Hello, new to the forum. I started smoking pipes with my grand father and great uncle when I was younger but 7 years ago when my grandfather passed away I inherited his pipe collection. I’ve smoked them regularly since then and always clean and maintain them. I’ve noticed a dark spot on my main smoker but to be honest I think it’s been there for awhile. One thing I’ve always noticed is when I smoke this one it becomes extremely warm almost to the point where I put it down to cool off. Maybe I’m smoking it too fast. I usually smoke 2-3 bowls if I sit down to smoke. There’s a thin cake and the inside is well carbonized. So I’m wondering if this is a naturally dark part In the grain or the first signs of burn through. Thanks and happy to have found a forum to learn more!
Is This Burnout?
- Thread starter BriarAustin
- Start date
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I had a dark spot similar to yours on a pipe I picked up at an antique shop. When I put my finger in the chamber, the pad of my finger fit perfectly in a indentation/divot exactly where the dark spot was. I thought it was the beginning of a burnout. I gave the pipe away to another forum member who placed some pipe mud in that spot and he continued to smoke it.
Keep watching, I'm sure you'll get more experienced answers to your question.
Keep watching, I'm sure you'll get more experienced answers to your question.
I call that blackened condition “incipient burnout”.
If briar pipes had national security or aerospace uses then governments would have long ago reduced every mystery of briar pipes into a dismal and boring science.
Instead we have anecdotes and hearsay and a fair bit of guessing why a few briar pipes, will show that burnt condition and most will not.
I believe if such a pipe is sawed in halves for inspection, it would reveal grain structure charred all the way through.
Yet I have an early thirties “patent pending” Kaywoodie Synchro Stem bulldog with both bottom panels showing incipient burn out that’s not burned out yet, in 90 years.
Let’s hope this one makes it longer, before it finally burns through all the way.
If briar pipes had national security or aerospace uses then governments would have long ago reduced every mystery of briar pipes into a dismal and boring science.
Instead we have anecdotes and hearsay and a fair bit of guessing why a few briar pipes, will show that burnt condition and most will not.
I believe if such a pipe is sawed in halves for inspection, it would reveal grain structure charred all the way through.
Yet I have an early thirties “patent pending” Kaywoodie Synchro Stem bulldog with both bottom panels showing incipient burn out that’s not burned out yet, in 90 years.
Let’s hope this one makes it longer, before it finally burns through all the way.
So basically it may be the beginning but this while take a century to go through? What if I build a little thicker cake will it stop any more burn through? So this is a fundamental flaw with this briar’s grain structure not necessarily user error?
I have waaaay too many pipes and only a tiny few show incipient burnout.
It’s not a good sign. The briar is toasted, apparently all the way through. They’ll get really hot there, too.
I smoke em’ anyway. I have had exactly one burnout, the others just keep threatening to burn out.
When you draw on a pipe, the burning ember reaches nearly one thousand degrees Fahrenheit. The ignition point of most woods is about five hundred degrees. In theory a briar (or especially a cob) pipe ought to catch fire in your hand.
If an object gets hotter than 140 degrees Fahrenheit it will burn you quickly if you hold it.
Instead the walls of a briar pipe dissipate almost all that heat, once you learn how to pace and draw on the pipe.
Again, if wars were won or lost over briar, we’d all know why.
Instead we get the fun of speculation why.
You can coat the inside of the indentation with pipe mud, it should stop the burnout from progressing any further
The funny thing is there is no indentation
That doesn't look like a burn out. Looks more like it's a place where a finger has been rubbing against.
I thought that it could be that as well, that’s where my left index falls when I smoke, so you think it’s dirt that’s sitting in the coating?
I do. If it's a burn out, you find out soon enough. I don't think it's a burn out.
I think it’s starting to burn out. IMO your smoking the pipe way too hot and perhaps a little fast.
