I can smoke the first half of the bowl down just fine with an occasional relight. When I get to that half-way point, the thing won't stay lit for anything. I have tried going in with a pin to open the tobacco slightly as well as the spoon on my czech tool to loosen everything up. It seems the bottom is packed pretty tight even though I feel like I've backed off significantly on initial packing and take care when tamping during the smoke. Any ideas about how to solve my dilemma? Tired of wasting the last half or getting so frustrated I lose the relaxation from the first half.
Trouble finishing a bowl
- Thread starter justanotherdude
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Gotta be either a packing issue or a moisture issue I would think, but likely packing to tight at the bottom (I literally just set the first pinch in the bowl and tap the side of the bowl a few times for pinch one [gravity fill]). Pinch 2, I use barely more than the weight of the tamper to pack it down. Pinch 3 I use pressure comparable to what it would take to make a flat surface on top of a ball of play doh.
granted that changes somewhat from shag cut to rubbed flake, but generally it works. If it is happening with all your blends it is likely not a moisture problem.
You may be tamping too hard as well, I use only the weight of the tamper when I tamp, and only tamp when absolutely necessary. Sometimes I'll let it go out and dump a little bit of ash out in the middle of the smoke as well, if necessary. You could also be tamping too often, how often do you stoke the bowl throughout a smoke? When you relight are you doing it the same way you do when you do light at the beginning of the smoke after your charring light? Lightly touching the flame to tobacco quickly and multiple times?
Could also be a cadence issue I guess.
granted that changes somewhat from shag cut to rubbed flake, but generally it works. If it is happening with all your blends it is likely not a moisture problem.
You may be tamping too hard as well, I use only the weight of the tamper when I tamp, and only tamp when absolutely necessary. Sometimes I'll let it go out and dump a little bit of ash out in the middle of the smoke as well, if necessary. You could also be tamping too often, how often do you stoke the bowl throughout a smoke? When you relight are you doing it the same way you do when you do light at the beginning of the smoke after your charring light? Lightly touching the flame to tobacco quickly and multiple times?
Could also be a cadence issue I guess.
Drying Your tobacco out more and gravity filling may hep some, You can always tap tobacco load tighter if feel so,
I've been working to get the tobacco dried out and think just about right now. I don't get gurgling anymore. I'm likely tamping to tightly based on your (alaska) description. I'll try going light like that. I do dump ash mid-way most of the time. I also go in and out on relights after the charring light. Probably only tamp 1 or 2 times before running into the staying lit problem.
No matter how much you dry the tobacco, moisture will build up as you smoke it. This is probably your problem, as the problems seem to begin after you've been smoking the pipe for a while. If you smoke tobaccos with lots of humectants (I'm looking at you OTC blends and BCA) it'd be worse as you'll have a sticky soggy mess. Either put the pipe down for a while (if the relative humidity at your locale is high this won't help), or get a filtered pipe that uses balsa filters for those blends that tend to get moist. Some people with unfiltered pipes run a pipe cleaner mid-smoke to ameliorate this problem –personally, I've never done this, but most of my pipes are filtered and they wouldn't pass a cleaner.
I've tried the cleaner mid-bowl and it has pulled moisture out of the stem. I'm smoking a couple English blends , a couple buley's and one very light aromatic. I've been working to get all of them dried out as I figured part of my problem was moisture. That's getting better. I'll keep working on moisture (although I am in a very high humidity area) as best I can. I think I'll find the most improvement from not packing so firmly right now. Lots of sh$% to learning how to smoke a pipe. 
Thanks all the help.
Thanks all the help.
From your o.p., it really sounds to me like a lot more dry time is going to help, perhaps solve the problem. Good luck!
I have this issue sometimes with certain blends/brands/cuts. Sometimes I'll place a little cheap tobacco in the bowl first to become sacrificial dottle (codger burley blends usually).
It sounds like you are trying to light your pipe through a pile of ash. When my pipe goes out, I gently stir the ash and carefully dump it. Then I tamp the bowl and re light. Trying to smoke through a bowl of ash is difficult and can ruin a smoke. I probably dump ash three or so times a bowl.
Don’t sweat it. I almost never finish a bowl for a number of reasons. I have the same problem keeping it lit after the first half and secondly the taste begins to get sour. I tend to stop somewhere in the last third of the bowl. That being said I always chuckle when someone claims that he is able to smoke a bowl down “to a fine white ash”. The tobacco I toss has served it’s purpose. Contributing to the flavor. Filtering any ash that may get trough to the stem. Soaking up moisture etc. In that manner I don’t think it’s a waste.
On drying, try the experiment of putting a few pipe bowls in a crockery bowl (like an old cereal bowl) and just let it dry out for several days to a week, and see how that smokes with various blends. We all love that slight moisture from the tin or jar, but that isn't always the best for staying lit and smoking well.
Read these rules elsewhere and there is a similar thread here.
Pack lighter than you think you should.
Dry more than you think you should.
Tamp lighter than you think you should (mostly let the weight of the tamper do the work).
Smoker slower than you think you should.
Draw lighter than you think you should.
Let a bowl dry out to where it is on the verge of crumbling to dust. Fill the bowl half way and apply almost zero tamping pressure. It almost has to be too much moisture or too tight of a pack. If you follow those recommendations and it takes more than 3 or 4 bowls to figure it out, perhaps you should buy some cigars to smoke.
Pack lighter than you think you should.
Dry more than you think you should.
Tamp lighter than you think you should (mostly let the weight of the tamper do the work).
Smoker slower than you think you should.
Draw lighter than you think you should.
Let a bowl dry out to where it is on the verge of crumbling to dust. Fill the bowl half way and apply almost zero tamping pressure. It almost has to be too much moisture or too tight of a pack. If you follow those recommendations and it takes more than 3 or 4 bowls to figure it out, perhaps you should buy some cigars to smoke.
Yes, those statements have been around a long time, and are tried and true.
Only correction is on tamping. If your tamper is a just few grams, its weight won't do diddly.
Only correction is on tamping. If your tamper is a just few grams, its weight won't do diddly.
Agree. What I take away from this is to tamp lighter period. At one point, I tamped with a fairly heavy hand. And occasionally, if you've packed too loose, you have to apply a somewhat heavier tamp.
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