Smoking Pipe to The Bottom

I'm having trouble smoking to the bottom of the bowl and can't develop cake in the heel of my pipe. Can you offer any tips or advice?

It is a common refrain among pipe smokers that "you must smoke all the way to the bottom of the bowl." To some, it seems this adage is the "prime directive" or "first commandment" of pipe smoking. They act as if failure to burn all the tobacco in your pipe will result in severe penalty or loss of life and limb. Perhaps secret agents of the "Cake-Building Task Force" will hunt you down and force you to eat the dottle from a thousand pipes. But I laugh in the face of such danger and boldly challenge the necessity of building "heel cake"!

         Image source: pipesmagazine.com

Melodrama aside, I believe far too much is made of this issue. There is only one factor that should compel you to smoke to the bottom of the bowl: your enjoyment of the tobacco. If your pleasure diminishes at any point along the way, you should feel free to stop. If your tongue becomes sore, if the flavor becomes unpleasant, if you run out of time, or if you simply want to show your spite for this stupid "rule," then by all means stop smoking and dump out the dottle!

I can already hear the naysayers: "But what about building cake at the heel of the bowl?" Well, what about it? Not a single one of the pipes in my collection has ever developed cake at the bottom of the bowl. And yet I've never experienced a single adverse effect due to this fact. After breaking them in, my pipes smoke beautifully, are flavorful, and I've never experienced a burn out due to lack of heel cake development.

Obviously, there's nothing wrong with building cake at the heel of the pipe bowl. And if you're able to regularly burn the tobacco down to the bottom, that's great! But many folks find it difficult to do so, and they shouldn't have to feel guilty about it.

There are several reasons that contribute to the difficulty. Some reasons are self-evident and others are more difficult to identify. Moisture content of the tobacco, personal smoking habits (are you a drooler?), shape of the pipe (some are more prone to collecting moisture), briar quality (more or less absorbent), and even weather conditions can affect how well a particular bowl may burn.

Of course, even moist dottle will still burn if it gets hot enough. However, trying feverishly to reduce every bit of tobacco to ash can make you feel like you have a mouthful of hot lava. But if you insist on burning to the bottom, try taking frequent breaks to let your pipe cool. Then relight and smoke a little until it gets too hot again.

Some prefer to dump out the ash and let the pipe and tobacco rest overnight. This allows some additional drying time for the moist dottle. Then light up the dottle the following day and keep burning. This approach may work effectively, but many tobaccos taste poorly on relights. If your favorite blend retains its flavor, or if you're a glutton for punishment, then this approach may work fine for you.

You could also try dehydrating the tobacco until it is as dry as dust. This may produce adverse affects in terms of flavor and comfort, but if getting to the bottom of the bowl is your primary concern, removing as much moisture as possible will certainly aide in the goal.

These methods are, indeed, tedious. But if you feel compelled to persevere, it will likely pay off in the end. If you smoke it, cake will come.

But if you share my perspective that heel cake is vastly overrated, it simply may be time to acknowledge that life will continue just fine if you dump out the dottle and move on.