It's damn near impossible to get cake pictures with a flash, especially when they are still growing. It's up to about a dime now.
The Great Meerschaum Cake Experiment
- Thread starter TheWhale13
- Start date
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Just finished smoke 57 with no internal cleaning yet.
Other than finishing my holiday sets from Jason, I'll likely not buy anymore. I am thinking about hitting Kenan up for three companion pieces for the owl though.
That sounds awesome. he does great work. I still need a claw, and out of all the pipes I smoke, I have more meers than briars. And will keep buying more meers and meer tampers
. Mustafa is still waiting for the right size block to make my tamper. I'm assuming he's looking for a nice scrap piece to carve it with. He's not happy how small I want it, but he obliged! I'm sure I'll love it.
For some reason owls remind me of Fall so I'm going to try to get a rabbit, a songbird, and a mouse.
That is 100% categorically false.
1. Meerschaum is not even remotely strong, it is very fragile and prone to cracking.
2. Cake cracking briars unheard off? Just because you’ve never heard of it does not make it unheard of.
Cake left unmanaged will 100% wreck a pipe made of any material.
Cake is nothing more than carbon, a “dime” thick cake on a cast iron pan will crack it. So unless you think you meerschaum is harder than cast iron, I would recommend keeping your cake managed.
Cake cracks thing’s because it has different thermal properties than pretty much everything thing else, that’s why build it in our pipes, to insulate them. It contracts and expands at a different rate than briar or meerschaum. If you have enough of it, the cakes contracting and expanding at a different rate will exploit natural weaknesses in natural materials and crack them along already existing weak points.
I’m not claiming any cake will crack a meerschaum. I am telling you that unmanaged cake will 100% crack any pipe.
Judging by dark areas on pipes from photos like that, I'm not 100% convinced the cake did it. Looks more like a case of prolonged hot smoking.
The idea of taking some nice clean fresh tobacco and shoving it down a sewer pipe mortifies me. 
A reminder: One's personal experience that something does or does not do something doesn't make for good generalizations or categorical statements.
You need five or more to be able to draw a generalization.
You need five or more to be able to draw a generalization.
So, what are you suggesting? @rustiepyles needs two more pipes in the photo.
My now past, but dear friend and Tobacco Master, John Dengler, had many, many pipes that demonstrated the power of cake bursting a pipe. He was always clear about it when selling a pipe to a new smoker.
My CAO lattice meerschaum was slow to color and I had been smoking it since the late 80's. A year ago, I de-caked it. It was very much an endeavor to say the least. I am sure it was on it's way to splitting. Since then, it is coloring very nicely.
This is an interesting experiment and I am following the results closely.
The generation I grew up with was very clear about cake. You smoked your pipe until it could no longer hold a cake or it cracked because of too much cake. Not all smoked that way, but enough of them did that I could see the results. They simply tossed the pipe and bought a new one.
I liked my pipes enough to keep them clean and because of that, except for the Meers - I was always worried about scraping some of the mineral - I kept my pipes fairly clean. Now, my meers are kept cleaned as well.
But I do agree with your assessment of data collection. Anecdotal evidence based on a limited set of observations isn't always the best. That said, watching a bull in a corral chase a worker one time is enough for me to warn people from entering the corral of a bull.
Regardless, just as poor, is creating an explanation to explain a set of data points - unless that explanation can accurately predict the future. Otherwise, its just conjecture and poor science.
Also no, carbon is a phenomenal insulator. It’s literally the only thing left when you set something on fire. It’s the part that doesn’t burn. The more of it you have between fire and briar the more resistant the pipe is to burn out, and conversely more prone to cracking. Heat does not cause cracking, expansion causes cracking. Heat causes burning. Pipes damaged due to heat look completely different than one’s damaged by cracking. Pipes that burn out tend to burn out in the same spots, unless do to a defect in the wood. The tend to burn out at the heel or above the draft hole. The darkening you see on these pipes is because they were smoked for years after they cracked. It’s basically leakage.
Here’s how it works, the more carbon build up you have, the more insulation you provide.
The more insulation you provide the less expansion you get from heat.
When the carbon buildup reaches a point that it is expanding more rapidly than whatever it is insulating it will crack it.
“Cake” or carbon build up is not even remotely limited to pipe smoking, carbon builds up wherever combustion takes place. Steam engines, internal combustion engines, cutting/welding equipment, cookware, electrical contacts, ac motors, etc.
And carbon buildup cracking things happens in ALL of those places.
The automotive industry has been fighting carbon buildup for 100 years, it’ cracks heads and manifolds.
Carbon buildup causes gas heater plenums to crack.
I could go on, but I won’t. Carbon causing things to crack is not conjecture, it is 100% proven science that industry has know about for years. The “myth” that cake will crack your pipe has not persisted for 200 years because Big Reamer wants to sell us useless bobbles.
I spend most of time doing Root Cause Analysis for components of high speed automation and robotics. That means, my career is determining why mechanical parts failed. I do know a little about this subject professionally. So you can rest assured that I’m not making any of this up or conjecturing.
I provided 6
and have bucket full of more.
A while back, there was a thread on pipe myths. Many posters took the opportunity to mock some of the old standard practices from way back when.
The one many most seemed to mock was that a pipe needs to be carefully broken in. I agree it is possible to break in a pipe by just smoking it. I won't argue the point.
