|
|
Post by Dramatwist on Mar 16, 2018 5:01:27 GMT -5
When I began smoking a pipe in the early 1970s, I was influenced by the published advice available at the time... there was no internet, and precious little first-hand information.
After a period of experimentation, one thing troubled me; I could not get my tobacco to smoke down to the bottom of the bowl to *a fine, gray ash.*
I fussed; I packed the tobacco in different ways; I tried different approaches to controlling my draw; I tried filters; I tried anything and everything to achieve *a fine, gray ash.*
After all, everything I had read said that this was the moment that one became a true pipe-smoker.
I never gave up; I kept smoking a pipe. Sometimes, over the years, I achieved *a fine, gray ash.* Usually, I did not... there was always a bit of dottle.
Ever inadequate, I wondered what was wrong with me.
Nothing was wrong with me and nothing is wrong with a thumbnail of dottle at the bottom of the pipe, either.
The most important thing is to light the pipe and enjoy it.
Don't worry about technique... it will come. Educate your taste to the tobacco. Find joy in the experience.
|
|
|
|
Post by Legend Lover on Mar 16, 2018 5:35:56 GMT -5
Great advice DT.
I would concur with you - Being a scientist, I wanted to get everything 'right' - if I followed the instructions correctly then it'll be easy. But then there's the art to pipe smoking...
Those to coupled together meant, for me, a constant quest for the *fine grey ash*, like you said. And when that didn't happen it annoyed me. But I realised that I had missed the experience in the interim, which actually WAS enjoyable, but I didn't twig on to that fact until afterwards. If I had only taken the time to stop worrying about technique and just enjoy the smoke when it was good, then it would have been great...
I realise that now.
|
|
|
|
Post by seagullplayer on Mar 16, 2018 5:53:22 GMT -5
I'm with you.
I'm not sure the internet has helped at all! ha
Some wax poetic about it being the journey and not the destination or some such.
Some say don't sweat the small stuff.
|
|
|
|
Post by Stanhill on Mar 16, 2018 5:54:40 GMT -5
After all, everything I had read said that this was the moment that one became a true pipe-smoker.I remember that one. Pure and utter bovine feces. I gave up smoking "...to a fine, gray ash" years ago. It depends on the tobacco and the chamber and conical chambers can be be bastards to smoke to the bottom. I smoke for enjoyment and why should I smoke to the bottom, if it tastes like sh... er, not good..? Whenever I've finished a bowl, I wipe the chamber with a piece of tissue paper and that's it. |
|
|
|
Post by haebar on Mar 16, 2018 6:25:49 GMT -5
I also used to attempt to smoke every bowl down to the bottom. My goal was to build up cake in the bottom of the bowl, not so much for the "fine, gray ash" objective. I'd get down to the last few centimeters where it became hard to keep lit and I'd stir up the remaining tobacco with my pipe tool and relight until I could smoke to the very end. But many times doing this I ended up with a burnt tongue from bite. And the smoke quality was generally not as good as the earlier smoke. So, nowadays, I smoke down to where the smoke quality starts to change for the worse and I put the pipe down, let it cool and then empty the bowl. Life is too short to go around with a bitten tongue. I don't worry about getting the bottom of the bowl broken in anymore.
|
|
|
|
Post by Legend Lover on Mar 16, 2018 6:27:50 GMT -5
I also used to attempt to smoke every bowl down to the bottom. My goal was to build up cake in the bottom of the bowl, not so much for the "fine, gray ash" objective. I'd get down to the last few centimeters where it became hard to keep lit and I'd stir up the remaining tobacco with my pipe tool and relight until I could smoke to the very end. But many times doing this I ended up with a burnt tongue from bite. And the smoke quality was generally not as good as the earlier smoke. So, nowadays, I smoke down to where the smoke quality starts to change for the worse and I put the pipe down, let it cool and then empty the bowl. Life is too short to go around with a bitten tongue. I don't worry about getting the bottom of the bowl broken in anymore. I've come to that realisation recently. I find the last fifth of the bowl hard to keep lit. I thought it was my packing, but for the sake of a few ribbons, I'd rather dump than persist and not enjoy it. |
|
|
|
Post by slowroll on Mar 16, 2018 7:04:42 GMT -5
Fortunately for me, I never read that bit of propaganda. I always figured if A. Conan Doyle and George Simenon thought dottle was normal, it must be so. At the first sign of that sour crappy taste I stop, dig it out and reach for another pipe.
|
|
exchef
Junior Member
Posts: 292
Location:
|
Post by exchef on Mar 16, 2018 7:42:39 GMT -5
This sentiment touches every hobby, pastime, adventure. Who is to say what is the right way to do something.
