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colcolt

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 11, 2012
856
0
I have several pipes that to me are bordering on a need to ream but I don't know at what point that's necessary. It's hard to judge by just looking and say the cake is .005 or .020" thick. What's your method of judging when it's needed?

 

cortezattic

Lifer
Nov 19, 2009
15,147
7,637
Chicago, IL
I've wondered about this too, and my solution was to scrape, or burnish, the inside of the bowl with the spoon end of my

tamper after every smoke. So none of my bowls shows very much accumulation of cake. I would suggest giving the bowl

a test scrape just to see how far you can take it down. From what I've read, you really don't need much cake at all.

 

bryanf

Part of the Furniture Now
Jul 16, 2013
742
8
I don't ream unless I just can fit enough tobacco in there, and even then, I just take a little off. From all the pipes I've seen people post on here, I never really see that most people have much cake if any in their pipes. All the oldtimers I've known had plenty of cake, and that's how I like them, too. More flavor in my opinion, and smokes much better.

 

cigrmaster

Lifer
May 26, 2012
20,249
57,280
66
Sarasota Florida
I can tell when I need to ream when I start running out of space. If a pipe could take a full flake then all of a sudden cannot, time for a ream. I have always used a Senior reamer and do it very carefully. You can always take more cake off, but you can never put wood back. Most of my pipes can go at least a year before they need a reaming. I like a good dimes thickness of cake as my pipes smoke cooler and taste better with that amount.

 

colcolt

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 11, 2012
856
0
The problem with most of mine is that the cake's not even at all...thin on one side and then thinner at the bottom.

 

teufelhund

Lifer
Mar 5, 2013
1,497
3
St. Louis, MO
I always find it amusing when I go to a flea market or antique shop looking for pipes. I always manage to find a pipe that has so much cake you'd be hard press to stick a pencil in it. Other than that I've never really had a reason to ream my own pipes. I most smoke too little. I'll make a note to work on that.

 

colcolt

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 11, 2012
856
0
I think I'll lay off the reamer for awhile. It's really not all that bad...maybe the thickness between a dime in places to a nickel in others.

 

philobeddoe

Lifer
Oct 31, 2011
7,405
11,579
East Indiana
I don't keep any cake in my pipes. After each bowl I take the used matchstick and pick out the debris, then I bend the used pipe cleaners in half and wipe out the bowl with those. Finally I roll up a small paper towel and swab out the bowl. I find my pipes stay sweet and smoke cool with only a carbonized layer of briar inside the bowl, which generally takes five to ten bowls full.

 

allan

Lifer
Dec 5, 2012
2,429
7
Bronx, NY
A slightly bit off topic, but has anyone seen the video about a pipe store owner who suggests at the end of a smoking session, using a pipe cleaner with everclear as a general cleaning step? I usually wait for a major cleaning before using everclear with bristle etc, but tonight I tried it on one of my Rad Davis' pipes.
Thoughts?

 
Apr 26, 2012
3,350
5,157
Washington State
The only pipes I've had to ream were estate pipes I bought off of ebay. After I smoke my pipe I let it cool for a few minutes and then I scrap it out with my Czech tool and then use a pipe cleaner or two. My cake on my pipes is a very thin layer. I don't like much cake in my pipes so I always clean them after each use.

 

colcolt

Part of the Furniture Now
Jun 11, 2012
856
0
After mine cool down I use a paper towel to clean the bowl and run pipe cleaners through the stem and shank. That's about it for the most part.

 
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