Bare wood or carbonization?

[ohin3]

I understand why they carbonize the inside of bowls but I'm more of a "work for all things great" kind of guy. I very much prefer a bare briar to any sort of pre carbonization. It does take longer to break in a pipe, but I like the taste of the fresh briar charring towards the end of a bowl in a new pipe much more than the taste of carbonization. And I sort of like knowing that I am the person to break my pipe in. Maybe it's just me.

 

[cortezattic]

I've had it both ways, and I really didn't notice a difference in the long term. So, I guess the War Department will have to let me buy a new carbonized pipe and uncarbonized pipe, to make a side by side comparison.
...in the interests of Science, you understand. (Tee hee hee.)

 

[ohin3]

I see absolutely no difference in the long run either. I just like breaking in a bare briar pipe more than I do a precarbonized pipe.

 

[jship079]

I think for me its good because I dont always smoke my bowl all the way down to get the heel cake built up

 

[hilojohnny]

I've, also, had it both ways and I don't think it makes much difference in the long run....maybe not even that much difference in the short run.

 

[kcvet67]

I also prefer bare wood, but I agree that in the long run it probably doesn't make much difference.
The one exception that I can recall is a Tsuge I bought about two years ago. Whatever they use to carbonize their bowls tastes NASTY (a dealer I talked to at the KC Pipe Show this year said he thought that they used fish guts). After spending that much on a pipe, I wasn't going to just write it off so I tried everything I could think of with no real improvement. I finally reamed it down to bare wood and it's been great ever since.

 

[unclearthur]

Makes no difference to me, one way or the other. As long as I get a new pipe I'm happy!!

 

[igloo]

I do like the taste of new briar , but it is just might be me and it only matters for a short time .

 

[strongirish]

Bare wood for me, all the junk they use to treat the bowl tastes horrible to me. two bowls of Five Brothers usually does it for me.

 

[surfmac211]

I like both but I like how bare wood allows you to see some progress instead of just seeing black from start.

 

[cortezattic]

strongirish said

two bowls of Five Brothers usually does it for me

Two bowls of Five Brothers would give me diarrhea.

 

[jimbo]

The "pre-carbonized" on pipes I've seen is just a coating. If you try the old "wet finger" or "honey finger" method on a new pipe, the coating comes off on your finger!
I've tried the 5 Brothers to break in, using the "1/3 full for a dozen smokes" followed by "half full", "3/4 full" etc. I used 5 Brothers because it burns so fast and I could break in the pipe faster with several burns a day. I thought. After a week and about 2 dozen varied loads, I could detect NO cake build up. So much for 5 Brothers for break in.
My newest pipe is a Tinsky PSF POY and I asked Mark how I should break it in (it was coated). He said to fill it up and smoke it, and that's what I did. No partial bowl nonsense. It started caking very well using 4noggins Down By the River burley. (Burley builds cake fastest, I've heard.)
When breaking in a new pipe, whenever I taste burning wood (yuck!) I STOP smoking immediately. I let it cool off, tamp and relight, smoking slowly. After several smokes the wood burning decreases and then stops and I declare the pipe broken in. You should never taste burning wood on a broken-in pipe.

 

[pstlpkr]

When I first observed a pre-carboned bowl it was on a basket pipe and I was prejudiced against them, believing that carbon coated bowls equaled poor quality. That was years ago. Over the years I bought three or four with carbon in the bowl because I really liked the pipe. I can no longer remember which were pre-carboned, and which were not.

So, now for me it's a moot point. Except since I learned the recipe for the carbon coating, I have to overcome the revulsion, and just pack and puff.

 

[python]

I prefer bare wood as well. I love to see the chamber change from smoking and I get to watch the break in as the chamber builds a carbon lining.
I also don't think that it matters in the long run. I have however smoked a few pipes with the carbon coating and some of them tasted really nasty.
I don't let whether a pipe has a coating in it or not affect my purchase. If I like the pipe I will buy it.