Humidity Effecting Chamber Carbon?

[PipeIT]

I don’t recall ever seeing this topic of discussion here before.

But, we certainly chat about Pipe Resting, Cake/Carbon Layer around here.

So, today, I took a look at my pipes, as I’ve not smoked in a month, because out here, there is quite a bit of humidity, and I’ve noticed the Carbon in the chambers will stay slightly tacky and pliable, even if the pipes have rested for weeks, or a month, if I don’t keep the air conditioner on as often, to keep the house dryer.

With an air conditioner running at times, and off at times, the conditions in my house will of course vary, from dry to humid. So even after one month resting, I found the 1mm carbon layer in my pipes tacky and pliable. I was still able to run a finger around inside the chambers molding and evening it out, and my finger would also turn black as some carbon rubbed off as well.

So...

As we all seek to have better smokes, or continuous great smoking moments, we all have experienced times of not so great moments.

But, did we ever consider on that rested pipe, that might be sitting in a more humid environment taking a rest, that when we grabbed for it to have a smoke, that quite possibly, that softer, more pliable carbon layer inside the chamber, that wasn’t fully hardened, could be the Culprit for that uneventful smoke? Maybe it’s not providing as much protection and insulation, because it hasn’t hardened/cured enough?

I only consider 3 things the carbon layer is good for.

1. Helps prevent cracks, or burnouts, especially on uncoated chambers.

2. Helps to keep the pipe cooler.

3. In regards to number 2, which makes for less hot, cooler smokes.

So, if the carbon layer was still tacky pliable when you started to smoke your pipe, and wasn’t fully hardened, hmm could this be a reason for that less uneventful smoke?

Of course, we have all read stories of people smoking their pipes with back to back bowls never resting them, and smoking great. But maybe those pipes, this situation didn’t matter, but maybe for some pipes it might?

hmm, something to consider...

 

[OzPiper]

I "scrub" out the chamber with a couple of doubled over cleaners and screwed up paper kitchen towels if indicated.
Not much cake remains

This time last year we had months of incessant rain with resulting mould in everything, including almost every single pipe.
Cleaned up all of them with absolutely no problems with soft, tacky cake.

 

[Waning Embers]

That's why I wipe the chamber out with a paper towel after each smoke. It removes the bulk of sticky tar and nicotine remnants and compresses the carbon while it's still warm. Leaving a pipe to "dry" without fully cleaning it is asking for a sour pipe. Starting the 65th smoke in a meerschaum with zero internal cleaning with no issue or stickiness.

 

[kurtbob]

Where I live in coastal Georgia, the humidity rarely drops below 70%. I keep the cake in all my pipes trimmed down to next to nothing. I have noticed that the soft cake happens mainly to my work cobs that sit in my shop permanently. All the pipes that are in my climate controlled house, I have never had that problem. Hell, wouldn’t even call it a problem really. Never noticed any ill effects with flavor or anything with my work cobs.

 

[OSOBUCO]

This time last year we had months of incessant rain with resulting mould in everything, including almost every single pipe.
.

I can definitely see this happening. Cake is partially burned organic matter. I think some mistake it as being 100% carbon residue which is not true. All damp organic matter will mold unless an antifungal is used or all environmental spores are removed and it is sealed off. It’s just nature. The circle of life.

 

[bullet08]

Cleanliness is next to godliness. Wipe your chamber like a new born baby's ass like it's going to break out in a diaper rash.

 

[ThermionicScott]

I've been noticing that sticky tar feeling in a few pipes lately, too, especially in the lower half. Wasn't sure if it was the choice of baccy, humidity, technique, or if I was just now noticing it. Our house is plenty dry, given that the furnace is working hard to compensate for winter.

 

[PipeIT]

I think some misunderstood the post.

This is not about cleaning chambers, but when dealing with humid conditions and the carbon doesn’t seem to harden, or what I call Cure well inside the chambers, wondering how the tacky, softer carbon might effect smoking.

 

[craig61a]

I have the extremes of both conditions; high humidity (80%) in the summer and low humidity (20%) in the winter. Of course, being inside the house mitigates it somewhat.

