Removing Ash at mid bowl

[jpmcwjr]

Anyone really think that there's a problem getting too much oxygen to the ember?? It's almost always the opposite, resulting in too fast a burn. Now, if your tobacco is wet and you tamp on it, it will inhibit oxygen flow. But that's a whole other thang.
Dumping ash is fine, you can make it a ritual, but please don't add it to a "must do" list that some feel they must adhere to.

 

[crashthegrey]

Interesting how many dump ash. I never dump the ash and nearly always smoke to the bottom of a bowl. I actually find about half way through a bowl is when the tobacco is best, and it usually lasts until the last third or so that way. Early I find that the flavors are separate and late its just getting to the condensed tar and tobacco. Ash has never been an issue for me.

 

[jmill208]

Dumping ash is against the rules. Read the rule book. :?

I don't do it, and nor should you.

 

[toobfreak]

If things are going along fine, leave well enough alone. But if I have to tamp, why press those sooty ashes down in there? They can only get caught up in the taste and drawn into and through the baccy into the pipe further. Once the pipe cools, I just stir the ashes with a spent wood match then tip and let them fall out. Maybe repeat to get them all out. Then you can break any cake away from the wall with your finger which is probably prime stuff now, and move it center to replace that ash. Relight. Puff. Enjoy.

 

[jamespworth]

This was something I thought about the other day. I do this but depends what pipe I'm smoking and what tobacco, if it improves the smoke I do it. Some tobacco just smokes all the way down I've found pipes with a cone shape bowl benefit more.

 

[alexnorth]

I usually don't dump ashes mid bowl. However, the other day i let a bowl of across the pond go out and then re-lit 10 minutes later and the first few draws were amazing. It was like the flavor had condensed and concentrated! ::

 

[whitesands77]

Interesting. Ive pretty much tamped so Ive had not to many problems with relighting or burning the tobacco at the bottom of the bowl. I always thought the tamped ash helped it not burn too hot. I guess the ash might affect the flavor... I'm going to try this dumping technique.

 

[jkrug]

I do this often but not always.

I'll use a pipe nail to gently loosen the ash without disturbing the tobacco below then carefully dump out the ash. It usually makes for a better last half smoking experience. ::

 

[balkisobrains]

I actually don't dump, I just blow some air across the top of the bowl. Most grey ash goes away, there might be a little in the center. if there are any black or un-burned chunks above and surrounding that, I'll just move those carefully on top of the remaining grey ash stuck in the center, re-light, and then once that (usually quickly) burns to grey, I'll just blow it off again and I'll have a fairly even and clean layer of tobacco to continue smoking. If some grey ash falls down, I might put my tamper above the top layer of tobacco and gently blow out from the stem to the bowl, followed by a blow across the bowl top, to kick it up and out. I can tell exactly when I need to do this because the flavor changes for the worse (to me) and it's tougher to stoke the cherry when the grey ash layer is too thick. ::

 

[madox07]

Personally I'm with jpmcwjr .. I sometimes do it, usually when I am not paying attention and I pack the pipe too tight, but I prefer not to. This is possibly due to the fact that I have not noticed a taste problem with the second half of the bowl. For some time now I have been practicing and enjoying what some call the breath method, and let me tell you a number of pipe smoking problems have become obsolete using this method. Look it up online ... there is a guy on youtube, I believe mutnchop piper is his nickname, that explains it quite well.

 

[toobfreak]

Lots of variables involved I think. It will depend on the pipe, the tobacco, how you smoke and especially the pack. Sometimes I remove the ash at various points, sometimes I smoke it straight down. No right or wrong answers here, it is all in what you like and works best for you at the moment.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

If you never remove the ashes, then you can just keep putting new tobacco on top of the ashes... there go your "cake in the heal" issues and no more need for filters. Sure, sure, every now and then you'd have to poke a hole through the packed down ashes, but it still keeps you pipe fiddle free. I hate fiddling with the bowl as I smoke, because then I have to take the pipe out of my mouth. Nope, I am anti-dumping and pro-ash. ::

 

[theloniousmonkfish]

"If you never remove the ashes, then you can just keep putting new tobacco on top of the ashes"
You been watching me do yard work? All glory to the ash. No relights here, one match one bowl, sometimes two bowls.

 

[jerwynn]

I am only recently discovering the joy of occasional ash-dumping... usually in deeper bowled pipes where I really want to get to where the tobac really shines! An ash dump and then a wee very light handed stir of remaining ribbons with as gentle a tamp as a pat on a baby's bottom. Ahhhhhhhh.... Butt normally I leave my ash undumped in happy bowl-enthroned bliss.

 

[madox07]

As many opinions as smokers, I guess. Since we are discussing the subject, I wanted to ask this - on the rare occasions I do dump my ash (as I said, for me it's done only if I must), I find that the remaining tobacco is so unevenly spread around the bowl that sometimes it is difficult to relight. I mean, if I look up in the bowl the ash has the shape of a totally unsymmetrical crater. Did anybody else notice this, or am I doing something fundamentally wrong here - such as maybe poke the ash to deep or something.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Nothing wrong. If I notice same, a wee tamp straightens it out. If this occurs a lot, perhaps a bit of tamping along the way will even things out.

 

[downinit]

Dumping ash always(?) leaves a crater so I always tamp down the edges to "fill in" the crater. The crater is formed by the fact that the burning of the tobacco follows a direct line to the draft hole on the bottom (kinda like water circling a drain)
On another point... I believe that smoking too fast and hot generally causes more of a need to dump ash and causes more of not totally burnt baccy leading to bitterness in the 2nd half of the bowl. That is why IMO that I need to clean down to the fresher tobacco on a relight. Proper drying of your baccy and slower smoking helps prevent this and maybe the need to relight at all. (Still learning as an impatient newby on proper technique)

 

[btsteve]

I am in the dump camp, at about the half way mark. It seems to freshen up the smoke.

 

[toobfreak]

Left on top, the ash becomes something of a good insulator keeping more heat in making for a hotter smoke or a hotter pipe in some cases. Think of the carbon tiles on the Space Shuttle. Ash is very, very fine and will almost certainly find its way down through the tobacco as you draw and eventually into your mouth to sully the taste at some point. so I usually remove it at least once. You wouldn't smoke a cigarette or a cigar down with the full ash still attached to draw through, would you?
When I dump the ash, I usually let the pipe go out and give it a chance to cool. That allows a lot of moisture to dry. In a bad pipe, it might also allow it to gurgle up. :mrgreen: But that is a good time to take your finger or tamper and break off the unburned tobaccos from the side wall to fill in the cavity where the ash used to be for a fresh new smoke.

 

[64alex]

[that is a good time to take your finger or tamper and break off the unburned tobaccos from the side wall to fill in the cavity where the ash used to be for a fresh new smoke.]
That's absolutely what I found, removing the ash midway and filling the hole in the mid of the bowl with the tobacco on the side and I get a fresh smoke very close to when I started the bowl.