EAM
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A question for the experiencedI've been having a slight problem which I'm sure someone here will have the answer to if they could be so kind.
I'm having a hard time getting the bottom of the bowl to stay lit or even burn for that matter. I'm sure it probably has everything to do with how I pack the bowl. I've been using the "1/3 at a time" method which has worked pretty good until I reach the end of the smoke. There's still quite a bit of unburned but charred tobacco left at the bottom. I can stir it to drop the ash and gently pack it back down but it wont stay lit for more than a puff or so.
Am I packing the bottom of the bowl to tightly? I have tried experimenting but just can't quite get it all to burn to ash. I think a little bit of unburned material is normal, right? I have this problem with four different pipes and three different tobacco's.
Any advice or tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
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Sir Duke
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Is it soggy?
So you have this problem with different tobaccos?
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steverino
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What Sir Duke said. Also, the three tobaccos - are they the same type, like all aromatics? These tend to give those results sometimes. Packing can be difficult to master; experimentation is the key. For me, it seems like a lighter hand works better. I use the three-layer method too, but sometimes it ends up being two. Sometimes I just dip the pipe into the tin and use my thumb to "pack" it. You get to where you can judge it pretty well. Here's the way I do the three-layer method, for what it's worth:
First layer: Gravity fill pipe and tap it on the table to settle the tobacco, then fill it again, repeat. When it doesn't settle any further, tamp it using only the weight of the tamper, assuming your tamper has the approximate mass of a 40d or 60d common nail.
Second layer: Repeat above procedure, but apply a little pressure to the tamper this time, but not much. Probably just enough to get most of the tobacco to lie down.
Final layer: Depending on the cut of the tobacco, your pipe may already be close to full. I like to add enough tobacco at this point to get it just below the rim of the pipe, maybe 1/8", sometimes 1/4" if it's a big bowl. Take a pinch of tobacco that looks like it just is too much to fill the bowl, then insert it with finger pressure. When you press down gently on the tobacco at this point, it should spring back a bit - though it may not if it's very dry or very small cut.
Some of the literature says you have it right when the draw is something akin to drinking a milkshake. NOTE: When that advice was written, you could drink a milkshake through a straw. Somewhere along the way, all the milk shake restaurants got to thinking they had to make their milk shakes too thick to drink through a straw, so forget that analogy. You should be fine if the draw is just noticeably more restricted than an unloaded straw would be.
Sorry to ramble. This probably sounds like a complicated process, but after you do it few times, it becomes automatic. As they say, your mileage may vary, and you'll surely find exceptions to the rules, but this has worked consistently well for me.
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gillywalker
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EAM,
Same problems for me too. I've been at this for about a month now and I've tried Captain Black, Half and Half, Squadron Leader, and Nightcap. Getting the bottom to burn is impossible for me, Infact I'd say getting the last 2/3 of a pipe to burn is damn near impossible for me. The other day I went through a WHOLE package of matches. I'll have to try steverino's method.
I've tried that 1/3 method and the "Frank" method. I was convinced I was packing it too tightly. Although when I draw on the pipe it's certainly not as hard of a draw as that to a thick milkshake.
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Sir Duke
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Gents... Don't worry bout it too too much. I tned to never get to the bottom. I also dont let much of a cake develope either which prvents the problem of having too much cake on the sides and none at the bottom. There is no right or wrong (sort of). You'll get your own style and results.
Are you knocking the ash off while you smoke. I used to do that and found that it prevented the tobacco below from smouldering and burning to the bottom. Seems counter intuitive but you might want to try keeping a good layer of ash on the top. Just don't go smashing it down too much with your tamper. When you tamp, just tell yourself you are only making the layer of ash even so you get an even burn. As opposed to pushing the ash downward.
: )
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drbridges
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You might try smoking the pipe upside-down. This way you will smoke the bottom half of the bowl. Of course, you may be unable to smoke the top half.
Seriously, try Steverino's advice to pack loosely. Maybe even try packing only a half bowl until you're consistently getting to the bottom.
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ozark southpaw
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EAM,do you have this problem with all your pipes or just one or two.If you look at the airway in your pipes theres a good chance that it is drilled a little above the floor of the tobacco chamber,and as Ted stated elsewhere there is a reason for that. If it is drrilled a little high there is no way you are going to get to bottom of the bowl. I wouldn't worry about it,bottom of the bowl can be kinda ruff anyway!
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EAM
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Thanks for the replies.I think it is my packing technique...or lack there of.  I will give your advice a try. I'm starting to think it has a lot to do with the tobacco I smoke.
They are all aromatics. The wifey wants something that smells good if I must smoke. They do tend to be a little moist. I may try drying my next bowl out a little bit before trying the "Steve" packing advice.
Once again, thanks for all the replies! You guys are a great help!
~Eric
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ozark southpaw
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Eric,a lot of the "drug store" type tobacco are full of humidicants and tend to be be very moist. Some of the bulk tobacco can be moist also. Usually first thing I do is open it and leave it open over night to dry out. If a tobacco won't dry out and feels sticky it's probably full of PG's.
