How long do you leave ash in the bowl after finishing?

I shake the ash too, but use a cork knocker over the top instead of my thumb.

Smoking mostly meerschaum I try not to let any ash build up. I dump my bowl, use a bristle cleaner through the stem and then a light scrub on the bowl, followed by a normal pipe cleaner. Probably overkill, but I really avoid sour smokes and cake build up this way

I won't argue with your self examination....


The reason I asked it was because I found myself leaving my workshop pipes and forgetting to come back to them.  Sometimes it was dang near a full bowl of tobacco and other times varying degrees of tobacco & ash or straight ash.  I would keep on smoking if there looked to be half a bowl or more left, otherwise I would dump and reload.  Sometimes it may be a day or a week before I picked up that pipe again and I never thought it smoked any different.

Since this poll I have tried to dump afterwards but I still forget.  I have always smoked stuff in the workshop that is easy to get.  That way if I ever feel I am dumping good tobacco it isn't Stonehaven or the like. 

Smoke it dump it and work it over with a pipe cleaner.

You're probably right, I do the scrub pretty gently but it is likely too much.

I'm too old and would forget to clean it out later, so I do it immediately