Pipe Bowl Coatings - What's The Deal?

It's a very good article. Interesting to see some data on pipe burnouts and it seems to confirm some points I've long suspected: that burnouts are extremely rare, and briar that is susceptible to burnout is unlikely to be saved by a bowl coating.
I suspect that the primary reasons for bowl coating are to allow the pipe maker to save time sanding the chamber and to cover careless stain application. It also leaves me wondering what a pipe maker would do if he found a flaw in the chamber of a pipe that has beautiful grain on the exterior. The article doesn't address this but it would be tempting, wouldn't it, to fill the briar in the chamber and cover it with a bowl coating? Would all pipe makers would throw away such a pipe or disclose the issue? Of course, this would only be possible if the pipe maker always coats the bowl - otherwise the coating would signal a problem. At least with an uncoated bowl we can be certain that nothing is hidden. For the buyer this must be a benefit.
Personally, I prefer an uncoated bowl but a coating would not prevent me from buying a pipe I love. An uncoated bowl, if the stain is applied neatly, is a beautiful thing, and I believe the first few smokes taste much better with bare briar. I collect Le Nuvole pipes, which are always uncoated, and always have impeccable staining and chamber finishing. And I love Peter Heeschen's pipes, which are also uncoated and taste better for it.

Thanks for liking the article. As you ended talking about Heeschen I assumed that the pipe was his, but after a bit the attitude of the upswept rim made me identify it as Le Nuvole. What a beautiful cherrywood! The blast and the finish are to die for!

The video talked about in the article was very interesting - certainly provides some evidence. However, I do not like the taste of sodium silicate bowl coating. To me it has a very off taste. I want to smoke a briar pipe not a sodium silicate pipe that happens to have some wood around it. Of course there are many different formulations of coatings. It is my preference to only buy pipes without a coating.

I can only say what my opinion is. I prefer no bowl coating. In over 30 years of smoking, I've never burned out a briar bowl. I don't object to the coating for taste or smoking reasons, I simply want to see what the grain looks like inside the bowl. Most of us buy pipes for what they look like on the outside, but that brief glimpse of the inside before you start smoking is interesting to me. It many times has just as much beauty as the outside. On factory pipes it's not a deal breaker for me, but I still prefer to see what's inside the bowl. If I was commissioning a pipe, there is no excuse for not being able to choose whether or not to have the coating. You are paying for what the pipe looks like on the outside, so you certainly should be able to choose what the inside is like! Like so many things in life, buy what you like, and don't buy what you don't like....

My new Axmacher pipe had the nastiest tasting bowl coating you could imagine. I tried scraping some of it out. A month later and it's just starting to fade.
Compare that to my Sav GDO - no bowl coating and smokes great right from the start.
Why do we need bowl coatings? It makes zero sense to me.

Thank you, Michael. This is a good, evenhanded discussion of bowl coatings. My personal preference is for an uncoated bowl in a new pipe. I am not a cake-builder, but require only a light coating of carbon on the inside of a bowl, which readily develops after a few dozen bowls in a new pipe. I wipe out the excess cake building ash and build-up after each bowl. This is my way of going, and I am not recommending it; if one finds cake satisfying, that is the way to go. I have bought many pipes with coatings applied, and they have not presented any problems, no unpleasant flavors. One Parker did seem to have excess coating that remained in the shank for a number of weeks, but that problem resolved itself after vigorous pipe cleaner uses. Pipe carvers and manufacturers should know that with this pipe smoker, an uncoated bowl is a definite plus. I'm intrigued that at least one high volume pipe maker, Savenelli, delivers pipes both ways, some coated, some not.

My thoughts on the prickly subject:
http://pipesmagazine.com/forums/topic/another-revival-of-the-great-and-contentious-bowl-coating-debate
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I used sandpaper to remove the coating and the offending pipe was much better afterwards.

Coating is sort of completeness, and it does promote the heat conduction and moisture absorption. Bare briar is like publoc nudity as to my eyes. It's ok, but not elegant and acceptable.

I recently bought a new Blatter &Blatter select pipe and ask them about coatings. The guy told me that they coat every Select pipe they make, because since they are pricy they dont't want beginners who burnout the pipe to complain! He also told me that sometimes raw briar taste bad and that the coating helps to build a cake faster and hold less moisture. From my experience their pipes always smoked sweet an great from the get go.

Interesting article. I don't mind a coating that's done well. Seems like there's a lot of different styles used and I haven't been a fan of some of them, but they mostly don't bother me. I can take them or leave them, either way, doesn't matter. Although, a bad bowl coating is a really bad way for someone to enjoy those first three or four bowls smoked in his/her brand new pipe.

You've been ogling the wrong publoc nudes.

Personally, coatings aren't a deal breaker for me at all. Recently I commissioned a pipe and was asked if I wanted a coating and declined. It is simply a preference. Shortly after, the same carver made a pipe that I just had to have. This one was coated. I didn't care, and didn't put much thought into it at all. Both pipes smoked wonderfully from the start.

Chris Askwith uses a carbon bowl coating. Next time I talk to him I will get more info. It didn't seem to affect the first smokes at all.

Not an issue.

Did anyone else think of Seinfeld when reading the title?

I could never understand what the problem with bowl coatings is. Here in Europe a fair number of pipes are coated and I never tasted anything funny. Now I dont know what every manufacturer uses for coating and there might be some materials that are not suitable for smoking.

The estate pipes I sell every now and then are all coated to increase that "new" look and feel for the new owner. The coating simply consists of activated coal, pumice and waterglass. No big deal IMHO.....