Newbie question - Building Cake

That is a good question and one that is heavily dependent on the individual.

When I break in a new pipe and am in the process of building a cake, I will smoke Lane's 1Q (primarily). Some prefer tobaccos like Prince Albert. IMO PA gunks up a pipe too much. Where 1Q will not-so-much. However; burning 1Q all the way to the bottom can be problematic if the pipe is smoked only with full bowls. I believe that any pipe tobacco will ghost a pipe, 1Q is (again IMO) more neutral in its ghosting.

The topic of dedicating pipes has arisen over the last few weeks. If ghosting is a concern dedication of your pipe to a particular blend or type of blend is a valid one.

The cake itself is just a build up of carbon that insulates and protects the pipe from burn through, in general. I don't allow thick cakes to develop in my pipes. I prefer a very thin cake. To my mind a well controlled and smooth cake is of benefit to the pipe, but can and for me cause problems if it isn't controlled.

My best advice to you is to smoke what you like and keep the pipe clean until the cake develops. Speed in development of the cake is not the point. An excellent cake takes a considerable amount of time. If the cake develops quickly, it can be soft, and tend to ghost more readily than one that is built up slowly-carefully over a long period of time.

I resurrected this thread because I was smoking McClelland's Black Shag yeasterday in my meer and it seemed like that stuff created a ton of cake every time I smoked a bowl. Of course, you don't want cake in a meer so I reamed it out, but dang. It would work great in a briar.
I also reccommend it for VA lovers, because it's a great tasting tobacco and threatens to burn much less than other Virginias and VaPers I've tried. Very pleasant smoke, good room note too.

But I'm still convinced it has some Latakia as well :-(
Didn't I give the tin to you ??

no. I just got a baggie of it. I checked online and it's just VA. If they put Latakia in it, they were sneaky and didn't tell anyone. I really didn't detect Latakia when smoking it, but I got some Perique notes. The stoved and aged Virginia could have created that character, though.

Any other good suggestions? I know it is subjective as Lawrence and others said, but I'm just interested in hearing what other people use.
I've got some PA on the way because when I first signed up it seemed like that was what a lot of people recommended, but I know it is one of those YMMV things.
I only smoke cobs and since I picked up the pipe again I've just been smoking Escudo so I don't have a big frame of reference; I am planning on getting a few briars in the coming weeks so I'd like to find something agreeable to break in my pipes.
I'll probably just follow Bob's advice above and stick to VA and VA/PER since that's what I like the best and they don't ghost too much.

Since most of my pipes are either va flake or vaper flake, the cake that builds is perfect for me. It does take a long time to build a nice even cake and there is no way to rush it.

Any tobacco you enjoy is a good choice. I just happened to notice that there seemed like more cake piling on every time I smoked the Black Shag. Lane 1-Q is a go-to for me and MV-1000, too. Can't go wrong with Escudo, Anni Kake or Louisiana Red, either.

Fair enough, I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. Thanks.

I think that I have heard of this in history.

The Frensh peasants were all up in arms because thier pipes were no good, and they kept burning out. They wanted the government to do something about it.

Somebody brought the complaints to Marie Antoinette, and she said, "Let them build cake."

Really ticked 'em off, and so they had the Fench Revolution.
anthony

:rofl:

Guess I'll have to revise my French history!

They really lost their heads over that whole Revolution thing.