Is This Cake or Just Crud?
- Thread starter Goofeyfoot
- Start date
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Don’t I have to let it get to the thickness of a dime before I start hogging it out or do I do it before then?
Nope. I'd just let it build.
Cake stinks and makes your pipe taste sour. It holds moisture, and, well, stinks. I thoroughly clean my bowl after each smoke with a paper towel. I believe the "thickness of a dime" thing is not good advice.
The carbon layer in my pipes is razor thin and hard as a rock. My pipes never sour, and no need for cleaning with booze every month.
In almost 3 decades I've never had a burn out, or damaged a pipe.
Ive suggested this to several long time pipers who now swear by keeping the cake to a bare minimum.
I seriously almost quit piping due to stinky, sour pipes. But 2 decades later, im still at it with NOT stinky, sour pipes.
It's your pipe! You want a layer of cake? Grow it. Don't want it? cut it out. Your decision. Some swear to a bit of cake. Others? Swear at it. It's purely your choice.
Many don't even let it develop anymore.
I use a Czech tool to clear out any remaining tobacco and then run a wad of paper towel inside each bowl and fresh pipe cleaner through the stem at the end of each day. I have been smoking briar pipes for 35 years and never had one crack. The idea that you need a thick cake to protect the bowl is hogwash if you are smoking quality briar pipes. I don’t want the next smoke to taste like the last one. Rotate your pipes and let them rest and dry out for a few days. Always wipe down the outside of the briar and the stem with a microfiber cloth, paying particular attention to the rim to keep them looking good. It’s a ritual worth adopting to keep your pipes fresh.
^^^^
This is revealed truth!!!
A razor thin wafer of carbon allows the good sap, resin, or mojos—that are hiding inside good briar (and especially in ancient, oil cured, aged Pre 54 Algerian briar)—to react to the intense heat of the ember and release gooderness into the smoke.
I Igrrr 100% when I work on an estate pipe I clean the cake down to a hair thin layer and the pipes taste amazing. For my own pipes I clean the chamber with a folded pipe cleaner after every bowl and I maintain this ultra thin carbon layer.
I’m in the camp that cuts it out regularly. As soon as I start to see some noticeable build up, it gets scrapped out. I have no interest in that crap!
Yep, this is why I only use Dills pipe cleaners too. All the "fluffy" cleaners leave fluff in the bowl.....but dont clean the stem/shank any better.....in my opinion.
For me, I really like cake in the chamber, especially at the bottom, not too much that it restricts capacity but I do enjoy a thick cake. The lava is what I find annoying.
I'll the cake build up a bitand then use a chamber brush in the bowl and then a longer thinner brush every so often to keep the draft hole clear.
I use a toothbrush when cleaning my bowl. Especially after a good reaming.
Cake is the residue that you don't want in your body, so I don't want to keep it around. I also don't want to diminish the capacity of the bowl. I don't buy a large bowled pipe to make it into a medium or small bowled pipe. Keep it clean and the smoke will be fresh.
I like cake it's fun to build it's like a record of your smokes. And it's also fun to ream out a big ole pile of carbon dust every few months.