Smoking to the Bottom of the Bowl

[Beowoulf]

I found an interesting article about smoking to the bottom of the bowl. I thought I would share it.

Smoking Your Pipe To The Bottom Of The Bowl | Smokingpipes.com

Should you smoke your pipe to the bottom of the bowl? We're covering the question with advice from a range of expert pipemakers.

www.smokingpipes.com

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Since I smoke mostly while clenching, hardly ever removing my pipe, most of the time I know that I have finished when I get a little ash in my mouth. Even on my pipes that have a few mm of chamber below the draft hole, which perplexes me when guys complain about pipes drilled like this.

My pipes all cake down into the heal and into the shank, so I usually don't worry about this. But, on the rare occasion that I taste warmed briar, I always just stop and let the pipe go out. You can always tell when the briar is getting super heated, if you can distinguish the taste of warmed briar. If you can smoke to thew bottom without smelling warmed or burnt briar, then there's nothing to worry about. Your not going to burn the briar without tasting it... unless one has shit for tastebuds. YMMV

And, to cake in the heal... I am more baffled by guys who say that they never get cake in the heal, as I have to use a small drillbit in a hand vise to clear the passage to the draft hole occasionally, because it cakes over.
But, to guys who leave dottle... no problem with that. They would have a word for that if it wasn't a thing.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I quit when it seems counterproductive to continue for whatever reason(s). Sometimes there's next to nothing in the bowl, the other day I had to abandon most of one, lol. Cheerful concessions!

 

[yanoJL]

..."Building cake on the floor of the tobacco chamber could be counterproductive, if done aggressively. It may help protect the wood, but for most pipes, the airway is at floor level and located to one side. If cake is built up, it will necessarily begin to block the smoke channel. And if the smoke channel is cleared, the same potential problem persists."

The shopkeeper at the local B&M who sold me my first briar seemed to stress the importance of breaking in the pipe by smoking "all the way to the bottom", thereby building a complete cake at the base of the chamber. So I think this got in my head; I would worry that dumping dottle could result in the "speed bump" cake ring in the chamber, and leave the bottom un-caked.

 

[bullet08]

One thing that really helps with smoking to the bottom, bone dry tobacco. Don't really care if I smoke to the bottom or not.

 

[didimauw]

Eventually the oils and smoke will build a nice layer at the bottom. Just scrape the cake where u need to and it'll all even out.

 

[kcghost]

I really don't care how close to the bottom I come so long as I eliminate as much as I deem reasonable.

 

[Michigan_Bill]

Sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t. Sometimes I plan on a short smoke and it lasts longer than expected. Sometimes I look forward to a languorous smoke and then discover half-way through that other things are pressing. Sometimes it seems after just a single minute that an hour has passed while reading a good book and enjoying a good smoke. There’s a word for that: happiness.

 

[mso489]

I usually quit when the ember has burnt down near the bottom of the bowl, when relights don't burn long, or when the flavor becomes sour and/or diminished. Once you get some experience, you won't waste enough tobacco to matter if you throw out a little unburnt "dottle."

Don't fixate on this. With experience, it won't be of much concern.

 

[Briar Tuck]

Thanks for sharing this article. It's timely for me because I've been giving this topic a lot of thought lately. I read it while smoking my second break in bowl on an unused, leather wrapped Derby estate pipe I recently acquired. I smoke almost exclusively outdoors, and with the cold weather and extreme humidity here there is no escaping moisture condensing both in the stem and on the bottom of the bowl, which pretty much precludes smoking it down to ash even if I were inclined to do so. Since even the bottom of the bowl is exposed to heat and smoke though it seems that a carbon layer will gradually build up there regardless.

This article makes me feel a little better about tossing out the small amount of wet, unsmoked tobacco at the bottom once relighting becomes a chore.

 

[5star]

I very rarely smoke to the very bottom of the bowl. When the taste gets harsh & the smoke gets hot - I dump it.

Mac

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Seems to me, if one struggles to smoke to the bottom of the bowl, why is it important to have cake built up there? I'd say the majority of my bowls go mostly to the bottom but it isn't something I strive for. Experience will let you know when a bowl is done regardless of what is left. You reach a point where the tobacco is all burnt or it simply isn't worth chasing any longer. I'm not wasting good time chasing a couple pennies of tobacco or some myth that says you are supposed to smoke to the bottom of the bowl.

 

[boston]

Smoke until I run out or time, decide I'm done, or until the bowl doesn't smoke the way I want. That's it for me. I take care of my pipes but...they kinda work for me...not me for them.

 

[LeafErikson]

Sometimes my pipe smokes to the bottom and sometimes it doesn’t. I couldn’t care less either way.

 

[Briar Lee]

My belief is a new pipe must be smoked completely to the bottom about a dozen times, not to cake the chamber, so much as to complete the curing process of the briar by extreme heat.

When you can smoke a pipe without tasting briar all the way down, it’s broken in.

I only leave enough cake in the chamber so I can look in there and say, there’s a little bit of caking. Actually, it’s more of a black, oily, resinous deposit than a carbon cake.

But once broken in all the way down, after that I don’t even think about how far down I smoke a bowl. When it’s done I flip the dottle out and let it rest, grab another pipe, and smoke that one for awhile.

 

[anotherbob]

I find it happens the more the less I care about it happening. But generally find it's not worth forcing the issue.

 

[Grangerous]

Seldom. If it happens, great.

 

[briarbuda48]

I quit when it seems counterproductive to continue for whatever reason(s). Sometimes there's next to nothing in the bowl, the other day I had to abandon most of one, lol. Cheerful concessions!

Yep, well said.

 

[AJL67]

I smoke a bowl till I’m done with the bowl and then I dump it out, amounts left vary.

 

[Chasing Embers]

These day the tobacco that I'm smoking doesn't even touch the bottom of the chamber.