For Long Time Pipe Smokers

[PeriqueMyInterest]

I just had a bowl in a pipe I'm breaking in when I noticed significant char around the rim. Not just color, the edge lost material. This was the first pipe with a sharp edge I've gotten new. I'm careful with lighting but the flame always licks the edge. I'm wondering, do these sharp edges ever stay sharp?

 

[kashmir]

I try to maintain a sharp edge at the top of the chamber or in the case of vintage Comoys the inner beveled edge of the bowl. What I do after every smoke, before cleaning with a pipe cleaner, I'll clean out the chamber with a twisted paper towel. Or a smaller bit of paper towel inserted into the cleft of an old fashion wooden clothes pin. Then I'll take this to the inner edge till its smoothed down to the wood. In this way my cake ends abruptly about 1/8th to 1/16th below the rim. Just looks,neater this way. Of course on old scorched rim estates, I'll top the bowl till I have nice clean edges to work with.

 

[kashmir]

Yeah, I agree with Saint. I never destroy rims with flame. I use Bic lighters but take care to light perpendicular to the tobacco bed. Not from the side. Nothing worse than scorched rims. It'll make a pot out of a billiard after decades of topping. LOL.

 

[pdmus]

I only use wooden matches, come in small boxes, usually wrapped up in batches of 10. These don't seem to ever burn the rim and somehow wooden matches just go with pipe smoking, to me at least.

 

[PeriqueMyInterest]

I use wooden matches unless its windy. In the wind or when out of matches I use a pipe lighter or pipe zippo. I'm thinking it could have been a soft spot in the wood because this hasn't happened in 9 years. I've blackened rims but never burned them and I can't remember the last time a pipe has been too hot hold.

 

[checotah]

It's gotta be too much flame. I've been smoking pipes nearly 50 years and have never experienced more than some blackening around the rim (cobs not included). I've always used either matches or Zippos. I suppose if I look closely at some of my oldest pipes I might see a bit of a burn, but I'd have to look closely.

 

[PeriqueMyInterest]

I just remembered a pipe I got 2.5 years ago and checked it's rim. Still sharp. Like I said I'm careful with my pipes and take care when lighting them. I've never burned one, except intentionally to see how much heat briar could handle. I used a broken pipe and a bic and it took a lot of heat. Oh well, either I was daydreaming and screwed up or there was some flawed wood on the edge.

 

[PeriqueMyInterest]

Just to clarify, the burn is 0.75 mm in at the worst spot. I ran my nail along the edge to see if material was compromised and that's as deep as it went. I respect everyone's advice thus far and know that after 9 years I certainly have a lot to learn.

 

[foggymountain]

I guess I am a slob. I don't really care if the rim is blackened or scorched a little. Lately I have not been filling the pipes all the way, so it will happen less, as if I give a parc.

 

[pitchfork]

I've certainly burned a sharp inner rim before. I'm usually very careful and use matches, but one time the flame licked the edge the wrong way and it singed the wood a bit.

 

[salewis]

I usually use kitchen matches to light my pipes unless it is too windy then I rely on my Pipe Zippo. I usually am careful not to fill the bowl with too much tobacco since even if you are careful over loading will cause a burning at the rim.

 

[rigmedic1]

Sounds like you may be putting the flame source too close to the bowl. I have a friend who burned up the rim on a new pipe, and I showed him how to draw the flame in without putting the lighter too near the rim. When I was younger, I had the bad habit of putting the lighter against the rim and flamed the entire top of the tobacco on the first light. Now I just light from the center by drawing the flame in. A little saliva around the rim before the light seems to help prevent burning as well.

There is a YouTube Video of the German pipe lighting technique. That a look at that, might be helpful as well.

 

[mkelaw]

I've never had a problem either. I use butane but certainly not in a torch lighter. I think the key is to make your initial puffs in a way that no flame is created and to take the flame away from the pipe between initial puffs.