24 or 48 Hours Rest?

[Milleniumsmoker]

Resting a pipe is really subjective to how much you smoke. I will often smoke the same pipe for a week or more before setting it down for a bit. Most pipes can be cleaned and recovered even when they sour. Do you still have your Peterson?

Oh sadly no I gave those pipes away when I quit smoking. I bet I could have cleaned it though!

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

I don't give my pipes any sort of rest schedule. Most of the time I smoke the same pipe all day, sometimes 15+ bowls in a day, for multiple days. And there has been no damage so far.

And with the pipe I'm currently smoking, when it starts to taste bad or the wife starts complaining about the bad smell, I give it the warm water flush, and the next day it's fresh again .

Also, I have noticed that the dryer the tobacco, the dryer and harder the cake. I had a Peterson that I just couldn't get to smoke well. I had a huge cake going in it and still didn't know what was wrong. The. I finally decided to ream the pipe, and the cake came out like tar. Smoking wet tobacco caused the cake to stay soft, gurgle and overall smoke like crap.

Yes something like that happened with my Peterson. The cake was building poorly just like you described. It must have been the type of tobacco I was using! Thanks!

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

I have 5 work pipes, and 5 home pipes. I usually smoke all 5 of each every day, and if I want more than 5 bowls in a day at work, I grab the first one I used that morning. I don't worry about rest at all really, like others said, just clean with a pipe cleaner after each smoke. Sometimes my pipes go sour if I set down an almost finished bowl and don't clean it while it's still warm, but a quick warm water rinse clears it right up. Don't overthink it, your pipes work for you, not the other way around.

You should wipe out the bowl and mortise after smoking. Any gunk will stay in there if you don't get it out. It's the accumulation that is making it sour. If you smoke 20 bowls a week, it may taste sour within the week if you don't clean it. If you rest it a day between smokes, it will be a couple of months before it tastes sour. The rest didn't do anything, it's still 20 bowls of accumulated gunk.

Thanks! That sounds like a good idea and is something I never did. Do you just wipe it out with a paper towel or do you wet it down with water or alcohol?

 

[anotherbob]

I still think the resting thing is really just a way to explain to the wife why you need another pipe. It's to protect the ones you already have and you'll buy less in the long run.

Oh yeah and don't smoke a wet pipe.

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

Wow thanks everyone! I really appreciate the detailed feedback.
I heard a few people mention the warm water rinse I don’t think that was in vogue when I was smoking. Do you just flush it out with water under the sink? And I’m assuming let it rest for about 24 hours to dry out? Thanks!

 

[Chasing Embers]

Wow thanks everyone! I really appreciate the detailed feedback.
I heard a few people mention the warm water rinse I don’t think that was in vogue when I was smoking. Do you just flush it out with water under the sink? And I’m assuming let it rest for about 24 hours to dry out? Thanks!

Briar is very non absorbent. Run a pipe cleaner through it and wipe the chamber out with a paper towel and it will be right as rain.

 

[BROBS]

To the extent that there were any kind of rules surrounding resting a pipe, the two I remember hearing were these:

1 week of rest for a pipe smoked multiple times in a day - Hence the origin of the 7 day rotation and seven day sets.
1 day of rest per bowl smoked, so if you smoked one bowl it was 24 hrs, two bowls 48 hrs, etc.

I've smoked the same pipe for days on end with no issues, but there is the risk of eventually developing a shank crack if that's your common practice.
As for souring a pipe, most of that evil resides in the mortise. A good clean out of the mortise as well as the rest of the airway, followed by a day or more or resting to let everything dry and air out, and the pipe should be good to go.

on this note.. I have found pipes that are "sour" or really tar-tasting to go back to sweet if you wait long enough.

it also helps to clean out the airway with a thick bristled pipecleaner to really get the gunk out.

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

Briar is very non absorbent. Run a pipe cleaner through it and wipe the chamber out with a paper towel and it will be right as rain.

