What Is the Point of Rotating Pipes?

bohemianmanifesto710 · Mar 14, 2018

As I've said before, I'm fairly new to the game. What I would like to know is what is the point or ideology of rotating pipes? I have three pipes, a quality Briar, a cheap Chinese billiard style and an old yello-bole. My Briar is obviously the best and smoothest smoking and the one I enjoy all of the time. I plan on purchasing another quality Briar via smokingpipes.com, but that will be in a few more weeks.
Edited by jvnshr: Title capitalization (please check Rule #9)

davek · Mar 14, 2018

A pipe can sour after too many consecutive uses, develop an off taste. I have more experience with cobs than briars. They are pretty resilient, you have to smoke one exclusively for many days for it to sour. I usually smoke one all day then pick up another the next. Cobs are cheap, and the best way to start a rotation, regardless of how strict you are about it.

Chasing Embers · Mar 14, 2018

I smoke the same pipe twice daily for a week before rotating. As long as you keep them clean, and moisture wiped out, they'll be okay.

condorlover1 · Mar 14, 2018

Would you wear the same pair of socks of underwear for a week? Well the same thing applies to pipes!

Chasing Embers · Mar 14, 2018

Would you wear the same pair of socks of underwear for a week? Well the same thing applies to pipes!

You could if you cleaned them everyday. Just like pipes.

newbroom · Mar 14, 2018

I have at least 30 pipes in 'rotation' and smoke different ones for different experience.

I agree with chasingembers, you can smoke em repeatedly with maintenance. Keeping the mortise area swabbed, the airway dry, and the bowl clean is all you need to do.

I smoke everything from cobs, cherrywood, and meerscahum, to briar. (mostly cobs and briars)

judcole · Mar 14, 2018

davek nailed it.

A pipe can sour after too many consecutive uses, develop an off taste

I might smoke two bowls in the same pipe in one day, several hours apart. I'll run a cleaner or two through it,make sure it is completely cool, then smoke it again. But then it will be a week or more before I pick it up again. This allows it to dry out completely.
Some folks may smoke more bowls than that in one day, but, again, they then let it rest for several days.
Somebody may point out, "The old-timers never did that! They smoked the same pipe, all day, every day." Yup, and after a year or so they threw it out and bought a new one. : puffy

:

derekflint · Mar 14, 2018

The point of rotating is...to let a pipe dry out. While it's doing that you smoke a different pipe......and while that pipe is drying out you smoke a different one or the the one that dried out....and on and on you go.

Chasing Embers · Mar 14, 2018

A pipe can sour after too many consecutive uses

Wipe the mortise out with a Q-tip after the pipe cools, wipe the bowl out with a paper towel, and it won't sour.

saltedplug · Mar 14, 2018

Resting pipes is one of the prudent laws of the pipe world, yet I've never had a pipe sour. Since the palate is subjective, and since taste, heat, nicotine and sourness are measured by it, there's not much that we can say with a certainty about the variables that constitute the smoking experience. As the darkness in the chamber rises up the walls, is this a measure of moisture in the briar? Probably, as when rested the darkness recedes, yet I have pipes that have rested for weeks that have comparable darkness.
So we rest pipes because upon burning the moisture in the tobacco is deposited in the briar, and wet briar does not smoke as well as dry. Makes sense and is prudent, but a practice to be observed rather than a proven need.

darwin · Mar 14, 2018

Pipes should be rotated so they brown evenly on all sides.

Chasing Embers · Mar 14, 2018

As the darkness in the chamber rises up the walls, is this a measure of moisture in the briar? Probably, as when rested the darkness recedes, yet I have pipes that have rested for weeks that have comparable darkness.

What darkness?

mso489 · Mar 14, 2018

Old timers like my dad (1917-2006) smoked one pipe all day until it was no longer useable, usually at least a year and sometimes several. He only smoked Granger for fifty years, with a few years off for King Edward cigars. So, pipe rotation is to give pipes a chance to "rest," that is dry out, and for most of us, it's an excuse to own many pipes, whether we accumulate fine artisan pipes, or inexpensive pipes, or a variety. When you have too many, the pipe you choose is usually well rested.

midwestpipesmoker70 · Mar 14, 2018

My rotation really is the result of smoking different tobaccos. I have groups of pipes for my tobaccos...a couple for aromatic blends, a bunch for blends with latakia and the rest for all other English blends. I normally don't smoke the same tobacco all day and changing tobacco means I will be using a different pipe therefore my pipes get rotated and rested.

saltedplug · Mar 14, 2018

Darkness = bottom of the chamber or the walls ascending from it that are of a darker color than the rest off the chamber.

mawnansmiff · Mar 14, 2018

"Darkness = bottom of the chamber or the walls ascending from it that are of a darker color than the rest off the chamber."
Otherwise known as cake.
Regards,
Jay.

Chasing Embers · Mar 14, 2018

Ah, thought you were talking about the outside of the pipe.

cosmicfolklore · Mar 14, 2018

Yep, rotate to get a fresh tasting smoke. Keep it clean. And, most old timers didn't ever rotate, but just threw the pipes away when they were too caked to smoke or tasted horrible. Everyone has covered the range of responses.
As I have started running warm water through my pipes after each smoke and wiping the bowl with a paper towel and running a pipe cleaner through it, I have noticed that I can smoke the same pipe quite a few times in a day, with each smoke tasting fresh. Been at this since last Fall, and my pipes look a lot better than if I just waited to do a deep clean a few times a year. plus, after rinsing with water and wiping down, I can repack it and smoke it, with no issues at all. YMMV.

I just put the bowl over the spigot and let the water flush out the stem. Wiping the outside down really well, also keeps the grain popping and the stem shiny and oxide-free.

luigi · Mar 14, 2018

I was all against rotation at the beginning, thinking it's just a lie so people would spend more money on pipes. Now I believe it's better to rotate if you want to get the most out of the tobacco. A well dried pipe will taste much better than a pipe which is being smoked several times a day without letting it rest.

jpmcwjr · Mar 14, 2018

And one would think that running water through would require a longer drying period. It does not. Moisture doesn't penetrate the briar at say 140º (about the max temp of a home hot water spigot), but it does at several hundred degrees (the steam created during smoking and washing the sides of the bowl and airway).

What Is the Point of Rotating Pipes?

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