904 with 3 rubbed out and 1 intact coin on top of Samuel Gawith's Cabbie's Mixture (had let them dry for an hour or so which means they retained some moisture). Had exactly two lights, the charring light + tamp, and the true light. No other lighting or tamping. Smoked for about 40 minutes walking my dog. Here are the results.
The ash retains some of the shape of the intact coin, to prove I didn't dig or tamp mid smoke.
I knocked out the ash at home, trying my best not to mess with it, you can actually see the tobacco strands, as well as a good 10-15 minutes' worth of smoking left in the chamber unburnt.
And this is the chamber with the ash knocked out, no wiping, pipe cleaners or other shenanigans. It had almost imperceptible moisture in the chamber, but really not much. If I'd dried the Cabbie's to how I usually dry it the chamber would be dry.
Was it an enjoyable smoke? Sure it was, most are. Will I smoke without tamp+relight in the future? Absolutely not, don't see the reason for it.
Not really sure what you mean, since I never said that I don't tamp and relight.
I always tamp, and the only time that I don't need to relight is if I'm using a ribbon cut or shag cut.
Some misunderstanding here, oh well, never mind ?
I think you may be referring to comments that I made in the thread Do you Dump Ash Mid- smoke.
Me ? I'm mighty confused
I use the method of filling the container by gravity and then with the big toe of my hand I give it light pressure. Pulling out the last third of the ash would be a disaster and I never did that. I also don't throw the smoke to the bottom, it lights more fire, until it all turns to ash. Most of the time the last strands of unburned tobacco come out, and I don't worry about throwing some "fresh" tobacco away. I think if you smoke it all the way to the bottom of the bowl, your pipe will more quickly end up as a shapeless piece of charred wood. Ultimately, I never squeeze the smoke all the way out, my palate and my sense of smell already warn me when to stop. I don't know if the translator will make you understand what I'm saying.
It translated well enough to understand.
Except it called your thumb (finger) your big toe (foot). Lol
Bottom line is that you throw away the dottle.
Thank you my friend. Best regards from Spain...........
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you smoke out of MM cobs? If that's the case, depending on the cut, your probably always going to have some dottle in the bottom because there is a gap between the airway and the bottom of the bowl. However, if you're smoking out of a briar pipe most everything stated above is good advice.
If the floor of the chamber (heel) is not way below the draft hole, you can smoke to the bottom. Most people do not, or cannot, because the tobacco there is often too damp to smoke pleasantly.
You can correct the cob floor issue by packing as usual but leave a slight gap between the rim of the pipe and the top of the tobacco. Smack the rim of the pipe against your hand and you'll create a type of air pocket pack that allows all of the tobacco to burn.
A nickel where you live maybe, but it’s a couple bucks in Canada. Still though, not worth it. As a newby, I’m still playing around with this and have no fixed rules. Vacuuming the pool and working on my clenching skills yesterday turned the bottom of my precious FM Bayou into a mess. Learning to relax about it though from you kind folks. So many variables, but that’s part of the fun!
I save it up for bong hits when my stash is low.
Actually while getting better at judging I do leave the every end dottle to just dump, some a little more some a little less, depends on the pipe, takes a bit for me to learn the pipe. A FOG on my cigar board warned against burning out the bottom of the pipe and I've pretty much been careful about that as well.
Actually while getting better at judging I do leave the every end dottle to just dump, some a little more some a little less, depends on the pipe, takes a bit for me to learn the pipe. A FOG on my cigar board warned against burning out the bottom of the pipe and I've pretty much been careful about that as well.
If you're worried about wasting the dottle, do as Sherlock Holmes did: dump it into a silk slipper and hang out by the fire to be collected and re-smoked later. (I wouldn't do this, personally. He's supposed to be a genius, but this makes me wonder.)