Breaking In a New Canadian Style Pipe

[12pups]

Bought a Savinelli Canadian-style pipe from PC--that awesome sale they just had. First smoke was terrible, but I couldn't tell if it was the balsa I was tasting or just a lot of extra briar. Chucked the balsa, tried again. Took maybe 6 bowls over the first couple days to get rid of that taste.
Just wondering -- seems obvious, but I'll ask anyway for confirmation -- it's the extra briar in the stem I was tasting, right?
By now it's gone. So shortened question is, does a Canadian-style pipe break in differently, take a little longer, than a typical billiard?
BTW: really into the pipe now. Liking it a lot.

 

[mustanggt]

I think you answered your question eventually. Some pipes take longer than others but your pipe's shape has little to do with it. Like the tootsie pop commercial, "How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?"

 

[danielplainview]

I believe it's just the naked briar you're tasting, especially if the bowl is uncoated. It'll get better with every bowl you smoke.

 

[darwin]

You would never taste the balsa filter. I had an Sav Onda Canadian with an bowl that appeared to have been lacquered on the inside by mistake and the first half dozen bowls were the pits. Finally smoked it out but it was a trial.

 

[pruss]

You're doing this all wrong. Treat the pipe as if it, and you, were Canadian.
1. Rent and watch "Slap Shot"... Pay attention.

2. Drink beer, lots of it.

3. Make grilled cheese sandwiches and eat them with catsup.

4. Do all of the above while listening to a Rush.

5. Apologize for something not your responsibility.
This should help your be Canadian feel at home.
-- Pat

 

[blueeyedogre]

This should help your be Canadian feel at home.

You forgot "Men With Brooms", Tim horton's coffee, and eating an Aero bar. :rofl:

 

[pruss]

I'm never going to recommend Timmies... People shouldn't have to drink watered down coffee.
But I'm with you on the others.
-- Pat

 

[blueeyedogre]

I'm never going to recommend Timmies... People shouldn't have to drink watered down coffee.

I'm with you on the Timmies...... My wife loves the stuff but I can't stand it and robin's has better doughnuts. But to truly understand what it means to be Canadian you have to know 3 things...

1) what a "rink burger" is.

2) you must know that "The Who" and "The Guess Who" had nothing to do with each other.

3) that Rob Ford and Justin Beiber are NOT typical Canadians!!!!

 

[12pups]

And one more... That as a resident of southern Minnesota I still live farther north than a third of the Canadian population. (Heck, when I say I'm from Minnesota, most of my Canadian contacts just shrug it off, thinking of it as a sub-Province of Manitoba and Ontario. I show my U.S. carry permit to buy ammunition there because they just say, "Close enough, ay?").
I paused while eating poutine last night to smoke the pipe again, and it seems to be at home now. Great pipe!
Just had another bowl at lunch. It's -10F/-23C with 20 mph winds out there which translated for my Canadian brothers in Yellowknife is "thawing out").
We're all good now. It's at home here.
About Tim Horton's. My theory is that the double-double was created *because* of Tim Horton's. One taste and you know you need to add a lot of something else. Anything else. Know how to spot the guy from the states? -- Orders his black (but only the first time). Nice part about Tim Horton coffee is, you can spill it down your front without it staining anything.