As a cyclist, I always tell new riders to ride their own ride. Do not worry about what others do or think. Too many people are worried about doing things “right”, without realizing what is “right” for them might not be right for me or you.
With cigars, any time I try a new stick, I will generally smoke it to at least the halfway point before I pass judgement on it, the taste profile changes the longer you smoke it. I am learning that the pipe is much the same way but with more control out of what you can get out of a bowl by blending, packing, etc. with cigars, unless you are rolling your own you get what is in the stick.
With all that said, I appreciate the fact that sites like this exist as with every new experience I pick up, I research the hell out of it, in some ways almost as enjoyable as the new experience.
😊
ExChef
|
|
|
|
Post by peterd-Buffalo Spirit on Mar 16, 2018 8:39:59 GMT -5
...well, I've said it on this forum plenty of times...for me, it has always been a journey...never the destination...and every journey is different for everyone...no matter if its tobacco...smoking to a fine ash, or whatever...so, as stated, when the quality of the smoke begins to change, I stop.
|
|
|
|
Post by just ol ed on Mar 16, 2018 9:00:49 GMT -5
I seldom chime in on these subjects but today will go with the majority. I been at this since '62 & never worried about leaving small amt of dottle. Agree with....if it starts tasting nastie, don't go for the usual fine gray ash thing, dump it, let pipe rest, get another pre-packed for later enjoyment. Saliva happens.
Ed Duncan, Batavia, NY
pipe/cigar since '62
|
|
|
|
Post by puffy on Mar 16, 2018 10:39:39 GMT -5
Many years ago on a newsgroup.ASP. there was a fella who was a couple slices short of a full loaf.He started a discussion on whether or not dottle could be recycled.He started another discussion on whether or not pipes could be made out of dryer lint...I've always had a bit of dottle left in the bottom of the bowl.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 10:41:42 GMT -5
Drama could have written that from my mind. One thing that helped was a guy named Bob Metzler, in charge of the Saint Louis Pipe Show. I asked him about the dottle, as I read that it was supposed to be a sweet spot. I was fifteen, he was about eighteen. He exclaimed, in a Sherlockian way that the dottle is the worst part of the smoke, with some other adjectives I can't recall, nothing dirty. peterd-Buffalo Spirit is right about the journey. On a spiritual quest so long ago one of the books of wisdom I read was that if your journey to the destination is focused you have gone beyond the destination. Actually, that is paraphrasing someone else named Peter. |
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 10:44:29 GMT -5
I seldom chime in on these subjects but today will go with the majority. I been at this since '62 & never worried about leaving small amt of dottle. Agree with....if it starts tasting nastie, don't go for the usual fine gray ash thing, dump it, let pipe rest, get another pre-packed for later enjoyment. Saliva happens. Ed Duncan, Batavia, NY pipe/cigar since '62  ...About time you chipped-in  |
|
|
|
Post by cigrmaster on Mar 16, 2018 10:48:53 GMT -5
I have never cared about smoking to a fine ash. If the flavors taste good at the bottom I will chase them till they are no more. Sometimes this results in a mouth full of hot ash, usually I avoid that. I empty my pipe at the first signs of lousy flavors and go on to the next.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 10:54:14 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing with us DT. I guess that I've never have worried about this (Alfred E Newman "What??? Me Worried???). Like John (haebar), I've always enjoyed a pipe tobacco blend, but have never "ashed" it to the bottom. I've not wanted to "start a fire" at the bottom and smoke briar. So, I tend to also stop when there reaches a change in flavor/taste approaching the bottom of the bowl. Sometimes the ash is white, sometimes grey, and sometimes greyish/black. Just what it is. I usually end up with some amount of unsmoked tobacco and bump it out after the pipe cools. For me, smoking a pipe is a peaceful and serene time of the day, allowing me to think about life and observe my surroundings at the same time  |
|
|
|
Post by papipeguy on Mar 16, 2018 11:33:10 GMT -5
This thread shows that there are a lot of seasoned pros here. I try to keep things simple: load it, light it, love it. Kinda like golf; the moment I stopped keeping score I found it a whole lot more enjoyable.