Most of my pipes might get smoked for several days and then set aside for several months or even years.

I just wipe the chamber when I'm done and have never noticed a tacky chamber. I pick up whatever strikes me on a particular day, load it and smoke it. I don't overthink it; it's a pipe FFS...

 

[burleybreath]

Speaking for myself, thinking about such things would lead to madness. I have no idea how cake or carbon affects smoking in a pipe--I'd guess very little--but I have noticed gumminess under humid conditions. The entire friggin' pipe is gummy! And I'm delicate!

But if the cake is thin, and I can be bothered, I just slosh some whiskey or something in the bowl, then use the ol' twisted paper towel technique to clean and smooth things out. Seems like that would help it dry.

If the cake is thick, and the pipe is still warm, you can break off chunks of it with your rounded pipe tool blade. The remaining residue is adequate for protection, an expert told me, in a book. I would bet that our friend, Mr. Propylene Glycol, has as much to do with this gumminess as anything.

But seriously, I don't pay much attention to cake, whatever its condition or its effect on smoking, and don't intend to start. I ream and clean when the dottle won't pop out easily. I'll go out on a limb and say that your mileage may vary.

 

[PipeIT]

I can’t say I gave this much thought, only a few minutes, then thought I’d make a post over it is all.

Now PG, that is interesting, wonder if it does effect the inside of the chamber and cake.

I don’t worry or consider things like this much, just a tad of thought here and there, only to consider slightly if it might help with better smokes.

 

[Briar Lee]

I think some misunderstood the post.

This is not about cleaning chambers, but when dealing with humid conditions and the carbon doesn’t seem to harden, or what I call Cure well inside the chambers, wondering how the tacky, softer carbon might effect smoking.

Only if you were starving for Vitamin N, would you ever try licking that carbon off a paper towel.

My great grandfather was a Yankee cavalry trooper on the 1865 Powder River Expedition and a Sergeant Springer of the same 12th Missouri wrote a memoir of the adventure.

Springer said the men were so addicted to tobacco they smoked sage grass in their pipes when tobacco ran out.

He also wrote he was carving a pipe from a piece of “sweet briar”.

And, he said Indians would never smoke their own tobacco if one scrap of government issue tobacco was available.

You know, they didn’t clean their pipes out on the prairies.

We clean our pipes today because we have the tools to do it.

 

[PipeIT]

Only if you were starving for Vitamin N, would you ever try licking that carbon off a paper towel.

My great grandfather was a Yankee cavalry trooper on the 1865 Powder River Expedition and a Sergeant Springer of the same 12th Missouri wrote a memoir of the adventure.

Springer said the men were so addicted to tobacco they smoked sage grass in their pipes when tobacco ran out.

He also wrote he was carving a pipe from a piece of “sweet briar”.

And, he said Indians would never smoke their own tobacco if one scrap of government issue tobacco was available.

You know, they didn’t clean their pipes out on the prairies.

We clean our pipes today because we have the tools to do it.

I’m said this isn’t a Cleaning Chamber Post.

I have no idea what you were thinking when you replied.

It’s a post about living in humid conditions and having carbon inside the chambers not fully dried, still tacky/sticky, and if this might effect smoking.

 

[yanoJL]

I get you @PipeIT ...

You have noticed that increased humidity has an effect on the cake. It's softer, less "cured", etc.

Irrespective of paper freakin' towel use... does a softer, less-cured cake adversely affect the smoking experience?

I would suspect that it does. And I say that based solely on conjecture as I have neither thought about it prior to your post, nor tested this on my own.
However, I live in a place that is typically dry (and flammable) and I have windows open all day, everyday until bedtime. So my indoor humidity consistently matches the outdoor humidity.
And... the forecast calls for rain this week. Which will grant me an opportunity to observe and see if I notice any difference in:
(1) cake hardness and, subsequently,
(2) smoking pleasure/quality.

Hopefully I will notice enough of a difference to finally answer the elusive question...

Should I use a damn paper towel after each smoke? (Jk )

 

[Briar Lee]

I’m said this isn’t a Cleaning Chamber Post.