But, having utilized the above described method as well as the old time method of smoking the pipe in thirds - a few loads at beginning with the pipe filled only one third, then some more with it filled two thirds, and then finishing off the break in smokes with the pipe fully loaded smoking all the way to the bottom, I can accurately state that the pipes broken in by this latter method never burned through and always seemed to smoke cooler.
Other people I know who used the more careful break-in method reported similar results. It was done as a matter of practice for decades.
Suddenly, though, for whatever reason - the internet I suppose - we hear people mock the method and laugh it off because they themselves never broke in a pipe that way or never had a burn out.
Whatever. But often times industry practice has a reason and a rationale for their practices.
Laughing it off or blowing it off ignores the wisdom of generations that came before as well as says a lot about how current people view the wisdom of those who came before.
Yes, a contrarian view point will often result in nothing happening differently. But choosing to be careful and precise about how you break in a pipe and maintain a carbon cake... I think it says something about the smoker and the respect the smoker has for their pipe.
Sure, just smoke it and don't worry about breaking it in. Be sure to smoke it on the plains of Kansas while the wind is roaring.
The one many most seemed to mock was that a pipe needs to be carefully broken in. I agree it is possible to break in a pipe by just smoking it. I won't argue the point.
But, having utilized the above described method as well as the old time method of smoking the pipe in thirds - a few loads at beginning with the pipe filled only one third, then some more with it filled two thirds, and then finishing off the break in smokes with the pipe fully loaded smoking all the way to the bottom, I can accurately state that the pipes broken in by this latter method never burned through and always seemed to smoke cooler.
Other people I know who used the more careful break-in method reported similar results. It was done as a matter of practice for decades.
Suddenly, though, for whatever reason - the internet I suppose - we hear people mock the method and laugh it off because they themselves never broke in a pipe that way or never had a burn out.
Whatever. But often times industry practice has a reason and a rationale for their practices.
Laughing it off or blowing it off ignores the wisdom of generations that came before as well as says a lot about how current people view the wisdom of those who came before.
Yes, a contrarian view point will often result in nothing happening differently. But choosing to be careful and precise about how you break in a pipe and maintain a carbon cake... I think it says something about the smoker and the respect the smoker has for their pipe.
Sure, just smoke it and don't worry about breaking it in. Be sure to smoke it on the plains of Kansas while the wind is roaring.
Forgive me for offering a different view for the point of conversation, I'll not make that mistake again. According to posts this evening, I'm taking too many risks and living my life wrong.Also no, carbon is a phenomenal insulator. It’s literally the only thing left when you set something on fire. It’s the part that doesn’t burn. The more of it you have between fire and briar the more resistant the pipe is to burn out, and conversely more prone to cracking. Heat does not cause cracking, expansion causes cracking. Heat causes burning. Pipes damaged due to heat look completely different than one’s damaged by cracking. Pipes that burn out tend to burn out in the same spots, unless do to a defect in the wood. The tend to burn out at the heel or above the draft hole. The darkening you see on these pipes is because they were smoked for years after they cracked. It’s basically leakage.
Here’s how it works, the more carbon build up you have, the more insulation you provide.
The more insulation you provide the less expansion you get from heat.
When the carbon buildup reaches a point that it is expanding more rapidly than whatever it is insulating it will crack it.
“Cake” or carbon build up is not even remotely limited to pipe smoking, carbon builds up wherever combustion takes place. Steam engines, internal combustion engines, cutting/welding equipment, cookware, electrical contacts, ac motors, etc.
And carbon buildup cracking things happens in ALL of those places.
The automotive industry has been fighting carbon buildup for 100 years, it’ cracks heads and manifolds.
Carbon buildup causes gas heater plenums to crack.
I could go on, but I won’t. Carbon causing things to crack is not conjecture, it is 100% proven science that industry has know about for years. The “myth” that cake will crack your pipe has not persisted for 200 years because Big Reamer wants to sell us useless bobbles.
I spend most of time doing Root Cause Analysis for components of high speed automation and robotics. That means, my career is determining why mechanical parts failed. I do know a little about this subject professionally. So you can rest assured that I’m not making any of this up or conjecturing.
I provided 6
Sure, this might be too unscientific for some, and "all my arguments are based on anecdotal evidence" 
, but it might still be worth it to test old myths or advice, at the very least it is a fun experiment. Although if there is one thing that you should follow it is advice from old generations, even if practices seem very outdated, there might be some part of it helping. It's not like people were more stupid two hundred years ago, but I definetly am more stupid than they are
, but it might still be worth it to test old myths or advice, at the very least it is a fun experiment. Although if there is one thing that you should follow it is advice from old generations, even if practices seem very outdated, there might be some part of it helping. It's not like people were more stupid two hundred years ago, but I definetly am more stupid than they are 
I personally believe that it is good to test different theory's out. This is how we learn and come to our own conclusions. That being said this is not a test i would personally preform. I tend to lean towards the knowledge that I have received from the guy's that showed me the way to smoke and care for my pipes. I can't say that the way I do it is right or wrong though. That is why i think this is a good test to preform. Thank you @TheWhale13 for being willing to test this for those like me that are afraid to break their meers.
To be honest, I am a bit afraid of breaking my beloved meer. But I do not think that it will break, which is why I have no qualms about doing this.
This is my first Altinay it should arrive this Tuesday according to the dhl tracking number I'm very excited.