When breaking in new pipes, do you use a particular tobacco? I've heard its best to break in a new pipe with a burley based tobacco, but you know what they say about what you read on the internet.....
Particular tobacco to break in a pipe?
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I've actually heard Virginias are better. I think you'll find varying opinions, but very few documented studies to prove them.
Some use "codger" blends like Carter Hall or Prince Albert. I use CH alot, but sometimes, I'll just run with a favored blend.
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I would use either Burley, Virginia, Latikia, Perique or a mixture thereof with or without toppings/casings.
Anything you enjoy. I think being selective about which blend refers to getting a nice even carbon coating going, so for that purpose you might want loose tobacco in a finer, more even cut, as is true with most codger blends and many other burley and Virginia blends. Break-in also relates to cake-building, and I am one of the minority who doesn't think cake helps either the pipe nor the smoking experience. I wipe the pipe bowl out after each smoke and want only to maintain a thin carbon coat. No reaming, ever. Some of my pipes, bought new, and now nearly forty years old, still smoke great. But many like this cake idea a lot, so, your call.
When I was new to the hobby I always used CH but hindsight being what it is I'd say that burley based blends burn a little too hot to initiate a naked bowl. Nowadays I just go with whatever I think or would like to think the new pipe will smoke the best. Even bowls that have had nothing but lat blends smoked in them can be crossed over to Virginias with only a few bowls of minor ghosting, (which I find acceptable), and often that act of mixing it up finds me discovering a hidden gem in my pipe stable.
Welcome to the threads!
For breaking in a pipe, if I want to be obsessive about it, and I do want to be obsessive about it sometimes, I'll pack it with Carter Hall for the first few bowls. Imho, it's aweful tobacco. It starts out pretty good but a few puffs in it just starts to taste unnatural. Your best bet is to just smoke what you like though. Don't over think it. Enjoy smoking. The pipe will break in no matter what you smoke. Slow sips of whatever tobacco you like and you'll be fine.
Enjoy!
For breaking in a pipe, if I want to be obsessive about it, and I do want to be obsessive about it sometimes, I'll pack it with Carter Hall for the first few bowls. Imho, it's aweful tobacco. It starts out pretty good but a few puffs in it just starts to taste unnatural. Your best bet is to just smoke what you like though. Don't over think it. Enjoy smoking. The pipe will break in no matter what you smoke. Slow sips of whatever tobacco you like and you'll be fine.
Enjoy!
In my opinion go with something that you like and that you are familiar with. A blend that you know how it should taste when smoked the right way. I believe its more important to control you pace than anything else.
I personally would never smoke a tobacco I did not enjoy just to break in a pipe. I am lucky that I only smoke flakes, which happen to build a cake very quickly. I am a firm believer in building a cake that is a dime's thickness as I have found my pipes smoke cooler and drier with a nice hard cake.
Over the years I smoked mostly aros and did not really pay too much attention to cake unless it became thick, over a 1/4 inch. Since I started smoking VA and VaPer, which have been mostly flake. During that time I have purchased about 7 or 8 pipes. Like I said, I don't pay a lot of attention to it, but as I clean them (which I do at the end of the day) I have notice they seem to be building cake faster, it may just be my imagination. :roll:
okiescout, it is not your imagination. Flakes do build cake faster than any other type of tobacco. The amount of sugar in the Virginia's is the main reason from what I have read. I only need about 12-15 bowls to get a nice hard cake in a brand new pipe. I only buy pipes with a naked bowl( no bowl coatings for me) so not sure if that also makes a difference.
I also burn what I'm smoking at the moment. I wouldn't use an aro to break-in a pipe but that is more of a gut aversion to the idea, rather than based on any empirical evidence.
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