I have no idea what you were thinking when you replied.

It’s a post about living in humid conditions and having carbon inside the chambers not fully dried, still tacky/sticky, and if this might effect smoking.

From what I’ve learned here, in modern times we sit around and fuss and mess with our pipes and usually don’t keep a cake the thickness of a dime. Instead we wipe them to where there’s only a little carbon left.

I’ve noticed a regularly smoked pipe, keeps that tacky carbon layer. I think it’s resins left over from combustion. Higher humidity might keep it softer longer, but leave it to rest enough and it hardens.

Whatever it is I think improves the smoke.

When a briar pipe goes sour, I think the cause isn’t normally the carbon in the bowl, but the hot smoke permeating the briar and getting rancid.

 

[Briar Lee]

I get you @PipeIT ...

You have noticed that increased humidity has an effect on the cake. It's softer, less "cured", etc.

Irrespective of paper freakin' towel use... does a softer, less-cured cake adversely affect the smoking experience?

I would suspect that it does. And I say that based solely on conjecture as I have neither thought about it prior to your post, nor tested this on my own.
However, I live in a place that is typically dry (and flammable) and I have windows open all day, everyday until bedtime. So my indoor humidity consistently matches the outdoor humidity.
And... the forecast calls for rain this week. Which will grant me an opportunity to observe and see if I notice any difference in:
(1) cake hardness and, subsequently,
(2) smoking pleasure/quality.

Hopefully I will notice enough of a difference to finally answer the elusive question...

Should I use a damn paper towel after each smoke? (Jk )

I might not use an Everclear soaked paper towel after each smoke, but I keep the cake down that way, on a regular basis.

I doubt I could find my reamers, it’s been so long since I’ve used them.

But that tacky, black carbon resin in the bowl is still there after I clean them.

 

[yanoJL]

I’ve noticed a regularly smoked pipe, keeps that tacky carbon layer. I think it’s resins left over from combustion. Higher humidity might keep it softer longer, but leave it to rest enough and it hardens.
Whatever it is I think improves the smoke.
...

I believe this is the opinion the OP was seeking.
However, OP still hasn't seen the hardening yet, and it's been a month since last use.
Hmmm.

 

[Briar Lee]

I believe this is the opinion the OP was seeking.
However, OP still hasn't seen the hardening yet, and it's been a month since last use.
Hmmm.

At my farm I was digging around in a drawer and found several pipes I’d not smoked in a decade or more.

The carbon was hard in them. They smoked just fine.

Properly cured Mediterranean briar is the perfect wood for pipes. It makes the smoke taste better, in some mysterious way.

But I do believe briar is NOT everlasting.

Smoke one thousands upon thousands of times and the briar looses it’s goodie, so to speak.

 

[bullet08]

So, I just stick my finger into the chamber of the pipe I smoked today. Nicely dried. No tacky thing. Then again, I smoke a pipe a day, and it might take a month before I smoke it again. Something not drying is rather strange. Providing, it's just a carbon build up. And you left the pipe for over a month, and still not drying. Meaning, there might be something else in there stuck in between the carbon. Local critters of micro size. Flora of some sort. Have you try reaming and drying again?

 

[ThermionicScott]

I've been thinking about this a little more. The pipes I've been smoking burley blends in aren't sticky, leading me to think that unburnt (or caramelized) sugars from Virginias may be responsible for the stickiness. (No, I'm not going to taste pipe scrapings to confirm.) My house has been especially dry from the furnace lately, but that hasn't resolved the stickiness, so it's not just moisture.

As I understand it, the cake we want is pretty much straight dry carbon, like charcoal. You need the right temperature around the combustion for that to happen. Too hot, and the carbon gets consumed; too cool, and more complex molecules don't get broken down into carbon. Excessive humidity could reduce the temperature too much at the periphery where we're trying to build cake, leading to gummy buildup of other stuff.

To resolve that, we either need to remove the tar, or smoke another bowl at sufficient temperature to finish turning that tar into cake. Maybe a plain burley, smoked to the bottom as dryly as possible, on a dry day?