Returning Pipe smoker with a couple of questions.

Ray98362

Hi All,

I'm back to the pipe and this time it's for good. I first grabbed a pipe around '86 smoked them on and off since then often giving up over the lack of ability to pack a bowl and how to break one in.

I'm pretty sure I have the basics of those down now, but how do you build cake at the very bottom of a bowl. I can smoke a bowl down to fine white ash with a little dottle.. Under the dottle there isn't much if any cake. I have one pipe that stays bare wood. Do I need to smoke that dottle too? I have a few times and it's generally unpleasant.

motie2

Welcome back. I, too, stopped smoking a pipe, beginning around 1984 after smoking one for twenty years. I only resumed last summer. In the interim, my tastes changed from English blends (Balkan Sobranie) and VaPers (Cope's Escudo) to highly cased sweet tobaccos from Sutliff.

About the dottle: It's the "angel's share". Don't worry about it. 

If you smoke the dottle, there's a chance of establishing cake in the bottom of the bowl; if not, fire never gets to the bottom, so a cake there iis not necessary. Your choice. I find "smoking the dottle" to be mostly unpleasant, as the dottle has acted as a filter/sponge at the bottom of the bowl. Despite what some old timers will tell ya, the dottle is mostly crap.

ghostsofpompeii

@Ray98362 Welcome back. I have a similar issue with many of my pipes, including those I smoke to the bottom of the bowl. I wouldn't worry so much about building the cake all the way to the bottom of the bowl as to enhancing the actual smoking experience. So once you get down to the bitter dottle stop right there are toss it out. If that nasty taste is the last thing you remember about the bowl and blend you just smoked chances are you'll leave us once again. I highly recommend you watch a few YouTube Pipe Presenters like Muttonchops Piper who has a series of episodes for the new and returning piper, and how to make the experience more pleasurable. I've been a pipe smoker for 50+ years and it wasn't until I discovered the YouTube pipe community and the various instructional videos that I learned to correct mistakes I'd been making which have now greatly enhanced my smoking enjoyment.   

PappyJoe

@Ray98362 - Welcome back. I agree with what @motie2 and @ghostsofpompeii said. Cake is to protect the walls of the bowl from burning out. It's not absolutely necessary for the bottom of the bowl. Dottle not only taste bad, its also very wet and hard to relight without drying first. I dump mine immediately after smoking because I don't want it sitting in the pipe and souring it.

I would also recommend the Country Squire Youtube Channel and podcast. The do a live show on Monday night. Usually. And turn the audio into a podcast that is upload on Wednesday morning. Sometimes the are informative but the are always entertaining.

Ray98362

Thanks for the answers and tips.