Moisture and Cracking

[Country Bladesmith]

Question about using a towel to wipe out the chamber after every smoke and thereby keeping the cake at ammonium. I found cake to add flavor, although I could be wrong. Some go so far as to say to never clean your pipes, as the reside adds flavor.

I reamed one of my favorite pipes (one that gets smoked multiple times a day) back to wood once, and noticed that the tobacco did not taste as good. So, for me at least, I’d agree that at least a thin layer of cake is a good thing for flavor. I saw the thread that said a cakeless pipe should smoke cooler and better. I can’t say the reasoning is bad, but I can’t deny what I taste, either. Maybe there’s more to it than just temperature.
On the practice of wiping the bowl out, I recently began doing this, and the cake still builds up, albeit slower. What I’ve seen is it helps make a more solid cake, though. Have you ever had a chunk of cake get loose and fall out? Maybe when trying to give a thick cake a gentle ream to make a little more room in the chamber? Wiping it out often with a paper towel seems to prevent all that. At least so far. Like I said, I just started experimenting with that.
As for cracking, I’ve only ever had one pipe crack, a morta, which I think had an internal issue with a naturally weak spot in the grain.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Question about using a towel to wipe out the chamber after every smoke and thereby keeping the cake at ammonium. I found cake to add flavor, although I could be wrong. Some go so far as to say to never clean your pipes, as the reside adds flavor.

You still have cake, just very compact and dense.

 

[BROBS]

Other than when cleaning and sanitizing estate pieces, I never use alcohol on a pipe. Over time it can damage the briar. I smoke the same pipe 2+ times per day, sometimes for weeks at a time, disassemble and clean with pipe cleaners and paper towels after each smoke, and in thirty years I've never had a pipe sour. Higher proof alcohols can also cause crazing in acrylic stems.

Also if your pipe is ‘sour’ it just needs more rest. It’s impossible to fully ruin a pipe by souring. It’s only not been rested enough.

 

[BROBS]

On the practice of wiping the bowl out, I recently began doing this, and the cake still builds up, albeit slower. What I’ve seen is it helps make a more solid cake, though. Have you ever had a chunk of cake get loose and fall out? Maybe when trying to give a thick cake a gentle ream to make a little more room in the chamber? Wiping it out often with a paper towel seems to prevent all that. At least so far. Like I said, I just started experimenting with that.

Absolutely. That’s the main thing it does it keep the Cake to a minimum and it’s much stronger. Before I was always having pieces of cake flake out.

 

[SpookedPiper]

I can't imagine building such a crazy cake that I can't put any tobacco in the chamber, that's just ludicrous. I tend to use a pipe cleaner then wash out the chamber and then use the paper towel reamer after every smoke. By washing it out it cuts back on any stinky tobacco smell which irritates the wife when she is sitting in the study where they are kept.

 

[EvertonFC]

I tend to use a pipe cleaner then wash out the chamber...

Wash it out?

 

[SpookedPiper]

Wash it out?

Hot water rinse in the sink, no more that 10-15 seconds. The dry it with a paper towel and another pipe cleaner. After it's dried I put a light coat of obsidian oil on the stem and rub the bowl shiny.

 

[EvertonFC]

Hot water rinse in the sink, no more that 10-15 seconds. The dry it with a paper towel and another pipe cleaner. After it's dried I put a light coat of obsidian oil on the stem and rub the bowl shiny.

Thank you.