|
|
orley
Junior Member
Posts: 446 
First Name: Paul
Location:
|
Post by orley on Mar 16, 2018 12:02:33 GMT -5
I never smoke down to a fine gray ash, mainly because I don't like getting a fine gray ash in my mouth. When I started smoking in the early 1980s I always was told that dottle is normal. To each their own...
|
|
|
|
Post by william on Mar 16, 2018 12:23:40 GMT -5
I seldom chime in on these subjects but today will go with the majority. I been at this since '62 & never worried about leaving small amt of dottle. Agree with....if it starts tasting nastie, don't go for the usual fine gray ash thing, dump it, let pipe rest, get another pre-packed for later enjoyment. Saliva happens. Ed Duncan, Batavia, NY pipe/cigar since '62 I'm still chuckling over spit--I mean "saliva" happens.  |
|
sablebrush52
Full Member
Posts: 903
Favorite Pipe: Barling
Favorite Tobacco: whatever is in it
Location:
|
Post by sablebrush52 on Mar 16, 2018 12:25:39 GMT -5
Smoking down to the bottom of the bowl is a wonderful technique for destroying a pipe. The heat generated in getting those few last strands burnt eventually causes cracks to form around the walls of the lower third of the chamber. It might, or might not take years to achieve this goal, but rest assured you will achieve it.
As for fine white ash, that's another of those many, many baseless myths that pipe smokers love so much. Yeah, Balkan Sobranie (real stuff, not Germain's simulacrum) burned down to a fine white ash. But most blends burn down to a gray mottle, somewhat gritty ash.
Enjoy your smokes. Don't overthink it. It's not about stunt smoking.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 12:28:05 GMT -5
Surrender the Dottle (and move on to another bowl).
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 12:40:26 GMT -5
My first job was a Telex, the guys in my office laugh when i tell them I was promoted to the fax machine! We all learned way much better before the internet, life seemed so much easier back then!
Don't think we all learn at the same pace......
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 16, 2018 17:07:38 GMT -5
Fortunately for me, I never read that bit of propaganda. I always figured if A. Conan Doyle and George Simenon thought dottle was normal, it must be so. At the first sign of that sour crappy taste I stop, dig it out and reach for another pipe. You beat me to it. Even Sherlock Holmes had dottle (though he was weird enough to save it up in a Persian slipper that he kept on his mantle). |
|
|
|
Post by slowroll on Mar 16, 2018 18:28:25 GMT -5
@chico, aaccckk, can you imagine smoking dried out dottle? Thought that was odd when I first read it, back when dirt was young.
|
|
|
|
Post by billyklubb on Mar 17, 2018 6:43:12 GMT -5
when I first signed on at another place, there was this person who would always act shocked whenever anyone didn't have a 2 hour smoke that burned to a fine white ash. because every bowl he smoked lasted for 2 hours and burned to a fine white ash. he could never understand how the rest of us could smoke our pipes so fast, because we're obviously "horse racing" our tobacco since every bowl we smoked didn't last two hours and burn to a fine white ash. I've met that personality many times before. it's the "common sense" type person. no matter the problem or situation, they have an answer and then say, "It's common sense." it's not the solution to the problem or the fix of the situation they are interested in, it's trying to make someone else feel stupid to make themselves feel superior. I had a boss like that not that long ago. he often felt inadequate and felt the need to put someone down for his own emotional benefit. he liked making people feel stupid because he felt stupid and wanted shame the way he shamed himself. I wanted to push him down the stairs, but my wife said that he wasn't worth the jail time. she used fancy logic and facts on me.
|
|
|
|
Post by briarpipenyc on Mar 17, 2018 10:37:55 GMT -5
FINALLY....THE TRUTH!!!!!
I gave up years ago trying to light, and relight, then smoke, that disgusting, rank, steamy, dottle that's always left in the lower bowl. I always felt somewhat inferior to all the other "seasoned" pipe-smokers, and never mentioned my shortcomings to any others. I knew in my mind, that I failed as a "proper" piper. I struggled, through my early years, to reach this briar nirvana, but never came close to getting "fine white ashes" without pain, sorrows, and regrets for trying..
