How often do you get to the bottom?

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DAL

DAL

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While enjoying my first smoke of the evening and catching up on all the Brother's fine posts, I read with particular interest a thread titled "Bowl and a Half Discovery." I have used the same technique a few times, myself, although not to the level of pleasure others have reported. But it really got me to wondering. Just how often do you estimate you reach the bottom of the bowl?

For me, it always depends on how much I'm enjoying the smoke. For example, a tobacco that I feel does not finish well might well be dumped with as much as 1/3rd of the bowl unburnt. Other tobaccos that yield a consistent experience throughout the bowl might only be dumped early because I became bored or wanted a "second course" for some reason. And of course, a wonderful multi-faced tobacco, one that morphs as it goes, is usually one I would smoke till nothing is left in the bowl that can be coxed to support flame.

So, for me, I would estimate I get to the bottom about 50% of the time.

Just curious how often other's reach that point.

--DAL

 
Although your post title had me wanting to respond that I hit bottom every time with my wife :lol:
 
It really depends in large part on the particular blend I happen to be smoking at the time. Alot of times with unrubbed flakes I don't get all the way to the bottom, mostly just from impatience and/or a tendency to tamp too much. With loose cut stuff, shag or ribbon tho I usually end up with nothin but ash, unless I happen to put the pipe down and forget about it which only happens occasionally. Thick cut cubes the very bottom can be difficult to burn all the way too, so there is often some unsmoked stuff with blends like that too.
 
Enjoying a bowl of Black Irish X at the moment (is there anything more satisfying?) and can promise it will hit bottom.

Unfortunately all too many of my late night bowls of Virginia don't - as I don't enjoy DGT with virginias, finding them stale in the morning - while a hearty latakia blend can still put out in the morning.

Overall I would say that 1/2 of my bowls hit bottom, fair number have some dottle and a fat few have 1/3 bowl or so laid abandoned...
 
I always only smoke what I like. I make it a point to hit bottom every time. If I didn't I'd feel cheated. I choose my bowl size by the tobacco I'm going to smoke or vice versa. It's always good to the very last drop. If on rare occasions,there is ever any tobacco left over it finds it's way as an oreo stuff into my very next bowl.
 
LIPIPE":76wj2e8l said:
I always only smoke what I like. I make it a point to hit bottom every time. If I didn't I'd feel cheated.
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Me too. I always nub my cigars, clean my plate, suck my glass dry and breathe my scuba tank empty.
I dry my tobacco pretty well and usually don't have any trouble smoking a bowl down to ash.
After all, ya paid fer da whole thing, didn't ya? :lol:
 
Depends largely on the cut & how I tamp. I really don't know the answer though. I'd say mostly I get to the bottom.
 
Probably about 2/3 of the time I get to the bottom. Like stated above, any leftover becomes an oreo layer in the next bowl. This is not a problem for me, since I smoke like-types of tobacco in each pipe.

I, like so many others, used to cellar a wide variety of blends. These days, I just keep a few varieties - the ones I like the most. Got it down to about 7 different blends - although only 3 of these see the highest comsumption rates.
 
DAL":n45ieydo said:
For me, it always depends on how much I'm enjoying the smoke.
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I'm pretty much the same, DAL. Although I only smoke blends that I like, sometimes the bottom dottle turns bitter and unpleasant towards the end of the pipe, and that's when I end the smoke. (No need to punish myself, right?) For me, there are many factors influencing this phenomenon, the most important being air humidity. Nonetheless, some blends smoke well to the end regardless of moisture, they just need a relight, while others become bitter very early. Many VAs are in the former case, while Latakia-heavy blends in large bowls seem to often fall in the latter.

Therefore, rough rule of thumb, I figure that I smoke till the end 100% of the time in dry weather, and perhaps 50% when the humidity is high.
 
I tend to never give up on a bowl, to the extent that I'll stubbornly try to relight the thin layer of ash I have left. And yes, it does taste dire.
 
I'd say about 70% of the time, but it does depend on the type of baccy and the humidity. Basically whenever it starts to taste sour I'll stop - this is usually close to the botttom of the bowl. In my youth I stubbornly refused to "waste" any tobacco (we've all been there I'm sure) and would relight tar and dottle - probably ruined a few good pipes that way and didn't do my palate any good. Also, although I don't tend to use filters/system pipes (with the occasional exception of Falcon) I like to put a few Denicool crystals in the bottom of bowl - because I smoke generally too fast this minimises wastage at the bottom of the bowl, but I'm sure purists may frown at this. :silent:
 
What do people consider "the bottom"? That there's nothing left to burn or that what's left is at least charred? If it's nothing left to burn then I almost never make it there, if it's what's left is pretty charred, then probably only 1/3 of the time. Most of the time there's there's at least a little untouched leaf left in the bottom.
 
ZeroContent":bvyw2iqc said:
What do people consider "the bottom"? That there's nothing left to burn or that what's left is at least charred? If it's nothing left to burn then I almost never make it there, if it's what's left is pretty charred, then probably only 1/3 of the time. Most of the time there's there's at least a little untouched leaf left in the bottom.
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Ditto
 
ZeroContent":uvunsr8h said:
What do people consider "the bottom"? That there's nothing left to burn or that what's left is at least charred? If it's nothing left to burn then I almost never make it there, if it's what's left is pretty charred, then probably only 1/3 of the time. Most of the time there's there's at least a little untouched leaf left in the bottom.
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This.

Cheers,

RR
 
1/3 of the time I hit bottom, otherwise I have some charred bits left (but nothing that leaves me feeling like I'm not getting the job done) when I knock the bowl on the heel of my palm, and I never give up on a bowl.
 
I'll chime in here too.

In general I try to put enjoyment over finishing every last bit, but ususally do finish if time permits. I will stop if it really starts to get foul. That happens frome time to time, but not often, and mostly with blends that weren´t that good to begin with. Some blends are just harder to get every last bit out of, too. I remember McClelland Dark Star was one of those I had difficulty getting all of.

Smoking the bowl until nothing but white ash remains doesn´t happen to me too often. Usually there's some dottle or unburnt chunks mixed in. The only time I´m fastidious over getting all the way to the bottom is when breaking in a new briar pipe.

That said, I really hate dumping out unsmoked tobacco! It just costs too damn much!

 
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