Who Builds Cake In Their Pipes?

[cigrmaster]

The question of cake on another thread has inspired me to find out what the percentage of cake builders is to guys who wipe their bowls after every smoke not allowing a cake to build. Almost every guy I learned from in the beginning of my pipe smoking told me a nice hard cake about a dime's thickness will protect your pipe, make it taste better and make for a cooler smoke. I have always built a cake in my pipe and would never think of not doing so. For me cake is easy to take care of when it gets to be too much. A pipe knife or even sometimes a reamer are the two things I use.
It wasn't till I came here that I heard of people who wiped their bowls clean and had no cake in their pipes.

 

[aldecaker]

I always wipe the bowl with a paper towel after a smoke, but cake still builds anyway. Just a hell of a lot slower. (I am a cake minimalist, so this works out well for me.)

 

[pipestud]

What aldecaker said. Twisting a paper towel down into the bowl after every smoke will absorb any moisture and help the pipe stay dry with no gooey build-up in the bottom. And while a cake will still form, it will be much tighter and develop much more slowly. I do like just a little cake (not as thick as a dime though). Excess cake takes away from the flavor of the tobacco and I've seen enough cracked bowls from super caked up pipes to know that it is true that the expansion and contraction of the cake can indeed be a stronger force of nature than even briar.

 

[mikestanley]

I like a little cake in the bowl, provided it is hard and not spotty. In my experience, what is odd is that some pipes seem to build cake faster than others do. I have an older Charatan Special Prince I really have to keep an eye on. The pipe seems to build cake almost overnight. I smoke mostly Va/Oriental and Virginia or VaPers so, aside from brand names, the blends are pretty similar. I tend to have god luck forming that thin, solid cake by using a doubled over pipe cleaner every 2nd or 3rd smoke. Not too much reaming, except with that Charatan with this method. Not the thickness of a dime but it is enough. Foe me, a cake on the bottom of the bowl is the key to giving a pipe the best chance to be a good smoker.
Mike S.

 

[cigrmaster]

When I smoke a bowl, I let it sit over night to let the cake harden. The next day I will double over a soft pipe cleaner and gently wipe out the bowl of ash and any loose tobacco. A dime is just a very loose measurment as who the hell can put a dime in the pipe and compare the thickness.
I also have pipes that seem to build cake faster. I have a Rad Dublin that I have trimmed the cake on more times than any of my pipes. I wonder if maybe a conical bowl buiids it faster. Someone may want to do some research on this subject.

 

[jefff]

Add me to aldecaker and pipestud. When i find cake thicker than a dime I ream it down to about half that thick.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I am pretty sure the cake will be as hard as it needs to be as soon as the pipe cools. When I am home I tend to rinse the bowl with hot water, then dry with paper towel in chamber, pipe cleaner the usual. My cake is thin but effective enough for my druthers.

 

[didimauw]

I like a fairly decent cake in my pipes. As Long As it's even to the bottom.

 

[clickklick]

I build cake. When it gets to about the thickness of a quarter, I ream it down close to wood and start over again. I don't wipe the inside of the bowl with anything. When I ream they all get some everclear.

 

[perdurabo]

I wipe the bowl out after every smoke with a paper towel. After about 5-7 smokes I use Q-Tips and Golden Grain, then remove any cake build up that the paper towel missed.

 

[fishingandpipes]

hang on

When I am home I tend to rinse the bowl with hot water

what?

 

[warren]

I do! I do!

 

[rcstan]

I keep a little self-occuring cake that gets trimmed regularly to the thicknes of a sheet of paper, or about as thin as the precarb layer in let's say, a Peterson. I never go back to bare wood because I will have to basically re-break that pipe in.

As for rinsing bowls, every now and then when restoring a pipe that has petrified thick cake, some water in the bowl helps break the stuff out easier and quicker. I don't see how it would hurt one's pipe, other than the stain, as long as you don't reload and smoke right after you took it out of the sink!!!!

 

[jazz]

I'm not that big on cake in my pipe. I give the pipe a rub out with a folded pipe cleaner after each smoke. The cake still forms but it takes a while. Can't say I remember how thick a dime is but mine gets cleaned out before it gets thicker than a 5 pence piece.

 

[hawky454]

I absolutely keep a cake in my bowls. It noticeably smokes much better when I do.

 

[cigrmaster]

Question for the non cake guys. Have any of you tried building a thicker cake to see how your pipes smoked? Also did someone suggest this method to you or did you just come by it yourselves?

 

[aldecaker]

I have, in the past, kept a lot more cake in my pipes. The reason I got away from it is that the cake seems to hold all the nastiness that I spend so much effort cleaning out of the rest of the pipe. Ghosting lives in cake, moisture lingers in cake, and cake holds that ashy "not-so-fresh" ( :wink flavor. After a thin "break-in" layer, the caking process is complete for me.

 

[jazz]

Question for the non cake guys. Have any of you tried building a thicker cake to see how your pipes smoked? Also did someone suggest this method to you or did you just come by it yourselves?

I have and I no longer do for the same reasons aldecaker and pipestud mention above me. I'm not saying my way is the right way but it is the way I have found works best for me.

 

[aristokles]

A dime's worth is about right for me, perhaps a wee bit less if I can maintain that little. Any greater depth and it seems to become counter-productive, which has been well noted above.

 

[jefff]

I discovered it by accident maybe 15 years ago. I have a heavily caked pipe, one I had let go a bit too far. When I reamed it, I thought I had over reamed it, maybe half a mil.
Then I smoked it and the taste was so much better I was surprised. I went through all my pipes and did the same. They all tasted better to me.
So now I do the paper towel thing and ream when it hits a dime.