Can Cake Fix Moisture Problems?

[Ryan]

I have a few pipes that smoke well, but always produce more internal moisture than my other pipes. These pipes have very little or no cake in the chambers.

Can I expect them to smoke dryer once a cake has been allowed to form? Or is it just always the nature of some pipes to cause more internal moisture to develop while smoking?

 

[Eireprof]

I've found that this is the case with my bent pipes. I’ve started really drying out my tobacco. Not to the point that it's crispy dust, but to where it isn't really sticking together with a pinch. This has solved my wet smoke problems and increased my ability to taste more complex flavors.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Drying is good for tasting and reducing the moisture in the bowl, but keep in mind that most of the moisture is a biproduct of combustion. Cake won't really help with that.
Also turbulence in the draft is what pulls most of the moisture out of the smoke, and makes the droplets that travel down the stem to give you that gurgle sound. Bent pipes create more moisture in the stem from just their design. But some bent pipes gurgle more than others, because the water has no where to go but set their and gurgle. This is why I prefer the drafts on my bent pipes to NOT come out into the bottom of the chamber. I look for the better pipes that have a drop off at the end of the draft, so the water has somewhere to go. But, this seems to drive some guys nuts. Ha ha. Most want the draft at the very bottom of the draft, which means it's probably gonna gurgle.

 

[woodsroad]

“Coalescence”

 

[cosmicfolklore]

“Coalescence”

 

[InWithBothFeet]

Evanescence

 

[tbradsim1]

Dry your tobacco like crispy critters and moisture goes away.

 

[Waning Embers]

Evanescence

View attachment 376197

My insides just woke up for some reason.

Effervescence

 

[Waning Embers]

Drying, good packing, and smoking technique will solve moisture better than cake.

 

[makhorkasmoker]

I have found some wet smoking pipes will improve with use, but I do not think it’s the cake that does it. I’ve had cake at varying thickness in these pipes and it made little difference, but time and smoking did.

I remember reading a smoking pipes blog article about how the briar improves with use. But it takes time and a lot of smoking .

One of our moderators here once posted on how this process could be accelerated and improved by smoking only quarter to half bowls in the problem pipe for a while. I did this. It was not pleasant, but the pipe certainly improved after I did that a while.

Although I smoke pretty dry tobacco, I find the problem has more to do with humidity. (Living in Florida, I smoke in often jungle like weather). Cadence matters too . But Again, it was smoking lots of half bowls and really breaking in that pipe that solved the problem

 

[InWithBothFeet]

Cane Rod Piper says that something "magic" happens to briar at about the 75th bowl.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

In one of GLP's compositions he explored the idea that the briar inside the draft hole needs to get formed over with creosote to help the pipe smoke better, meaning that the pits and grains of briar in a new pipe's draft adds to the turbulence inside the draft, and after a while all of those little pits and dings get covered over with thin layer, making the air pass more smoothly over them inside the draft.

 

[quantumboy]

Also turbulence in the draft is what pulls most of the moisture out of the smoke, and makes the droplets that travel down the stem to give you that gurgle sound

Precisely! I took fluid dynamics in university (very tough class, lots of calculus and what not, which, yes, I have never used since I graduated 40 years ago!!!), and turbulence causes significant changes in pressure, which in turn causes moisture to condense. With no turbulence and therefore no changes in pressure, the moisture remains in a gaseous state and will be included in the smoke you draw into your mouth.

 

[PipePic]

cake wont fix moisture problems.

I had some pipes, dearly departed ones, that no matter what, they would gurgle and create moisture at massive amounts.

No matter of tinkering would help. As for some reason, the cake in the bottom of the bowl always loved to absorb excess moisture and create a nasty goo.

I have not smoked in ages. I just pulled my last pipe out. I cleaned it before i put it away. Did my best to clean it. Still had a bit of residue inside the chamber, and my finger nail scraped it down to bare wood.

Thats after about 20 years of just being stored in a cd player bag.