How Long Should a Bowl Last?

[saltedplug]

Holy cow. My evening smoke was HU Louisiana Broken in a Rossi Lucca 8111 and at 105 min I was done even though I had a fair amount of very smoke-able good "dottle" left in the bowl. About 8-9 relights, 2 or 3 in first half and 5 or 6 in second. This pipe will be 2/3 bowls most often and very few full ones. I was getting loopy at 100 min in so I'm not responsible for whatever I posted just before this one somewhere else in the forums.

After about 9 pm my consciousness starts to fade, a type of pre-sleep. (That I've not went to Haiti makes it less likely that this is due to zombification.) Anyway, I remember less of what I did during that time the next day. Thus I share your loopiness despite the subtracted smoke.

 

[Wade H]

Relax, you're doing a great job of smoking slow and enjoying the experience.

I typically have smokes that last from one to two hours. Pipes are funny, a bowl twice the size of another one, doesn't last twice as long. It's maybe 1.5 times longer. My mid size pipes all can give very long smokes, depending on the cut of the tobacco. I have a little bitty MM Huck Finn cob, that I only smoke compressed tobacco in, and it easily lasts over an hour too. It's chamber is so small that I need to use a pipe nail to pack it with.

As several others have written, the quality of the smoke doesn't degrade in a pipe, if it is left unsmoked. I've come back to a bowl two days later, fired it up, and carried on right where I left off.

So..... I think that you are to be congratulated on your smoking method. I don't believe that a regular size pipe can be smoked 'properly' in thirty minutes. It would have to be getting really hot if it were.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Ten minutes.

 

[anotherbob]

cake happens. It doesn't need to be gently nurtured in.

 

[GlassMan]

I have the opposite problem of all of you. I smoke decent sized bowls of VA in my KKKK size castello billiard in about 30-40 minutes tops. I also don’t believe in relights unless it’s a must, so I’m usually trying to keep it going. I don’t hit it as hard as a big chug on a cigar, but close. Slower longer pulls. But 2 hours? If I tried to make a bowl of any blend in any of my pipes last that long, I’d have to basically hit it, set it down for a few minutes, relight, repeat. The only exception being SPC plum pudding special reserve in my xl bowl Neerup, but even that is only like an hour smoke.

 

[STP]

I have different pipes for different smoking durations, which can run from 30-60 minutes, or I pack less in the larger pipes as applicable... I also keep my pipes clean. I don’t like a lot of caking.

 

[B_Rock]

I would say most of my bowls last at least an hour. I have found that if I clench while doing something else, I smoke faster. Lately, I have been intentional about enjoying the ritual of smoking a pipe without distractions and that extends the time it takes to finish a bowl. Slow and steady seems to produce the longest and most enjoyable smokes for me.

 

[redrooster1977]

But do you smoke half bowls like I do? I do half bowls and it still takes me this long.

It's not that I'm not enjoying it--I definitely am--I just wish I could enjoy it for less time so my wife isn't left watching our two-year-old by herself for an hour at a time.

Hands-on father...... Good for you! It's the best thing you'll ever do.

 

[PipesRock]

Hands-on father...... Good for you! It's the best thing you'll ever do.

^^^ This +1

 

[64alex]

i don't think the question of the OP can be answered meaningfully without providing some parameters such as the size of the bowl, the type, cut and humidity of the tobacco, the packing of it, if smoked inside or outside with a breeze and the smoking cadence.
To give an idea I like to stay at around 1 h smoking session and a small 20x30 mm bowl packed with a plug such as FVP moderately dried and loosely packed can last that time if outside or 90 min if inside. If I use a ribbon cut baccy I need a 20x45 mm bowl pack to last 60-90 min.
Again a lot can vary depending on multiple parameters.

 

[Richmond B. Funkenhouser]

Ten minutes.

View attachment 43286

You and halfdan must not be filling the your pipes to the top..