How Often Do You Rest Your Pipe?

As many pipes as I have, I just do a bowl per pipe at a time, and when I have a second bowl, I have a second pipe.

I clean them up as soon as I finish a bowl. I think all of my pipes get a minimum of a week's rest, usually more.

I take two briars into the field for the day and probably average two or three bowls in each. These two pipes are then returned to the rack until Sunday.
In the evening I pick a meer and smoke up to four bowls depending on what I'm reading. Usually a quiet bowl before dinner and then two or three bowls until I retire. I have six meers, but three of them do yeoman's duty and so never seem to rest.
My pipes get a cleaner run up their stem after a bowl, but that's about it. All pipes smoked during the week on get a good cleaning on Sunday, cake is shaved as needed, briars waxed and buffed, what ever appears necessary.
I won't tell you a how I treat my cobs. It's pretty disgusting.

I rest my briar and pear pipes a minimum of a full day after smoking them, though most end up resting longer.
I have a half dozen cobs that I rotate through during the day, so they just rest overnight.

I'm with Perique: a pipe needs at least a day's rest after smoking it. I have been smoking long enough that I have acquired enough pipes to give each one the care it deserves--I.e., after smoking a pipe, I run a cleaner through it. Then I bend the cleaner in half and vigorously scrub out the bowl. If it's a vulcanite stem, I rub in some Obsidian Oil rather vigorously. When the pipe has cooled, I separate the stem and run a pipe cleaner dipped in grain alcohol through the stem, and a bristle pipe cleaner through the shank. Then I run a dry pipe cleaner through the stem and shank to absorb any remaining liquid, and clean out the mortise with a pipe cleaner or a Q-tip as appropriate. Then I wipe down the stem, reassemble the pipe and put it in the rack until next time.
Does all this sound a bit fiddly? Perhaps so, but I've got some pipes that have been with me for over fifty years, and some I've acquired within the last month, so they run the gamut in terms of how long I've had them and smoked them. Some were acquired new, some are estates, but every one represented the best of what I could afford at the time I bought it. Some of my pipes are top shelf items, while others were inexpensive ones that I bought as a starving student. But every one of them has afforded me many hours of smoking pleasure through the years, and I believe that having given me so much, they deserve the best in care from me--so I give it to them. That's why they gleam in their racks; they look --and smoke-- great. Take very good care of your pipes. They will return the favor.
Besides, pipe smoking is a hobby, and hobbyists tend to be a bit obsessive about how they take care of their treasures.

I'm not saying it's right, but I don't, nor ever have rested pipes. If a pipe is so finicky it needs rest to avoid going sour, I just don't smoke it. I smoke the same pipe day in, day out, average about ten bowls a day. Clean it each night if I get around to it. Maybe I have bad taste, or maybe I just like the taste I get, but I have never seen a reason to rest my pipe. Makes things simple. I should note that I smoke a Peterson system pipe which is designed to trap moisture in a reservoir which I dump after each smoke. A week ago, I bought a falcon, and have smoked it exclusively since, and it also stays dry and needs no rest. I still like my Pete better, but the falcon is nice.
To be honest, I never rested my previous pipe, a straight billiard, either. I just dumped a lot of damp dottle. The pipe did eventually sour a little after years of this, which is why I bought a system pipe and I like mine very much, though I treat it as a tool.

One day I did pick 35 pipes from pipe collection and made weekly plan.

5 pipes per day for 7 days(each pipe per 1 bowl).

After I smoke insert a pipe cleaner for 1 day. Next day I do clean all smoked pipes

and put in the rack for 5 days for rest and dry.

I guess I have a primary pipe, a secondary pipe, and an English pipe for each day. The first two are for Va's and Va/Per's... Obviously. The second comes into play when I think the first needs a few hours to air out. When it comes to back to back bowls, I'll just run a pipe cleaner through the pipe and let 'er cool off for a bit.

Same as MSO, but my few 'museum-piece' pipes get smoked only once a month.

I smoke one pipe for a day, possibly two if changing blends, and at the end of the day it gets thoroughly cleaned and then rests for a minimum of a week.