I remember reading this commandment somewhere, and I'm guessing that it was probably written in some haughty, foppish, Dunhill "art-of-pipe-smoking guide". I've read a few of these tutorials that stated this impossible-to-attain requirement as one of the goals of proper pipe-smoking. This one stinking rule has doomed many new pipers. BTW, I also never wore a smoking cap, nor, a smoking jacket, either.
So, I disregarded all those "must do" rules. Now, I smoke to have fun, relax and enjoy my solitude. I smoked the tobacco blends that I want to smoke, use whatever pipe cleaners that I have, regardless of brand, smoke any brand pipe I want, from estate cheapos to custom-mades, and I've found absolutely no differences in taste, and/or performance. I don't need a $4,000 briar monstrosity to make me happy. For me, a pipe's a pipe. I smoke until that point is reached when the tobacco turns sour and nasty, and just dump the rest of the tainted dottle into the nearest street or ash-tray. I no longer care about any fine white ashes, forming cake at the bottom of the bowl, cake in general, rim discolorations, dedicating special pipes for smoking special tobaccos, ghosting, hauntings, exorcism rituals, etc, etc, etc. But hey, that's just me. Life's too short.
Thank you! Drama.... So happy that you started this topic, and reading through the subsequent litany of common postings was an eye opener. Seems like your "personal truth" is shared by many, many others....and wasn't so personal, after all.
Frank
NYC
|
|
|
|
Post by mwps70 on Mar 17, 2018 12:38:17 GMT -5
I came to this conclusion a couple of years ago. I used to work so hard and turn my tongue to leather trying to break in the bottom of the bowl so I could smoke to a white ash every time. Now, there are blends that will smoke to a fine white ash every time...Penzance and Stonehaven for me. But most blends just won't now matter how you pack, light tamp...etc. I got tired of the leather tongue and one day I just decided that I am never having a bad bowl of tobacco again. If for some reason a bowl isn't tasting good or I get a bowl down to a point were its not enjoyable I dump it out. It isn't worth it and there is always another bowl. Life is too short to not enjoy every bowl you smoke.
|
|
|
|
Post by peteguy on Mar 17, 2018 12:49:54 GMT -5
I am in the camp of leaving the last 4th or 5th of the bowl and moving on. Like haebar, I feel the taste changes for the worse. I smoke until I notice the quality is dropping and I cant recognize what I am smoking.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
Location:
|
Post by Deleted on Mar 17, 2018 13:28:41 GMT -5
when I first signed on at another place, there was this person who would always act shocked whenever anyone didn't have a 2 hour smoke that burned to a fine white ash. because every bowl he smoked lasted for 2 hours and burned to a fine white ash. he could never understand how the rest of us could smoke our pipes so fast, because we're obviously "horse racing" our tobacco since every bowl we smoked didn't last two hours and burn to a fine white ash. I've met that personality many times before. it's the "common sense" type person. no matter the problem or situation, they have an answer and then say, "It's common sense." it's not the solution to the problem or the fix of the situation they are interested in, it's trying to make someone else feel stupid to make themselves feel superior. I had a boss like that not that long ago. he often felt inadequate and felt the need to put someone down for his own emotional benefit. he liked making people feel stupid because he felt stupid and wanted shame the way he shamed himself. I wanted to push him down the stairs, but my wife said that he wasn't worth the jail time. she used fancy logic and facts on me. That's the same kind of person (or maybe even the same individual!) who insists that tongue bite is always due to "puffing like a fright train" or other newbie error. Nothing to do with the tobacco, body chemistry, etc.  |
|
|
|
Post by slowroll on Mar 17, 2018 13:31:56 GMT -5
We've had quite a few comments here pretty much agreeing, and a lot of us have been piping a long time. So where the hell did this "smoking to a fine white ash" codswallop start anyway? I think maybe I've gotten that a couple times in my life when it was about 5 below 0 F out, the furnace was going full blast, the indoor humidity was about 0.003 % and I started with crinkly tobacco crumbs in the first place. Probably started with the guy who said Brylcreem on your hair landed all the women.
|
|
|
|
Post by cigrmaster on Mar 17, 2018 18:19:59 GMT -5
I think the guy who said you have to smoke to a fine white ash is the same guy who says you have to smoke the entire bowl with no relights. Sure it can be done if you want to do nothing but focus on tamping the entire time you are smoking, but that ain't how I smoke.
|
|
...About time you chipped-in 
