Cake or no cake?

[ophiuchus]

I just posted something about this a few minutes ago ... ::
Nope ... no cake, no problems. Maybe just a thin layer of carbon, but I wipe the chambers out after finishing, with a paper towel or the sandpaper that are my fingers.
For those who may doubt the fortitude of briar, I refer to this interesting thread featuring autopsies performed on several pipes.

 

[instymp]

"I not really bothered whether I get cake or not - and as a result I get cake!

I don't own a reamer, but I'll occasionally have a scrape around with the spoon implement on a Czech tool, or even with a pocket knife. I tend to do this immediately after a smoke as it seems to be easier to work then. "

In the old days before the internet & I watched my Grandfather & Uncle smoke their pipes, they packed them & smoked. Nothing brilliant about their methods. Sure they kept cake to a minimum.

But not as near as sophisticated as we are today!

 

[dutch65]

I'm a fan of seasoning the briar, and cake is always kept to a minimum in my pipes. Carbon is kept somewhere around egg shell thickness at most. Any thicker than that, and you are smoking cake deposited from previous tobaccos, which in turn is affecting the flavor of the current bowl. This is relevant, unless you have dedicated a pipe to a particular blend.

 

[buroak]

I like a thin cake kept smooth with dowels wrapped in sandpaper. I start with 80 and finish with 220 grit papers.

 

[will77]

I always thought of cake as an insulation between the amber and briar. I don't like charred briar. I do wipe out meerschaum pipes so no cake there for me.

 

[toobfreak]

I wipe out all pipes at least. Wet paper towel (not soaking), just damp if a meer, if not outright under a spigot. Except meers. You'd be surprised all the black that comes out even after a thorough pipe scraping! All my cakes come out silky smooth without any additional fiddling.

 

[jpmcwjr]

I always thought of cake as an insulation between the amber and briar. I don't like charred briar.

The briar takes a bit of charring when first smoked, unless there's a coating. Cake doesn't provide much insulation, nor does it absorb much moisture.

 

[pipebeast]

No cake for me.

 

[sallow]

@buroak are you joking about sanding your cake or are you serious (It is hard for me to tell on this forum sometimes).
@ jpmcwjr, I always have my druthers.

 

[anthonyrosenthal74]

I've always paper towel reamed my pipes immediately after a smoke, but I've recently begun actually trying to build some cake in a couple of my pipes as an experiment so I can try and judge for myself this very topic that comes up quite often lol.

 

[sablebrush52]

I keep a thin hard layer of carbon on the chamber walls to help protect the wood. To that end, I wipe down the walls with a bit or paper toweling, or a few pipe cleaners and let the carbon have a day or two to dry, which is one of my main reasons for resting a pipe. What I don't want is a build up of soft cake filled with bits of unburnt tobacco, as this kind of cake can fail and flake off.

 

[jpmcwjr]

What I don't want is a build up of soft cake filled with bits of unburnt tobacco, as this kind of cake can fail and flake off.

Amen! Added to the unburnt tobacco is ash, which also tends to make flakey cake, so to speak.