Hi guys can I know if it's okay to smoke a full bowl of a new pipe ? Like would it damage the pipe in the long run ?
Thanks
Thanks
Is it okay to smoke a full bowl of a new pipe ?
- Thread starter Dmitri1516
- Start date
I've been smoking a pipe for 48 and a half years, and always break in a pipe with a full bowl. Never had a single problem.
Same but only 31 and a half years.
I'll third that statement. Always a full bowl with a new pipe! If, by chance, you are a newer pipe smoker I'd urge you to not heat the bowl up too much. Especially with no cake buildup yet.
Warm to the touch is normal
Too hot to hold is not good, and should let it sit until it cools
Warm to the touch is normal
Too hot to hold is not good, and should let it sit until it cools
Yes, it’s okay.
Yes, it doesn’t hurt. I’ve smoked for 50 years.
Why the pipe makers used to say that, and many still do, is to encourage smoking the first few bowls all the way down.
A new briar pipe looks beautiful, and usually tastes bad, until broken all the way in.
Why the pipe makers used to say that, and many still do, is to encourage smoking the first few bowls all the way down.
A new briar pipe looks beautiful, and usually tastes bad, until broken all the way in.
If you can. I haven’t mastered doing so and seldom do, generally I dump the final third. No worries for me of burning the bottom.
By then, it’s usually not as pleasant anyway and I don’t fight to get to just ashes.
By then, it’s usually not as pleasant anyway and I don’t fight to get to just ashes.
I always smoke a half bowl to start. Otherwise you often end up with a raw briar bottom of the bowl that contributes to a wet smoke. If you load a whole bowl you need to smoke all of it to the bottom.
I used to do that but now I don't. As in I used to half start and now just pack it like normal. Have not really noticed much difference.
That's often more due to the technique of the smoker.
I've found that two things contribute the most to wet bottoms (tee hee hee) in pipes. Packing too tight. And how wet the tobacco is. There are other factors but those two are the biggest ones from my experience. I really think a lot of the dogma around pipes came about aimed at the new pipe smoker. Many of the rules make sense if you consider a salesman who wants a return customer and not a returned burnt out pipe compounded by no idea how the person is going to go about puffing their new pipe.
Smoking too fast and hot will get you there as well not to mention wet tobacco.
The first rule of Pipe Club is: there are no rules in Pipe Club. Forge your own path. Make mistakes. Curate your own experience. It's fun because it is boundless and tailored to you.
I forget that one. Never really had much of a problem with that outside of a few sensitive blends that I avoided for years (yes Mac Barren).
there are facts but not rules. If you smoke a certain way it will effect the tobacco smoke, if you don't care it doesn't matter. I have known a few pipe smokers that enjoy it more hot and cloudy. And yes they do burn out pipes.
The burnout guys are a weird one to me. If you're paying any attention at all, you see it happening. Either the bowl is too hot to touch, you get funny flavors, or see the briar starting to discolor. If you see this happening, wouldn't even a dog alter its behavior? Even if you didn't care about the pipe at all, don't you care about the foul taste? I get how quick burnouts happen, like the fabled guys who would smoke while riding their motorcycle and burnout a pipe in a handful of miles, but for the slow burnouts, what's going on there?
I always like to start a new pipe with the 1/3, 2/3, full bowl progression, but have no evidence that those pipes are the better for it in the long run. 
I subscribed to some of the old rituals of smoking partial bowls and coating the chamber with honey, but over the years abandoned all of that. If you got 'em, pack and smoke 'em. I especially like uncoated chambers on a new pipe, and none of them ever suffer from a fully packed first bowl.
I've never burnt out a pipe, new or used. I cracked a shank once, my only mishap.
I've never burnt out a pipe, new or used. I cracked a shank once, my only mishap.