Breaking in a new pipe is hard work!

[hakchuma]

I'm trying to break in my first new pipe. I am packing it about a quarter full. It seems to burn hotter and also having to burn all the tobacco down to nothing to ensure a good cake at the bottom means burning wet tobacco. Leading to both a physical and chemical burn on the tongue Maybe I can invent a pipe-breakin machine to do the heavy lifting for me.

 

[tbradsim1]

You're probably breaking it in with the wrong tobbaco,get an old codger pouch of Carter Hall and you will fare better,load it up to the top and break that sucker in.

 

[zack24]

You're working too hard at it- pack the sucker full and sip it down slow....It also helps to have a couple of quality beers along the way....

 

[mso489]

hakchuma, I'll have to admit, I'm a complete hedonist (pleasure seeker) even when I'm breaking in a

pipe. I try to get a nice even blackening inside the bowl, though I'm not a believer in cake building per se.

But every bowl, even the partial bowls, are supposed to be pleasurable. The guys have given you the

straight skinny here. Get some codger tobacco and relax. Enjoy the smoking and let the pipe take care

of itself, with a little attention from you. Many folks just pack 'em and smoke 'em and never give it a

thought.

 

[freakiefrog]

I've been breaking in a new Bings Favorite. I found a good VaPer that I really liked and have been smoking only half bowls in it. I had forgotten since this is the first new pipe in years that I've bought in years. Remember when its low in the bowl smoke it slow. Keep pipe cleaners handy and when you start to notice its getting a little damp run a pipe cleaner in it. Take your time, no rush, I know people that never pack a full bowl. Also keep you something to drink handy, depending on how hard you're puffing you can be drying your mouth out and that's not fun I'll go through a bottle of water or two with some tobacco. Also there's nothing wrong with setting the pipe down letting it die and cool for a bit then coming back to it after 15-20 minutes. Also try different baccy in it. I've known people that will alternate between tobaccos because they burn different that will "layer the cake" is their theory.

 

[blueeyedogre]

I have a couple of older unsmoked Medico pipes I'm breaking in right now. My process is simple.... Once a day I fill each pipe with a mix of BHT and D-40 vanilla and I smoke it to the bottom. Smooth, cool smoke and seems to build cake nicely and quickly but need a day between smokes for the cake to harden up.

 

[hakchuma]

So far I've only smoked missisipi river - a devine tobacco, plumb pudding and Sutliff No. 5 in it. I keep my house cold at 63 degrees at this time of the year. I assume that would create more moisture in the pipe than a warm house right? Maybe that's it. But I think I will go with your recommendations and just fill it light it and smoke it and empty the dottle like normal. Giving the cake a day to harden sounds like a good idea. I might smoke the living daylight out of this today and just let it rest tomorrow.
I've never tried Carter Hall. I think I will add that to the TAD that I have been creating over the past 4 days. lol my TAD process is a bit strange and I think Pipes and Cigars dot com might be banning me soon from using too much bandwidth of adding and removing blends in my cart :D
Thanks for the advice

 

[blueeyedogre]

I must say that I prefer a nice moist cake

I'm a big fan of the Christmas cakes you need three days to chew. I don't care for soft cake as it fails to give my teeth and jaw muscles a challenge and of course anything good without challenges can not be full appreciated!

 

[zekest]

We don't need no stinking cake.
Smoke that puppy with a full bowl. When you are done puffing, and your weed of choice is a fine gray ash, dump the ash out, and wipe the bowl clean with a napkin or paper towel.
Always rest the pipe for a week before you smoke it again.

 

[agnosticpipe]

I've been breaking in a new pipe I got for Christmas, and all I've done is load it full with Frog Morton and smoke it. I've done it twice so far, and smoking slowly, I don't seem to have any tongue bite. You can try different methods, but try to enjoy the experience. For some reason, I never seem to see much difference between new pipes and used pipes that I've restored when I smoke them. Maybe I'm just lucky, or just not too observant! :mrgreen:

 

[easterntraveler]

I am the odd ball apparently. I do the same thing your doing and cake the bottom, then the middle, last the top. 1/3 of the bowl at a time. I do not consider it work though.

 

[buroak]

Amen, easterntraveler
Not all conventional wisdom is wrong, hakchuma. I have tried the Rule-of-Thirds approach and the Devil-May-Care approach, the former has given me far better results in terms of not only how even the cake is, but also how well the pipe smokes. Virginia flake tobaccos seem to be some of the best cake-builders. I have heard that McClelland's No. 5100 Red Cake is the best of the best in terms of cake-building.

 

[boilermakerandy]

Amen, easterntraveler
Not all conventional wisdom is wrong, hakchuma. I have tried the Rule-of-Thirds approach and the Devil-May-Care approach, the former has given me far better results in terms of not only how even the cake is, but also how well the pipe smokes. Virginia flake tobaccos seem to be some of the best cake-builders. I have heard that McClelland's No. 5100 Red Cake is the best of the best in terms of cake-building.

This has been my experience as well.

 

[dottiewarden]

We don't need no stinking cake.
Smoke that puppy with a full bowl. When you are done puffing, and your weed of choice is a fine gray ash, dump the ash out, and wipe the bowl clean with a napkin or paper towel.
Always rest the pipe for a week before you smoke it again.

I'm with you on this one zekest!

 

[shaintiques]

Cake is built during the smoke not after it goes out. So don't worry about cleaning your bowls.

 

[andystewart]

I understand you can book private time on the Linkman 'pre-smoking' machine used by Dr Grabow

or you could try and recruit someone who has experience of working on said machine - apparently there are still jobs for 'Off-bearers' (as per this genuine job ad from 2013). What wouldn't one of these guys know about breaking in pipes?!
http://dot-job-descriptions.careerplanner.com/OFFBEARER-PIPE-SMOKING-MACHINE.cfm
LOL! ::
Andy

 

[nachman]

You could always take Mark Twain's approach. He would hire a man "of worthless reputation" to break his pipes in for him.

 

[warren]

Gandy dancing was real work (Yes I did a summer building RR). Digging a burglar out of a 40,000 square foot warehouse makes you sweat. Coal mining is hard work. I'm guessing fishing in Bering Sea is real work. Baking a cake from scratch is an act of love. Breaking in a pipe requires stuffing a bit of tobacco into a pipe, leaning back in a comfortable chair and smoking. Hard work? I think not!

 

[shaintiques]

+1 Warren

 

[iamn8]

Shoveling horse manure is hard work.