Challenging Traditional Thoughts on Creating Cake

[piperl12]

I have been working with a neighbour who I introduced pipe smoking too about six months ago. He is in the midst of breaking in a pipe and is really trying to develop cake in his Peterson. The traditional thought is that you should always fill your pipe all the way to the top and smoke the whole thing to develop cake evenly in the bowl. So when he was asking me about this I had to sit and light a bowl and give it some thought. Here is what I came up with and it challenges tradition thinking. When I fill my pipe I enjoy the first half of the bowl the most. Most times I dump the bowl before it smokes all the way to the bottom. Honestly the bottom of all but the best tobacco's are wet and nasty. Soo I believe that you are actually doing your pipe a service by half filling the bowl half of the time during the break in process. That way you can actually smoke the bottom of the bowl and not just establish cake around the top third. Feel free to weight in if you guys think my thinking is flawed. So far it has worked for me but that could be more about my smoking style than this making scientific sense. Would love to hear everyone elses take on this.

 

[cleidophoros]

You are not challenging anything; traditional way to break in a pipe is to smoke either half full bowls first or 1/3 full for a number of bowls followed by 2/3 for some more and finally smoking full bowls.

 

[eibhir]

Don't forget the Easter Bunny!

I usually only smoke 1/2 bowls and mine seem fine.

 

[cortezattic]

I read, and tend to believe, that the ritual of gradually increasing the amount of tobacco during the break-in

was to ensure that the moisture and resins in relatively "green" wood were driven off gradually.
This may have been necessary when pipe smoking was extremely popular and stummels were pumped out

by the millions in assembly line fashion; but for some time now the pipe you buy is not likely to have moisture issues.

 

[dervis]

Put tobacco in the big hole and set on fire. Repeat as often as possible. If you smoke it cake will come

 

[rhogg]

I just smoke my pipes..... new or used. I don't seem to have an issue building a cake. I do smoke half bowls on pipes have an issue smoking to the heel. It seems to help in such cases, but I often wonder if it is just a learning curve for the pipe itself. They all have their nuanced smoking methods.... some more than others.

 

[juvat270]

I have a feeling I probably shouldn't say this but here it goes: I don't give a rat's ass about cake. I buy pipes. I smoke them. If cake forms, swell. If not, oh well.