Does honey coating help break innew pipe?

It does to apoint in the short term. But what can happen is the built up cake can break off in little chunks, leaving spots for hotter areas. I personally would not recommend it.

Pack it full and smoke slow. No honey needed, it does more harm than good as outlined by drwatson above. You're also going to burn extra sugars, which will make the smoke hotter, thus negating the benefit of the coating.

Baccy also plays a role, some use OTC burleys, I prefer to use a slow burning flake lightly fluffed. Definitely no aromatics if you ever want to smoke anything else out of that pipe. They also tend to burn fairly hot.....

I totally agree with drwatson and rcstan's assessment of honey coating to break in pipes... and... I agree because what they describe can happen has happened when I tried the honey coating thing.
Pipestud

Maybe ignorance is bliss, but I've always packed them to the top and smoked them to the bottom with no bowl coating...If you're tasting briar, you're smoking it too hot...

At the risk of getting flamed, permit to say something favorable about honey.

While there are a number of ways to break in a pipe, they can be reduced to three:

1. GLP recommends breaking it in by thirds. I've tried it, and it works.

2. Most of the respondents on this forum have recommended packing it to the top, lighting it, and smoking it slowly all the way to the bottom. I've tried it, and it works.

3. Richard Carlton Hacker recommends a "...very thin coating of honey..." I've tried it and it works. The key to this method is in Carlton's words: " very thin." If you dip your finger into a jar of honey, you will not achieve this, but are more likely to get the thicker, softer cake that has a greater potential to break off in chunks. When I employ this method, I warm the honey slightly, and then apply that very thin coating, rubbing it in well. The result has always been a perfect cake, quickly built up after 3 or 4 bowls. Why does this work? Simple, because the cake is nothing more than than burned on sugar, and the walls of your pipe don't really care if the sugar came from the tobacco or from the honey. May I make so bold as to suggest that those of you who don't like this method have never tried it the way Hacker recommends, and therefore never achieved the same highly satisfactory result.

After 54 years of Pipesmoking, I have acquired quite a few pipes, and therefore can say I have enough of a population base to engage in some experimentation in breaking in my pipes. Breaking in a pipe with Honey has proven to be a highly effective method, and I recommend to those on the forum who don't care for it, to try it my way and see what you get. After all, Richard Carlton hacker is no small fry when it comes to pipe expertise, and if he suggests it, please consider that there may be something to it. The last time I tried this was two weeks ago on a beautiful, brand-new Mark Tinsky, and I had a beautiful, hard cake by the next day.

I've heard of some people who actually suggest drying out some of your favorite tobacco until it is bone dry. Then crushing it up and mixing it with a little grape jelly and coating the bowl with a thin layer of the mixture. Their reasoning is that grape jelly won't melt and run to the bottom of the bowl like honey can. It is supposed to be a good alternative for those looking to produce a quick cake.
Personally, I've always been a big proponent of just smoking tobacco in them. With new pipes, I usually pack a few bowls that are 1/3 full and smoke them...maybe 5 times or so. Then the next 5 I smoke from 1/2-2/3 full. Then finally I start filling the bowl all the way up to smoke. This is to help (hopefully) develop the cake on the bottom of the bowl first to lay a "foundation" for your cake. Truthfully though I'm not 100% sure it's necessary. It's just a method that made sense to me so that's what I tried. The pipes I've done this in have both developed fine cakes over time.

Personally I use the honey (mixed with ash) when I'm patching over any spider webbing in the bowl. You will taste it. It will be a bit chunky but once you ream it back down you won't notice it IMO.
I haven't bought many pipes new, but the Peterson Shamrock I got was unfinished and smoked just fine- full bowl and all.

Rangerearthlpig wrote:

Is this what the cake should look like?

Click to expand...

Mine doesn't usually look like a question mark, but to each his own.

When I first got into pipes, the owner of my local B&M suggested that I coat the bowls of my pipes with either honey or molasses and let them sit over night, then follow the rule of thirds for breaking in a new pipe. I did that for four or five years, with many pipes. But for nearly a year now, and with MANY new pipes, I've just been loading them to the top and smoking them to the bottom! I find they smoke somewhat better that way, and honestly I can't tell a difference as far as the cake goes.

To me, the honey thing is not worth the effort for what you get out of it, if you get anything at all!

Nowadays, if the pipe in question is going to be an English/Balkan pipe, then that's what I'll use to break it in, if it's going to be used for anything else I'll usually smoke a couple of bowls of Carter Hall in it before I smoke anything else in it.

ranger yes, and no. Smoke slowly meaning pacing yourself, down from 88 puffs a minute to, like, 2 or 3. Which is hard to do, especially f you get carried away, like I do.

I have packed quarter- and half-bowls before to break in a pipe, and noticed later on when I reamed that particular pipe down to the wood that there were consistent "fire rings" in the bowl.

YMWV

Somewhere, shrouded in the mists of time, a wives' tale gained widespread acceptance that one should start with a pinch

of tobacco per smoke, and ever so gradually increase that amount over a long period of time until you're finally smoking

completely full bowls.
This probably had some merit back when pipe production was at its apex, and pipes were being cranked-out by the millions.

The idea was that pipes were being produced so fast, the briar they hurried to market did not have sufficient time to cure,

and was loaded with moisture and natural resins. Such pipes were believed to be at risk of cracking or splitting unless

they were smoked slowly and brought "into season" gradually. Somewhere along the line this notion became conflated with

the actual need to build up a carbon lining that would protect the wood from charring.
Pipe smoking is much less popular today than in previous generations, and existing briar stock is usually very well cured

by the time it's fashioned into a pipe. Further, many modern pipe makers routinely provide a protective carbon coating on

their bowls -- although pipes may remain uncoated to either show off particularly attractive grain, or to cater to the whims

of purists who want to build up the carbon coating themselves.
I agree with Eric (ravkesef), who recommends a thin coat of honey on uncoated bowls. I've done it and do not experience

crumbly carbon. In fact, I keep a rock hard and very thin cake in my pipe bowls. I think the honey helps a lot with removing

the vile taste that raw briar can produce before the pipe loses its green, woody character.

I take the dab of honey in a new pipe as a great folk ritual. My local independent pipe shop owner always

offers it when I buy a new pipe from him, and I always accept. When I break in a pipe I bought online, I

don't bother, but as a sociable and traditional thing, I think it is a fine idea. It's more in the tradition than

in the effect of the honey, to me. The honey has never caused any problem at all; some of those honey

baptized pipes I've owned for approaching forty years.

I've always just packed the bowl and smoked like any other pipe. Works fine for me.

I have also tried the honey method on several pipes and it has always worked great. It has never crumbled and is just as hard as cake done the traditional way. Even after I reamed the pipe to bare briar, there were no issues.