The tell tale sign would be inside the bowl. Ream your bowl and use a little sandpaper on that side or all sides. Grap a flashlight and take a good look. If there’s charring, try to remove that and use pipe mud to plaster that area.
The tell tale sign would be inside the bowl. Ream your bowl and use a little sandpaper on that side or all sides. Grap a flashlight and take a good look. If there’s charring, try to remove that and use pipe mud to plaster that area.
I have a few pipes with cigarette burns they picked up from ashtrays.
I want to pretend my pipes with incipient burnout are merely burned from the outside, but alas that’s just wishful thinking.
Pipes that show incipient burn out are rare. In my stash the few that show it are high grades, like my early Kaywoodie, or my Ben Wade Golden Walnut, or a Bari Hand Cut, and they all show it at the sides of the bottom of the chamber. They’ll get extra hot on that spot, too.
Yet if I take steel wool and grapeseed oil I can sort of make the dark spot look better. It darkens again, after a bit.
I think what’s happening is that spot is too porous. The dark spot might be tars and oils, not charred wood.
The few I have also have perfect chambers inside.
It ain’t good, whatever the reason why.
I want to pretend my pipes with incipient burnout are merely burned from the outside, but alas that’s just wishful thinking.
Pipes that show incipient burn out are rare. In my stash the few that show it are high grades, like my early Kaywoodie, or my Ben Wade Golden Walnut, or a Bari Hand Cut, and they all show it at the sides of the bottom of the chamber. They’ll get extra hot on that spot, too.
Yet if I take steel wool and grapeseed oil I can sort of make the dark spot look better. It darkens again, after a bit.
I think what’s happening is that spot is too porous. The dark spot might be tars and oils, not charred wood.
The few I have also have perfect chambers inside.
It ain’t good, whatever the reason why.
The chamber is perfect so not sure what I can do. Do you think a little thicker cake would help? Also people say I’m smoking too fast but not sure how I can slow that down. I smoke cigars the most and tend to finish them fast, but I just get tired of relighting the pipe when it’s gone out. I’ve gotten better at controlling it though and bringing the smoke back without a relight just with tamping and pulling it
"The cup is already broken." Just keep smoking this pipe and enjoying it for as long as you can.
my advice is to sip on the pipe, that's my go to advice on how to slow down. Before doing that get the pipe lit and smoking. With the ember working put the pipe in your mouth while holding your breath and not pulling or drawing on the stem at all. Pull the pipe out and see how much smoke you get without any effort. Gentle drawing or sipping fixes most smoking too fast issues. And when the smoke starts getting a little warm leave it alone for a couple seconds before doing it again. Of course that's my advice but it's worth trying.
The part worst injured is the six inches between your ears.
The only one I’ve ever had completely burn out was a brand new custom made freehand from a carver in Arizona. My, it was a beautifully grained pipe.
It was so beautiful, I contacted the carver, who was genuinely horrified to hear the news. He promised to carve me another one, even better.
A month or two passed, and he wrote me saying he was beginning chemotherapy for cancer, could I wait?
Then he offered to refund my money, as his illness progressed past where he could carve.
I wrote back and said I thought it was all my fault, and I was sorry I had troubled him, and had requested a replacement in the first place.
It might have been my fault, you know?
Be glad you have the problem to worry about.
Old habits die hard.
Pipes got me off a 35+ year cigarette addiction.
The way I smoke my pipes would probably horrify traditionalists who've trained themselves to regulate their cadence by 'sipping'.
If a pipe ever gets too hot I simply put it down to cool and light up another pipe.
Yours is a rather nice pipe and since it's a legacy pipe from your grandfather it's worth doing whatever you can to keep it from burning out.
Were it mine I'd build a layer of hard cake [All of my pipes have a thin hard layer of cake] to protect the chamber 'just in case'.
To help it from getting too hot I'd only fill the bowl no more than 3/4 full.
Yes it does. Pipe mud in this instance when used to coat the walls of the bowl are essentially artificial cake.