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LokoMac8
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Re: Thanks for the replies. | EAM wrote: | I'm starting to think it has a lot to do with the tobacco I smoke.
They are all aromatics. The wifey wants something that smells good if I must smoke. They do tend to be a little moist. I may try drying my next bowl out a little bit before trying the "Steve" packing advice. |
It does have a lot to do with the tobacco and the moisture content. I find Prince Albert and Carter Hall will usually always smoke down to complete ash. Packing and tamping have to be varied to match the tobacco and it is hard to explain the best method. I think after smoking awhile, I found the less I thought about it, the better job I did loading. I think a lot of it is sort of an unconscious osmosis type thing where your mind adjusts to your experiences, and gradually you get better at it and can almost burn anything down to near complete ash.
There are a LOT of factors that can influence the smoke and they have all been ballied about for YEARS and YEARS. Aromatics are usually quite moist, and that WILL affect what you are experiencing, as well as factors such as relative humidity while you are smoking, etc. It is also important to "rest" your pipes a bit, as I think if you keep smoking the same pipe too often, it stays damp and you are sort of hindered from the get-go.
Dottles are common, though, if not entirely normal. Don't worry about it and just keep plugging away at it. It would probably help to stick with one tobacco for several days, and maybe the same two or three pipes, just to learn the characteristics. If you change EVERYTHING often, then I think it just makes learning from experience a bit harder because you are having a bunch of different experience data added for your brain to consider.
Anyway, you've gotten a lot of excellent tips and advice from others in this Forum, but I thought I would just throw in my two-cents worth. In closing, I'll tell you something that sort of amazes me. Long ago I found I smoked a pipe better (puffing, etc., keeping it lit and not relighting, not that relighting is bad) when I was smoking my pipe but concentrating on something else other than smoking the pipe. I would sort of be astonished that all of a sudden, I had smoked the whole bowl down to ash and I hadn't done anything to it, and the telling thing was, I didn't really have a clue what I had done differently. The other thing was, that after a few of those individual experiences, and a year or two down the road, I realized I had gotten better at it overall, but can't really tell you what I was doing different. You might say, it just sort of came naturally. I can still have a bad bowl every once in awhile, though, like if I pack the bowl when I am angry or doing something very physical. Unlike DRB, though, who I think once recommended dumping the bowl out and starting over, I just use my tool to dig it back out and tamp it more lightly. I can't stand throwing away tobacco! --RJ--
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Dave
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You can try packing the bottom of the bowl lite
And run a pipe cleaner through the shank before lighting then follow the great advice from previous posts
This might help
When I smoke a really wet tobacco I have found this sometimes works
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ted
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Guys.....Guess I'm a bit different. In the years I spent at Grabow, I smoked over a thousand pipes......."Give this to Tom, and see if he can destroy it". Yep, I got the "newbys", and I smoked them for 8 to 10 hours a day, 5 days a week, for at least 2 weeks. NEVER HAD A PIPE TOO WET TO SMOKE................After 9 hours for 10 days.........NEVER HAD A PIPE TOO WET TO SMOKE....Yea, I cleaned them, inside and out, but never bad.
And had a Color Viscount #47 that I smoked on weekends. The "cake" was so thick that I took the eraser out of a #2 pencil and used that to "ream" it. Wanna play pipe smoking? Some weeks I had my tongue in a "sling", but I've had some of my best experiences with a pipe in my mouth.
I quit smoking a pipe in 1992, and didn't start again till, after being on this Forum for a month or so. I remembered what I was missing. TM, you got me started back, and I thank you for that. Absolutely forgot what I was missing.
Mac, you are RIGHT, fingers remember how to put tobacco in a pipe. Mine did!........ted
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Dave
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You are right about Grabows I had one made in the 60s that it was my only pipe
I never let it go empty and it never smoked wet it got cleaned every night though and reamed when I thought the cake was to thick
But I dont see many that smoke the way it did
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ted
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Dave...You are right. I came to Florida for 5 months and only brought 3 pipes. We 4 will get along quite nicely. A Dr. B cob, a Grabow sandblast Freehand, and my favorite of all, a Tom Martin 1/4 bent dublin........PRETTY WORK TM...Thanks again (for the 41st time).......ted
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Sir Duke
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| ted wrote: | | Dave...You are right. I came to Florida for 5 months and only brought 3 pipes. We 4 will get along quite nicely. A Dr. B cob, a Grabow sandblast Freehand, and my favorite of all, a Tom Martin 1/4 bent dublin........PRETTY WORK TM...Thanks again (for the 41st time).......ted |
 Bet the chicks dig it eh?
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Colt
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Not much I can add. Have been doing it so long that I do not even think about the packing, it is just one of those things that becomes second nature. I have to go with the moisture aspect. Moist aromatics can be difficult to burn all the way down. And if your pipes do not get enough rest and get wet in the bottom of the bowl they won't smoke down right either.
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