I rarely, if ever, smoke the same pipe twice in one day. Each pipe I smoke gets a minimum of one days rest per bowl smoked, sometimes much more. It's a practice that's always worked well for me.

I have about a week's worth of pipes if I smoke 2 bowls a day and use a fresh pipe each time. That way I don't need to worry about resting a pipe long enough. Happy puffin',
Dave ::

I will smoke a pipe for a full day - say 15 bowls and then I clean it out, run the pipe cleaner through it and then toss it into rotation. I have a few favorites that I have posted pictures on this forum that get a lot more use than some other pipes but on the whole I try to stick to my rotation. In essence my regular set of pipes will call for a thirty day rest in-between use.

My collectors pieces I smoke once a week, maybe even longer rest periods. I have a few more frugal pieces that I smoke all day everyday and they smoke as good today as they were when I bought them. Cleaning of my expensive pipes is a ritual after each smoke, the everyday pipes I am less fussy on maintenance.

I'm not all that obsessed with resting my pipes, but I figure with the pipes I currently have that I rest each one for about 3 to 4 days after smoking it. As for the idea of using Obsidian oil on the stems (vulcanite stems ONLY of course), as Lucite, acrylic, etc. certainly have no need for it as they do not oxidize.
Anyway, and this is certainly not my idea, but something I saw on a YouTube video (perhaps you have seen it)is to use something so simple as ChapStick on the stem. After you finish smoking the pipe simply apply a couple of light strokes of ChapStick on the stem (again, vulcanite stems only)and rub it in with your fingers. It will protect the stem from oxidizing as it not only gives a protective layer to the stem, but ChapStick contains an antioxidant agent. Works like a miracle, and no need for that nasty Obsidian oil which you must apply, wait for 30 minutes, and then buff with a cloth.

Whatever convention you follow, you're not at all likely to kill your pipe(s) ... back when I began, I had one pipe ... smoked it multiple times per day, 7 days a week ... the only rest it got was when I slept ... after I got a second pipe, it was smoke one for a day, smoke the other tomorrow then continue rotating between the two ...
As I've gotten more pipes, each has gotten more rest ... now, at the rate I smoke, no one of them needs to be called on more than once a week, but I'm not that vigorous in rotation enforcement, going with some of my favorites two and sometimes three times per week with some pipes that for all I know, think I don't love them any more ...
Here's the thing ... IF you are in a position to rest your pipe(s), I really think you should do so ... based on my 40+ years of experience, I think you'll find that each will smoke better when rested than when it's not ... note that I'm not saying a pipe will smoke badly if not rested, I'm saying that it will not smoke at it's best if it isn't and that you will derive more pleasure from this pastime if you allow them to rest ...

I don't have a rotation like other folks, where I have one or more pipes dedicated to a certain day, and that's the only day that that pipe gets smoked. I just smoke whatever I want that particular day, and reach for the pipe that handles that blend or tobacco the best. But I never smoke any pipe more than once a day, that's one rule I make sure to follow. The first pipe I ever owned was a real stinker (literally) after I smoked it upwards of 5 times a day, even following a consistent cleaning regime after each smoke.

In general the idea that a pipe smokes better after being rested has merit, and my routine includes not smoking a pipe more than once a day; but sometimes I'll smoke a blend all day today, and then again tomorrow. I've read about so many different practices that I think a variety of techniques work. I guess the bottom line is that if you notice a pipe not smoking well, rest it. The ability of briar to absorb the moisture released in combustion, along with the tars, etc., and still be an apt vessel for incinerating tobacco is probably much more than we think. Even so resting is a good preventative. But I would ask just how accurate the smoker's palate is to be able to discern the one variable of a rested/insufficiently rested pipe from all the variables of smoking and thus his ability to judge to what extent the resting period was adequate. My palate is definitely not that acute.

I've recently got into a bit of routine with my pipes, smoking only one a day when I walk home from the train station (weather permitting) and it's only a small bowls worth, so the same 4 or 5 pipes get rotated throughout the week, with my other 10 or so pipes getting a bowl when it's particularly nice out, or I have to walk to town.