A Rumination on Where Heat Goes During a Smoke

[Briar Lee]

Yesterday to my joy I unboxed a fancy grained Grade 1 Nording. To my sorrow, I had to break it in, and that first bowl was just horrible, hot, and bitter.

My pipe was so hot, during the first four or five smokes I was afraid it might burn out the bottom, or char the briar all the way through.

It kept getting a little better each smoke, and now on bowl number nine I’m finally enjoying this gorgeous pipe.

But this same time last evening, smoking the same tobacco, in the same pipe, I couldn’t hold it, and now it’s just warm to my touch.

Where does the heat go, when you smoke?

Something about breaking in a briar cures that briar to where it insulates it, but that heat goes somewhere.

I can’t be going out the bit with the smoke because the smoke is cooler now than last night.

Maybe the burning tobacco was hotter, but I was if anything smoking slower and easier, last night, when the outside of the pipe was scalding, scorching hot.

The heat must mostly vent out the top, but when I put my hand over the top, it’s not nearly as hot as the outside of the bowl was yesterday.

I’d like some opinions on this mystery, but right now I’m glad my fancy Nording seems that it’s going to live.

 

[OzPiper]

Countless pipe makers have ruminated on this very topic resulting in some rather innovative and some "out there" solutions.

Sadly not too many of them were successful enough to make it into mainstream production. At best they provide an interesting footnote to this engaging hobby of ours.

 

[Briar Lee]

After bowl nine I not only cleaned the airstream and the bowl with Everclear, I used steel wool to remove what inkling of a cake was in the bowl.

I’ve read where cake is a heat sink. This pile has no cake, although it’s blackened somewhat.

I filled and lit my Nording and finally, this tenth bowl is starting to taste delicious.

I removed the stem and smoked the shank. The pipe is barely warm, the smoke was slightly warmer out the shank, but not hot at all. I put the bit back on and this time, at mid bowl, I’ve got a good, cool, sweet smoking pipe.

It’s the exact same pipe, same tobacco, same owner, add 24 hours and ten smokes and where did the heat go?

The ember inside my pipe is red hot, and each time I draw it gets much hotter.

It’s a wonder that the first man to ever smoke a briar didn’t toss it halfway through the first smoke.

 

[bullet08]

Magic. It's completely need to known base. And briar fairies said we don't need to know.

 

[Chasing Embers]

It’s a wonder that the first man to ever smoke a briar didn’t toss it halfway through the first smoke.

Considering many were smoking clays up until that point briar was cooler by comparison.

My pipe was so hot, during the first four or five smokes I was afraid it might burn out the bottom, or char the briar all the way through.

If you're getting a pipe that thick, that hot, you might be smoking too fast.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

The heat is mostly absorbed into the walls of the briar. Conduction. Some escapes through the top of the bowl. Some heat travels in the smoke but I suspect a fairly small amount. Convection. Think about it. If you want to cool something off, or heat it up, which is faster? Having the object in contact with something hot or cold or blowing hot or cold air across it?

 

[Briar Lee]

The descriptions of the first Europeans of the Native Americans using tobacco included them digging a hole, putting tobacco in the hole, firing it up and then sticking their face over the hole and breathing the smoke.

They did that to get intoxicated.

My clients who smoke marijuana today smoke it for a buzz. I ask then what it tastes like and they really don’t seem to care much, how it tastes.

Sure we get a nicotine fix, not much but some, but all of us on this forum go to the trouble and expense of smoking tobacco in a briar pipe for pleasure, flavor, relaxation and enjoyment. Pipe smoking is also rumination fluid, the dopamines or nicotine or something helps a man think. All those college professors and Einstein couldn’t all, have been wrong about a pipe providing contemplation assitance.

Did I smoke my new Grade 1 Nording too fast, puff too hard? No way. I was dreading each sip. I’d have to let it cool. I was hard labor, to finish each bowl.

According to the legend I heard a traveling nobleman broke his meerschaum and had a pipe maker carve him a replacement from briar.

How did he know to use only the root, and that after it had been soaked and dried?

And while ceramics and clay piles smoke hot, they don’t also kick you with a bitter taste on the first few bowls, and they do taste good.

Maybe that heat is being trapped in the cured briar?

But it must go, somewhere.

 

[chopper]

Smoking a new pipe 4-5 bowls in succession is giving it a bit of a flogging to my mind.
Not sure if it's necessary but I treat a new pipe like any other in my rotation, giving them a days rest in-between each bowl.

Looks to me like you're being impatient; when the actual experience didn't meet your excited expectations, you tried to force it.

Pipe smoking is typically a relaxing pastime. Smoking 4-5 bowls, one after the other sounds a bit frenzied.

