Hot Spot On My Pipe?

[burns]

I am relatively to pipe smoking and I bought a peterson baker street off ebay a few months ago. It is one of my two favorite pipes, and I recently noticed a dark spot on the bottom of the bowl. Today while smoking it I noticed a slight rippling effect on the other side (its a bulldog, so it narrows at the bottom of the bowl), what can I do to prevent it from burning through? I love this pipe!

 

[burns]

I'm trying to get a picture of the dark spot

 

[rmbittner]

Burns:
Unfortunately, if the pipe is truly faulty -- and burn-throughs can happen because of a hidden flaw in the wood, as well as gross mistreatment (deeply gouging the bowl when cleaning/reaming) -- the only way to stop it from burning through is to stop smoking it.
However, a professional repair person can fix a burn-out by replacing the faulty area of wood with a briar plug. (I would think he could also do this prior to a pipe's actually burning out.) This is not an unusual repair, but you'll want to have a pro handle it. Depending on what you spent on eBay, you may find that the repair will be more costly than the pipe, though.
I feel your pain. I had a burn-out on the very first bowl I smoked in a gorgeous and incredibly light Charatan freehand with perfectly straight grain. $250. . . in 1984. But thankfully the shop refunded my money without any questions, since manufacturers guard retailers against things like this.
Bob

 

[petes03]

Sounds like the beginnings of a burn out. You might try a little pipe mud in the bottom.

 

[mso489]

Uh-oh, there's one of those Petersons with troubles. Is it an older pipe that might have been over-reamed,

or is it a new one where the problem resides with Peterson? Did you get this as an estate or new long ago,

or new recently? I'd go for the briar plug, if you want to keep this favorite pipe. Pipe mud if you are willing

to re-repair later. Most pipes are so durable, it always is sad to hear that one isn't.

 

[thehappypiper]

I have a hotspot on my Don Florian Fan. The wood around this area has darkened, but it still smokes very nicely, the grain is still present and there is no degradation of the sides of the bowl, so I'm going to keep going with it and if it gives out, I'll accept that. As the cake builds up the hot spot has become less hot- it used to be like putting my hands in a flame! Now it is simply, very hot. I don't think it was the fault of the maker- otherwise it is an excellent piece of briar. Every DF pipe is made from world class wood, despite the ocassional engineering flaw. His prices are also unbelievably low.

 

[rmbittner]

thehappypiper:
Burn-outs in high-quality pipes do happen -- and it has nothing to do with the quality of the maker. Even "world class wood" -- whatever that is -- can have flaws hidden deep inside the wood; there is truly no way to know if there's a problem without smoking it and seeing what happens.
Bob

 

[topd]

I have hundreds of pipes and have never had a burn through. But I'm sure I've just been lucky because it can

happen with any maker, as others have said.

Hate that it happened to one of your favorites....!

 

[rmbittner]

I've had exactly one burn-through on a brand-new pipe. But pipes are warrantied against this. If your brand-new pipe burns through -- which will likely happen on the first or second bowl -- take it back to the shop where you bought it.
If you run into a burn-through -- or a potential one -- on an estate, it's likely due to overzealous reaming by the previous owner, rather than a flaw in the briar. If that's the case, my personal recommendation would be to smoke it very slowly and carefully until you've managed to build up a good cake over the affected area.
Bob

 

[literaryworkshop]

If you want to try to build up the wall of the bowl with pipe mud, here's a very helpful thread from elsewhere on this forum: Pipe Mud Thread
This is one of the very few pipe repairs that you might actually be able to do yourself.

 

[cortezattic]

In addition to the opinions expressed above, I would also consider that the dark spot is merely a feature of the

wood that emerged as it was being smoked. In other words, harmless discoloration. I don't quite know what you mean

by a slight rippling on the opposite side of the bowl. If you're referring to a lacquer finish coming up, then you've

got heat problems.