Help the Noob before He Destroys His New Savinelli

[canopus]

Well the tittle should be self explanatory, new pipe guy, first briar pipe, weird spot, anxiety, keyboard...
I have "some" experience with smoking pipes, probably fifty or so bowls in a wooden pipe so I know how to smoke slowly and gently without overheating the bowl, know how pack, to clean and take care of my pipe. Well then I decided to get something decent and fixed myself a Savi and a few bowl of decent stuff to smoke in it. Having heard of briar's temperamental and finicky nature when new I was super extra careful on my first try, could hold the bowl without any discomfort and formed a nice black first layer of cake, tried it again 48 hours latter having the same care as before... this appear:

The lighter part is the exact same color of the inside of the chamber before it was smoked (the bottom got darker) and by passing my finger over it I didn't felt anything other than the usual smooth briar on the same level as the rest of the chamber. To be frank I personally think it's what we call on the homebrewing community as the "noob nerves", but since I'm venturing on new waters and this thing was expensive (4x the price of the US market) I decided to drop by and ask people with more experience before I venture any further. So what is your opinions on this thing, just a malformed first layer of cake or something I should worry about?

 

[jah76]

Hi. Welcome to the site! Your darker layer...about mid bowl. I'm guessing this cake built heavier due to the tobacco being hotter/more caramelized/tighter burn/etc.
You might want to make sure your getting a good light on your tobacco at the start and there's no unburnt leaf on the edges.
I've never burnt out a pipe, but in my limited experience I don't think your about too. I'd chalk it up to uneven cake.
Hopefully one of the more experienced members will add something.

 

[J. Mayo]

Unless I'm missing something in the picture it just looks like the bowl didn't get smoked all the way down so the heel never got caked. Easy fix, just smoke 1/4 to 1/3 full bowls for the next several bowls. Make sure you smoke all the way to the bottom to form a good cake in the heel. Don't worry too much, yes briar can be damaged but you're not going to do it as easily as you've probably been led to believe.

 

[jah76]

Oh hell if that's what your worried about either take John's good advice or keep on smoking. I never get a pipe smoked down "properly". None of mine have bowls caked towards the bottom. I always have a little unburnt tobacco at the bottom. I dump it in the flower bed....the squirrels use it for their roll your own cigarettes.

 

[mso489]

canopus, I think all is well. Smoke the partial bowls for the next five or six bowls, gradually more, to get some cake in

the bottom. But mostly, that's about how a pipe looks the first few times you smoke it. It's not a delicate operation.

Savs are well made, and they take some hard use. Most uninitiated pipe smokers just fill them up and smoke them,

and mostly they absorb the misuse.

 

[kashmir]

I don't know if I'm seeing the picture right ... Is what you are referring to at the bottom, about 11 o'clock in the photo, at the very bottom beneath the cake, on the side wall? By the way, welcome to the forums.

 

[canopus]

Well indeed I didn't smoked it all the way down to the heel, probably because I've heard contradictory things about breaking a pipe, like you should start progressively loads but you should never smoke it all the way down because it can damage the rim of the draw hole or something. I've settled for doing it with a full bowl as usual and go slow and cold, now I understand why it's not advisable. I will probably try a 1/4 bow next time and progress by the quarter from there.
Yest it's that... thing, or bird's eye at 11 o'clock.
And thanks for the advice and the welcoming.

 

[numbersix]

If you've only smoked it twice, that might be a burn. I don't think you'd have that much cake build up on just two smokes. From my (somewhat limited) experience, the bowl will get darkened, but mostly from ash. That bowl looks charred to me.
If it is char, you may wish to contact the dealer. Some resellers (like smokingpipes) will take back a pipe that burned out.
p.s

welcome to the forums!

 

[teufelhund]

Welcome to the forums... Hope it turns out to be nothing; I'd hate to speculate unless you reamed down to bare briar as to whether it's a flaw, burnout or just weird cake.

 

[canopus]

I'm not sure it's charred, I has that plastic smooth and warm feel of cake, and while it's very thin it's slight thicker than the briar on the rim. The halogen lamp, the flash from the camera and it's failure to focus make it look much coarser and the degrade near the rim much more abrupt than by just looking at it; it's fairly matte but the darker part near the bottom is a little shinny.
Never scraped it, just brushed to remove the ashes.

 

[jndyer]

This is the thing I love about this forum, you ask a question and quickly get all the information you need.

 

[kashmir]

Well, its hard to tell. Burnouts usually show a charred appearance and that indentation seems not to be charred. Might just be a flaw in the briar. I'd pay no mind to it, as it'll eventually be consumed by cake. By the way, I take no special pains with a new pipe. Just load it up regular and smoke the thing down to the bottom. If you've a slow smoking cadence, the pipe should break in nicely. I've never had one go south on me.

 

[canopus]

Good news, I checked the pipe chamber this morning and found out that the briar fairy played a harmless trick on me. As it happens the chamber was still relatively moist from the recent smoke I had and the lighter part around the black spot just happened to have dried faster, now once the briar has dried it's all the same color and the spot disappeared.
Also the balsa system works like a joy, removes gurgling, cools down the smoke and retains all of the flavor while reducing noticeably the nicotine. I'm probably going to try some rope with it in the near. But first I'm to try to secure some stuff from McClelland, probably Blue Mountain or 3 OAKS Syrian or Legends not sure which one first. So far my experience with decent stuff has being a tin of Davidoff Royalty, wonderful stuff in its incensy suitableness and quality, too bad it's bloody expensive.
Again thanks for the help and the welcoming.

 

[jonahtke]

Glad your problem fixed itself! Also Welcome to the forums.

 

[numbersix]

Good news, I checked the pipe chamber this morning and found out that the briar fairy played a harmless trick on me.

Glad to hear it - thanks for the update.

 

[kashmir]

Well, that's a relief!