Question About Relighting

[Patrick]

So I have what I believe is a pretty simple question about relighting. When my pipe goes out, what I've done so far has been to scoop out the excess ashes and light up again, and it's worked out well for me so far. I have also watched a lot of the Youtube videos on pipe smoking, and have seen them relight without scooping out the ashes. I would imagine that that would make it tougher to light up again and perhaps contaminate the taste. Is that true? What do you do when you relight?

 

[Muddler]

Mostly I'll just tamp & relight. Occasionally, I'll dump the ash before relighting. Can't say I really have found the ash to contaminate the taste.

 

[Dutch]

I believe the ash serves to help cool the bowl, but if too much accumulates I dump a little off the top before relighting.

 

[Harlock999]

I'll tip the ash once during a bowl, whether a re-light is required or not.

 

[shootist51]

The only time I tamp is when the pipe won't relight, the only time I dump ash is when, after tamping, the pipe won't relight or the bowl is done.

 

[bronxbill]

I'll scoop and dump if I have trouble relighting. Otherwise, I just lightly tamp and relight

 

[Frost]

The ash doesn't really take a light very well, so shouldn't contaminate the taste much for most of the better half of the bowl, at least in my experience. Sometimes when the ash gets thicker I get a little ashy flavor, I think this is due to longer application of the flame and probably drawing harder when attempting to re-light through the ash. Usually only happens once a bowl, if that. I find that I have a tendency to "over-light" on re-lights through a thick layer which sometimes makes the baccy taste bad also.

Sometimes on a deeper bowl, the ash can get thick enough to make lighting the tobacco underneath difficult and I'll dump to get a better light even though the flavor isn't effected that much.

Also depends on the baccy and whether or not I have dgt'd at all. Some tobaccos (flakes and similar stuff) leave a hard crusty ash if allowed to cool too much. I'll stir this stuff sometimes to make lighting easier and find I get a better flavor than just lighting through the crust. Other tobaccos (shag, ribbon, cube) don't really leave that hard crust and the ash is looser and lighter and so don't require as much finagling to get it how I want it.

Just keep chasing the flavor and do whatever you gotta do! No rules there as far as I know. As long as you are at least a little carefull with the flame and don't go scraping around the inside of the bowl with a crocodile dundee knife or something, you should be good!

 

[Handsome Dynamite]

If I'm smoking a pipe with a deep chamber I'm more inclined to take some ashes out. Otherwise I don't worry about it too much unless I'm really having trouble relighting, but I always leave some ashes in there on top.

 

[sstodvictory]

....scoop out the excess ashes and light up again...

I do what you do after about 2/3 of my bowl is smoked, and then its usually good to the end. Before that, if a relight is required I just tamp first. I do find that after most of the bowl has been smoked, a dump prior to relight improves the taste. I speculate that the taste has more to do with the temperature of the fire than the presence of the ashes, although a heavy layer of ashes might influence taste indirectly by affecting the burning temperature. I further speculate that the reason why one's pack affects taste, is also because the pack is likely to affect burning temperature.

Steve

 

[Greenleaf]

A good way to prevent the need for relights is holding two fingers over the chamber, vertically extended. This channels air into the chamber and increases the burn within a few gentle puffs (puff thusly while doing this).

Other than that, I just tamp and relight, dumping ash on occasion (especially for tall pipes). For some relights of course a tamp is not needed, and many tamps necessitate an ashing. Use your judgement.

 

[BeersAndBriars]

Good thread! I've had issues with an ashy taste coming up following relights after a pipe has sat for a bit (talking 20-40 minutes here, not DGT) and actually found this thread googling for a culprit. I think I'll try dumping some ashes next time and see if that helps...