Do Bowls Breathe?

[Grangerous]

My pipes all breathed, a sigh of relief when I gave my old go-to-blend, MacBaren Norwood, a sabbatical.

Always heated the bowl to “too hot to handle” in short order, even with a deliberate cadence.

I still have a dozen or more 3.5 ounce tins cellared. I don’t know that I’ll ever smoke them all. Gave a tin away to the owner of a local Golf driving range, because I tired of him crop dusting the entire range with his tractor and Captain Black White.

So I’d suggest that the tobaccos can make a difference, moreso than Pipe material.

 

[jaygreen55]

Here is visual evidence of moisture seeping out of a pipe as it's being smoked.

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Here is visual evidence of moisture seeping out of a pipe as it's being smoked.

View attachment 55012

Or that is condensation. The only time I've seen moisture seep through a pipe is with cheap pipes that have fills. That looks like a lot of birdseye, perhaps some seeped through due to the grain. I'm struggling to believe that much moisture seeped through the bowl, especially that high up on the bowl.

 

[jaygreen55]

The bowl has an hour glass shape. The area that shows the moisture is the thinnest part of the bowl that also gets quite hot during smoking. Perhaps the birds eye grain does contribute

 

[cosmicfolklore]

In hanging out for a few years at The Briary smoking lounge, I’ve seen two pipes that seep tar when smoked. One, a guy brought the pipe in because he thought there was something wrong with it. Out of the side straight grain tar came out of the side like a slowly oozing zit when smoked. It was disgusting. But, Skip didn’t know how to fix it. The guy had been smoking it for years, aromatics, so the puss was extra acridy smelling. But, when wiped clean there was no hole. Maybe microscopic, but nothing to the naked eye. But, when smoked the width of the black puss was rather large back acne size.


The second was a guy who held that his pipe proved pipes breath. It was a bent scoop shape (a Dane who knows how to make a pipe) with some beautiful birdseye on the heel. But, when he smoked it, if you touched the birdseye, your fingers got black tar on it. But, when you looked at it, it was just pretty, high contrast birdseye. But the tar didn’t just shoot out. It was slower.
Both had moderate cake.

I’ve also had straight grains they didn’t have much stain contrast when I bought them, but after a few years there was definite high contrast.

Did they breath... phht, what does that even mean? Does briar absorb something from the tobaccos we smoke? Well, I’ve seen some convincing pictures of stummels cut in half that would suggest they don’t. But, how much were those pipes smoked? What if those few just had tighter grain? What were all the variables? IDK...

But, something magical happens with some pipes. A combination of perfect grain to perfect shape.. Perfect technique... spells cast by Lady Nicotine, the white goddess... some of Phillip Pullman’s -dust... magnetic field variance with universal pulls of planetary alignment?
I haven’t the answer...
...but, it was a cool story.

 

[SoddenJack]

Didn’t someone do an experiment where they did a before and after weight of a pipe that had been soaked in water? If memory serves, the difference was negligible.

 

[spicy_boiii]

If your pipe is "breathing", you have a problem with your pipe.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Never seen it on anyone's pipe, much less my own. But I believe it can happen.

And breathing, when talking wood, means the wood can transpire. It can take in moisture, it can relieve moisture. A small amount of air may be involved.

 

[snagstangl]

I have a yello bole carburetor pipe , Im pretty sure it breathes but it took some aluminum reinforced holes in the bottom of the bowl to do it.

 

[sasquatch]

The bowl has an hour glass shape. The area that shows the moisture is the thinnest part of the bowl that also gets quite hot during smoking. Perhaps the birds eye grain does contribute

Of course it does, it's directly perpendicular grain, a straight run of xylem into the chamber. And absolutely proof of what I said earlier (I have shop pictures of the same thing, cutting new blocks and watching moisture ooze out when they are heated from inside, blocks I've had for years). Wood is full of moisture, and if you heat it up, it will come out if it can.

 

[Rockyrepose]

In hanging out for a few years at The Briary smoking lounge, I’ve seen two pipes that seep tar when smoked. One, a guy brought the pipe in because he thought there was something wrong with it. Out of the side straight grain tar came out of the side like a slowly oozing zit when smoked. It was disgusting. But, Skip didn’t know how to fix it. The guy had been smoking it for years, aromatics, so the puss was extra acridy smelling. But, when wiped clean there was no hole. Maybe microscopic, but nothing to the naked eye. But, when smoked the width of the black puss was rather large back acne size.


The second was a guy who held that his pipe proved pipes breath. It was a bent scoop shape (a Dane who knows how to make a pipe) with some beautiful birdseye on the heel. But, when he smoked it, if you touched the birdseye, your fingers got black tar on it. But, when you looked at it, it was just pretty, high contrast birdseye. But the tar didn’t just shoot out. It was slower.
Both had moderate cake.

I’ve also had straight grains they didn’t have much stain contrast when I bought them, but after a few years there was definite high contrast.

Did they breath... phht, what does that even mean? Does briar absorb something from the tobaccos we smoke? Well, I’ve seen some convincing pictures of stummels cut in half that would suggest they don’t. But, how much were those pipes smoked? What if those few just had tighter grain? What were all the variables? IDK...

But, something magical happens with some pipes. A combination of perfect grain to perfect shape.. Perfect technique... spells cast by Lady Nicotine, the white goddess... some of Phillip Pullman’s -dust... magnetic field variance with universal pulls of planetary alignment?
I haven’t the answer...
...but, it was a cool story.

Now I've imagined a scene from a freakish sci-fi movie where the pipe grows arms and grabs the lips of the smoker putting a seed in their bowels to growing a xenomorph that shoots out of your guts latter in the evening looking for a tobacco stash.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Eeeeeeewwwww!

 

[jvnshr]

Didn’t someone do an experiment where they did a before and after weight of a pipe that had been soaked in water? If memory serves, the difference was negligible.

@jpmcwjr was the one promoting to wash the pipes for cleaning purposes, @ashdigger was the one doing the experiment if I am not mistaken.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Here is visual evidence of moisture seeping out of a pipe as it's being smoked.

View attachment 55012

Was that pipe ever wiped down with oil?

 

[craig61a]

Was that pipe ever wiped down with oil?

Either that, or wax melting.

 

[Elric]

Do pipes breathe? No, of course not. But they do sigh from time to time.

I think that is only when loaded with Mixture 79. Which begs the question, how bad were the first 78 mixtures?

 

[sasquatch]

You guys are complicating and inventing a narrative. It's water. It's water that's in the block. Let's drill a pipe. This block is sitting in the shop for years, it's at ambient humidity. I have spun it and cut the top flat for demonstrative purposes (actually no, just so the bit won't wander).

As I cut, you can see a ring of dark/damp form on the surface, where water is escaping.

It persists momentarily after cutting as well.

There is moisture in your briar. When you heat it up, it tries to escape. If you can draw any other conclusion from these photos, I'd love to hear it. Once.

 

[sasquatch]

Notice also that where the briar is wet is on top, not the side, again, this corresponds exactly to the xylem orientation, in this case vertical.

It is almost as if briar is some kind of wood or something.

 

[jpmcwjr]

It's like it's a miracle!!