Who Stirs His Tobacco Towards the End?

[bullet08]

Why and how you do it? Never did it before. Then I did today. 1/4 of the bowl was packed tight due to chasing flavor and keeping flake going. It was fine till 2/3 of the bowl just with first light. Did DGT with 1/3 that was left. Went fine for short time and light went out. Usually, I would have dumped it, but I just started DGT and wanted that smoke. Thought about the situation, and against my good judgement, decided to stir the tobacco. Bad mistake. It was nasty. There was air pocket below the tobacco and I should have poked some holes. So, I would like to hear from those who stir the tobacco on why and how.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I don’t usually need to with ribbon or shag, but cake and flake sometimes need it. I use a horseshoe nail to pick any chunks apart that are having trouble staying lit, but I do it as I smoke. I’ve never gotten a change in taste because of it. ?‍

 

[bullet08]

I don’t usually need to with ribbon or shag, but cake and flake sometimes need it. I use a horseshoe nail to pick any chunks apart that are having trouble staying lit, but I do it as I smoke. I’ve never gotten a change in taste because of it. ?‍

So you are more or less evening out the tobacco. Not really stirring the remaining tobacco. I also do that. Scrap the side of the bowl, or fill in the area from one side to other.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I just smack the open end of the chamber against my palm to loosen things up, tap the heel against my knuckles to settle the contents, and light and finish smoking.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I’ve never gotten a change in taste because of it.

Same.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

So you are more or less evening out the tobacco. Not really stirring the remaining tobacco. I also do that. Scrap the side of the bowl, or fill in the area from one side to other.

Yeah, sounds like you were asking about something else in your original post. My bad. Yeah, I don’t guess I really stir then.

 

[kg.legat0]

After I get the pipe really going, I smoke til it goes out -after that, I lightly stir up the ash, dump, give a light stir/tamp and smoke until it goes out again ...after that I dump the thing out unless there is an unusual amount of tobacco left. ...for me, at least, the flavor seems to be done/less than optimal after this point.

 

[Country Bladesmith]

I just smack the open end of the chamber against my palm to loosen things up, tap the heel against my knuckles to settle the contents, and light and finish smoking.

Yeah, ok. I do put my thumb or palm over the chamber and give it a shake on rare occasions, but I hardly ever have to do that.

 

[JKoD]

I believe the correct answer is to bag what you stir and send it to esoterica to repackage as Penzance. ?‍

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

No. Never seen a reason for it.

 

[Jef]

I smoke until the pipe goes out. Then I will gently stir the ash and dump it. I see no reason in smoking mixed in ash. Plus I feel getting out ash helps keep the second light going till the end.

Jef

 

[puff_not_snuff]

I believe swirling opposed to stirring is more elegant and less disruptive.

 

[JOHN72]

I don't like it to stir. At the moment I don't have a problem in that regard..................

 

[haparnold]

After I’ve finished 3/4 of the bowl or so, I’ll often dump most of the ash, and re-settle the remaining contents. A little stirring happens, but that’s not exactly my intent, more of a side-effect of leveling things off again.

 

[Sweet Home Alabama]

I just smack the open end of the chamber against my palm to loosen things up, tap the heel against my knuckles to settle the contents, and light and finish smoking.

Good advice. Thank you ?

 

[jpmcwjr]

Not a stirrer.

A small layer of ash is to me a good thing- easy to light through, and it helps retain heat.

 

[SpookedPiper]

Nope once you stir your getting a mouth full of ash. Been there done that! Part of the learning curve. There's not much tobacco left at that point for me anyways, so I dump it out. If it's really that good and you want to milk it, light what's left after the dump and in as the way kiss the stem or your great smoke turns to sht and becomes disappointing.

Tamp lightly not to compress the tobacco further down the bowl and dump if the ash is too thick that the ember is too deep to burn...

 

[kcghost]

Nope, never tried this and now that I've heard about it probably never will.

 

[hauntedmyst]

Nope once you stir your getting a mouth full of ash. Been there done that!

Yup, and I got the same results.

 

[anotherbob]

Why and how you do it? Never did it before. Then I did today. 1/4 of the bowl was packed tight due to chasing flavor and keeping flake going. It was fine till 2/3 of the bowl just with first light. Did DGT with 1/3 that was left. Went fine for short time and light went out. Usually, I would have dumped it, but I just started DGT and wanted that smoke. Thought about the situation, and against my good judgement, decided to stir the tobacco. Bad mistake. It was nasty. There was air pocket below the tobacco and I should have poked some holes. So, I would like to hear from those who stir the tobacco on why and how.

in the last four years. I've done it three times. Two of those times where fold and stuff with flakes. The first was an early attempt at not rubbing out the flake. The last was with a flake that ended up mostly blocking the draft hole and was the last pipe I smoked (friday on the way home from work). The one other time was a bowl of cary grants and it just was an attempt to see if I could smoke all the dottle and it worked but you can see how happy I was by the results by the singular attempt. So it happens but I've accidentally sat on my testicles more times then I've stirred the bowl so....