Relax, let the pipe rest in-between bowls. If it's a good smoker that will become apparent soon enough.
If it's not, then you've got yourself a fine "Grade 1" display piece.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

I've owned one pipe that smoked significantly hotter when it was new. Still smoked a bit hotter than the rest. Took 15 to 20 bowls before it settled in. No idea what the difference was.

 

[tobefrank]

The ember inside my pipe is red hot, and each time I draw it gets much hotter.
The ember in my pipes is usually only red just after lighting, from then on it just smoulders. It sound to me like you were smoking too fast the first day.

I don’t know this scientifically but feel that carbon is a better insulator than fresh wood, so some of the carbonising of the wood inside the bowl would make it a better insulator perhaps. Carbon has a less dense crystalline structure that would be a better heat insulator.

 

[Briar Lee]

Bowl number 12, for a nightcap, is simply delicious. The pipe is warm in my hand but not hot. Pipes do not get better than this, so it’s time to rest it.

I’ve smoked this large bowled pile very slowly each time, but a dozen times in 36 hours. It should be soggy, but it’s not.

I bought an artisan freehand from an Arizona carver about ten of more years ago and it too, smoked very hot, and actually burned out a hole on the side.

He promised a replacement, but then wrote back and said he was sick, and I thought you have more grief than me, so I let it go.

My theory is I rehydrated this briar.

I checked and the seller was from Tucson Arizona.

Briar must need some amount of moisture content to act as an insulator.

Any better theories?

 

[chopper]

I've got more than a few 70-100yo NOS pipes in my rotation.
One could fairly expect them to be as dry as they're gonna get.
They tend to be a touch smaller, less chunky than more modern briars so they don't have thick walls.

Yet I've not had a problem. Sure the first few bowls get a bit warm to hot but I rest them for at least one day.
Once they've got that hard thin layer of carbon/cake, most of them are fine smokers.

That carbon layer would at least inhibit the briar from soaking up moisture.
So I suspect the carbon layer has more to do with a pipe 'coming good' than moisture.
No doubt why your Nording came good after 12 bowls once the briar was protected by a layer of carbon.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Glad to hear you are enjoying it. I’m just astounded (not judging) that in 36 hours you have smoked this pipe a dozen times, wiped out the shank and the chamber at least twice with alcohol and attacked it with steel wool. If it were me, either the pipe or I would have burnt out by now.

 

[Chasing Embers]

I’m just astounded (not judging) that in 36 hours you have smoked this pipe a dozen times

Nah, he's just a pipe smoker.? Working on the seventh smoke of the Christmas Peterson I unboxed 12 hours ago.

 

[Ahi Ka]

Nah, he's just a pipe smoker.? Working on the seventh smoke of the Christmas Peterson I unboxed 12 hours ago.

But to be fair…that Pete is like a 10th of the size of what you normally smoke, so you’re actually behind schedule

 

[mortonbriar]

Nah, he's just a pipe smoker.? Working on the seventh smoke of the Christmas Peterson I unboxed 12 hours ago.

7th? was there not ruminateth?

 

[Chasing Embers]

But to be fair…that Pete is like a 10th of the size of what you normally smoke, so you’re actually behind schedule

The outer dimensions of it are smaller than many of my pipes but the chamber depth is 45.49mm. Close to average of my smaller pipes. The big ones only get smoked 3-4 times per day.

Now on smoke number 8.

7th? was there not ruminateth

Nope. Nothing wrecks smoking more than thinking too much about it.?

 

[OzPiper]

@Briar Lee
How actively do you ruminate when you smoke ?
Just wondering how often you have your stems replaced

 

[Chasing Embers]

@Briar Lee
How actively do you ruminate when you smoke ?
Just wondering how often you have your stems replaced

 

[Briar Lee]

@Briar Lee
How actively do you ruminate when you smoke ?
Just wondering how often you have your stems replaced

The bit on my summer of 1974 E A Carey slightly bent Apple polishes up to almost new. Wish that were also true, of me.

That was not my first pipe, that was my first keeper. Somewhere I have the cancelled check, which came to somewhere around $15 as I recall, adding shipping and handling. I was 16 that summer and there was some summer exemption where they could work me 80 hours a week for $1.25 an hour.

The owner of the marina had an absolutely gorgeous daughter, about my age, that I knew very well I’d better earn more than $100 a week (minus SS and taxes) to keep.

I see where a kid today could earn a $60 Carey pipe in a day here in Missouri, at minimum wage.

A good briar pipe, is about the first lifetime luxury purchase a young man can afford with one day’s pay.

This morning as the rooster crows, my Grade 1 Nording smells as fresh as the raspberries they used to flavor the raspberry cavendish I used to break it in.

Better let it sit, and grab another one.