Military Stem Sweating?

[carolinachurchwarden]

I'm having a bit of an unusual issue with one of my pipes. It has a military style stem and I have noticed that as I smoke, if I were to take the stem out, it will have collected moisture around the tip, as in around the outside of the tip between the wall of the receiving end and tip of the stem, maybe even a little up inside the stem. Is this a moist tobacco issue, or something else entirely? The pipe smokes great, but I can't tell if this will become more of an issue the longer I smoke it, or if I need to dry out my tobacco more. I do end up with a little dottle at the end, but typically not too much, but after dumping, I do notice a slight trickle of water run down from the stem into the bottom of the bowl. I smoke it slowly, usually takes between 30-45 minutes to smoke it, but I still keep having the sensation that it might possibly be too moist. Any thoughts?

 

[hazemofegypt]

You can run pipe cleaner through the stem 1-2 times during your smoking session to absorb any liquids,(once at the end of each third).
as for the reason why this happens,I guess (and can never be sure) this could be due to the length of the stem -more surface- which results in more condensation
Why I can never be sure? because many factors can cause this, I just smoked my second bowl today,same tobacco,each time at different pipe,both of them with almost identical stem and shank design but one of them had much more condensation which was so obvious to me during cleaning because the other's shank was almost dry!

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

That's certainly something to consider. I haven't really tried to run a cleaner down it while smoking, just noticed abnormal sweating right at the edge of the rim where the stem connects. Pulled it out last time and noticed a small amount to wipe off. The last time I cleaned it after a smoke, the cleaner was really wet, but I smoked that same blend in one of my other pipes and I had 0 issues. You are right, it does seem more like condensation than anything. I love the pipe, but that's the only thing I've seen so far that makes me a little worried, since it set me back about $140. I'll give it the cleaner treatment later this evening when I take a smoke after dinner and see what happens. Thanks for the tip.

 

[workman]

If it is very cold where you are smoking, it might have something to do with the metal in the army mount cooling the smoke and causing condensation.

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

@workman Nope, it was a balmy 70, maybe cooling off to a 65 last night, and the same thing happened. I did break it down a couple of times to run a cleaner down into the bowl, another up the stem, but when I was done last night and pulled it out, I mean 4 or 5 good drops of water dripping from the stem. I made sure to smoke it as slowly as possible, and it took me 45 minutes to an hour to "finish" my bowl, since I lost the last quarter or so to moisture. Could the fact that it's new have anything to do with it? Only smoked about 4 bowls in it so far, but the same wet stem event occurs every time. Just wanting to make sure that it's not just the pipe in question. If it's something I'm doing wrong, I'll be happy to hear any suggestions, but it looks like for now, the best I can do is sop up the moisture with a cleaner 2-3 times during my smoke.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

A true military fit, is when the stem has a slight taper, and fits into a larger hole with a slight matching taper, and friction holds it in place. That also means that the draft hole is much larger in the stummel side, because there isn't a true mortise cut that keeps the draft the same all the way from chamber to the button. So, in a military, the draft is much larger creating this condensing chamber just behind the stem, where turbulence and a condensing of the smoke takes place, making water build up just behind the stem. This happens on quite a few of my true military stems. Just pull the stem out and shake the water out, maybe dry with a rag, or just ignore it.

They are meant to be carried in the trenches while dredging through mustard gas and muck. I love my military pipes, but I also don't hesitate to use them for knocking frisbees out of trees, getting the cat's attention that is howling on my fence at midnight, and dislodging stuck garbage disposals. They'll take a beating and keep on smoking. ::

 

[jpmcwjr]

The pipe smokes great, but I can't tell if this will become more of an issue the longer I smoke it, or if I need to dry out my tobacco more.

The bolded part. And make it "a lot more".

Good luck!​

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

@Cosmic Great to know! That's what mine is, a true military fit:

I was hoping this was true and that it wasn't just something in this particular pipe. I do love smoking it, but the water issue did throw me off a bit. I'll just doing what I'm doing and also dry out my tobacco more.
@jpmcwjr Okay, I can do that, but is there a limit to how much you want to let it dry? In other words, can you let it get too dry? Should I just go by trial and error until I get it about right? Drying everything out is still a little new to me. When I used to smoke my pipes about 10 years ago, whatever I was buying seemed to be dry enough, but some of the blends I run across have differing degrees of moisture in them, right out of the package.

 

[jabo]

During combustion there is water present.Use pipe cleaners religiously. I have the same issues. I thought it was me, but,IT'S the nature of combustion. Also, aromatic tobaccos usually create more moisture.

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

Yeah, I will just start using more pipe cleaners to clean out the tip as I smoke it from now on. At least I now know for sure that it's not just me. Makes sense that an aromatic would contain more moisture, just never been quite sure how long to let one dry out before packing.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I like some blends more crunchy dry than others. You will just have to smoke them and play with them to figure out what you like and how dry... imagine that, it involves more smoking, which is a good thing, right?
Yeh, water does comes from combustion, but the water in the tobacco doesn't help either. But, how much is a personal preference thing.

 

[carolinachurchwarden]

Well, I haven't really dried any of the blends I currently have on hand to quite that kindling degree yet, but I may try it on a few half-bowl amounts just to see what might happen. I'll just lay it out on a tea towel at the house and got about my business for a bit. May try and even lay out a full bowl amount, let it dry longer than I have been, smoking half, while letting the rest dry a little longer, do a refill, then puff on that a while. Might just be the best I can do to determine an optimum moisture content, at least without going overboard and running a moisture content analysis where I establish the initial moisture content by weight, then I can build a curve over time graph and determine the approximate dry time per amount by weight of each tobacco I own and purchase in the furture......holy smokes, I can see engineering in everything....how about I just go smoke and forget about it?