That’s excellent advice. I just damaged a pipe with a non glossy exterior due to alcohol spilling out of the mortise and over the bottom of the bowl. It was my own fault for belong clumsy and also using the very thin bristle cleaners instead of the extra thick BJ long or Big Ben brand. I was just about to post another thread and ask how to avoid this issue. It seems like I got my answer!

So using this method you never need to use alcohol at all? Or is it ever advisable?Thanks!

 

[anotherbob]

I only use alcohol when I don't clean my pipe out regularly. As they will sour and alcohol seems to fix it right fast.

 

[cigrmaster]

I will only smoke a pipe once per day with whatever blend I chose. I will then clean that pipe to an inch of it's life, I use bristle cleaners for the shank and mortise and fluffy for the stem. Once the pipe has been cleaned to my standards it gets it's treatment of Obididian stem oil and then goes into it's appropriate space in my pipe racks. I normally let a pipe rest 40 hours, 30 minutes, 15 seconds. Usually one or two days is plenty of rest in a pipe that only ever sees one bowl a day in it.

I know some of you are saying to yourselves this guy is tot\ally anal and pretty much a wack job but I have never had a pipe go sour and my tobacco tastes great.

 

[Chasing Embers]

That’s excellent advice. I just damaged a pipe with a non glossy exterior due to alcohol spilling out of the mortise and over the bottom of the bowl. It was my own fault for belong clumsy and also using the very thin bristle cleaners instead of the extra thick BJ long or Big Ben brand. I was just about to post another thread and ask how to avoid this issue. It seems like I got my answer!

So using this method you never need to use alcohol at all? Or is it ever advisable?Thanks!

I personally don't use water on pipes and the only time I use alcohol is when cleaning estate pipes. Over the past thirty years, for pipes I've purchased unsmoked, I disassemble them after each smoke, run a bristle pipe cleaner through the stem and draft hole, clean out the mortise with Q-tips, wipe out the chamber with a paper towel, wipe the bowl, shank and stem with a Jeweler's cloth, and wipe oil on the stem.

 

[bullet08]

I smoke at most two bowls a day. So, all my pipes get decent vacation.

 

[BROBS]

I never ever use alcohol on a pipe. It contributes to a wet smoke and dottle IMO.

MESSES UP THE WOOD, MAN

 

[Milleniumsmoker]

Great information everybody thank you! trying out all the tips so far and having a much better smoking experience overall!

 

[samuelgawith01]

This last time out on the job, I took seven pipes with me.Smoked each pipe between one and two times per day.After the day is over, I cleaned out the shank and stem with grain alcohol and let it rest for a week,untill it's next turn.This went on for six and a half months.They recovered OK for the first three months,but when I got home they all needed a long rest.Even with cleaning and a week's rest,they still had a noticeable rankness about them.They are still resting as I make this entry, but now they smell well aired out, almost.Should have had fourteen pipes, but due to space considerations I had only seven.And I was smoking a somewhat dry tobacco.
Hope this gives you some guidance.

 

[Seeker81]

Lots of different opinions on this matter, as you will have gathered. There's a few variables to consider that may apply to your smoking habits.

Here's my 2 cent, for what it's worth, I heard someone once mention that old timers used to say:

24 hours rest for each bowl smoked.

So if you've smoked 5 bowls consecutively through a pipe, you should rest it for 5 days...

This is just a guideline, as with many "rules" you may hear of. Cleaning a pipe well after a smoke, drying your tobacco well, avoid wet smoking (too much drooling) and I'd say the need for resting would be less.

 

[karam]

I push a couple of twisted paper towels through the shank and stem, the first is usually very dirty and stinky, the second almost clean, then the pipes get anywhere between 15 minutes and a few days of rest before being put back together. Bowls get a water wash once every 1-2 weeks.

 

[Gubbins]

I don't think the pipe got bitter because you smoked it too much. Rather, because you didn't keep it clean. It's nice to have enough pipes to rest them but many people don't have that luxury of don't care.

Yes exactly

 

[briarbuck]

ttt