No Cake?

[STP]

No cake for me. As mentioned, you only need a tin layer. Cleaning with a damp paper towel keeps it at bay… for me.

 

[Doctor Chopper]

No cake, other than a thin layer that forms no matter what for me.

 

[Coreios]

You only want a thin layer as others said. I think aros make cake faster because they're sticky. But I wouldn't worry about a cake. It will happen on its own.

 

[anotherbob]

Or could be some tobaccos with say higher sugar contents, VA / VaPers cake more because of the sugar burning and making goo?

nope talking about different pipes with the same tobacco, but yeah different tobaccos cake and smoke and even taste different .

 

[AJL67]

nope talking about different pipes with the same tobacco, but yeah different tobaccos cake and smoke and even taste different .

Eh reading an entire thread is overrated, though you do miss when the thread takes a left instead of a right, ect., and yada yada. lol

 

[anotherbob]

Eh reading an entire thread is overrated, though you do miss when the thread takes a left instead of a right, ect., and yada yada. lol

so true.

 

[Skip48]

Cake will make your pipe smoke cooler and if you dedicate your pipes your smokes will be tastier.
I like about a dimes worth of cake in my pipes.When I a, done smoking I let the pipe sit for either a few hours or over night and take a couple of fluffy pipe cleaners double them over and wipe out any ash or left over tobacco. My cake builds quickly and is really hard. I smoke flakes and plugs exclusively and in my expedience cake forms quickly and it insulates my pipe very nicely.

I use the same thing, bend over a pipe cleaner and work it to clean off any loose particles.

 

[Razorback]

I’m in the “no cake” camp, or at least the “very little cake” camp.

I take a paper towel to the bowl after each smoke, and then occasionally ream with a sharp knife.

 

[kcghost]

I usually use a pipe nail to ream out the barrel after I smoke. Really delays the formation of a cake.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

I'm not about to read the whole thread. I just came here to say that cake sucks. I'd rather have more room for tobacco.

 

[elvishrunes]

I’m no eating birthday cake either, only steamed broccoli with sprinkles on it, mmm. I just wipe with a paper towel and a pipe cleaner in the stem. As mentioned you will get a cake, but it’s the best kind IMO, thin and strong.

 

[Bassman65]

Pipe cleaners and paper towels here as well.

 

[ThermionicScott]

As an outdoor-only smoker in a windy region, I welcome at least a little cake to help protect against burnout. But I'm not in a rush to build up a crappy one. After each smoke, I like to use the backside of the spoon on my 3-way tool to gently knock off any blobs of unburned tobacco and smooth out the cake that's there, then brush out the ash and soot with a folded up pipe cleaner.

 

[ParkitoATL]

I am currently breaking in a Peterson 303 estate which had been reamed down to bare wood, and also had the 91%ISO+COTTON treatment. Based on my experience with my new Rossi Piccolo which tasted a bit hot and sour until I chose to run some BCA through there, I made a 50/50 mix of BCA and Pegasus. After two carefully smoked bowls, there is a very smooth, slightly glossy layer over the chamber, which is also a touch tacky. (One bowl might have actually done it but I neglected to smoke it all the way to the bottom.)

I'm actually thinking I might just put a little dash of activated charcoal in the bowl and give it a shake, then let it sit for a few days. OR, I might just load some straight Pegasus and let it rip. Not looking for huge cake, but none of my pipes have a dime's thickness, so I feel like I am missing some of the benefits.

 

[Briar Lee]

I am currently breaking in a Peterson 303 estate which had been reamed down to bare wood, and also had the 91%ISO+COTTON treatment. Based on my experience with my new Rossi Piccolo which tasted a bit hot and sour until I chose to run some BCA through there, I made a 50/50 mix of BCA and Pegasus. After two carefully smoked bowls, there is a very smooth, slightly glossy layer over the chamber, which is also a touch tacky. (One bowl might have actually done it but I neglected to smoke it all the way to the bottom.)

I'm actually thinking I might just put a little dash of activated charcoal in the bowl and give it a shake, then let it sit for a few days. OR, I might just load some straight Pegasus and let it rip. Not looking for huge cake, but none of my pipes have a dime's thickness, so I feel like I am missing some of the benefits.

I cannot explain exactly why it’s so, but a half century of pie smoking has convinced me that it’s best to take a used pipe down to bare wood, and it never hurts to use alcohol to clean it completely.

Then smoke about three bowls, allllll the way down to the last scrap, until there’s that tacky, resinous sort of a cake but not completely a cake.

Keep clean with twisted paper towels and Everclear, but leave that tacky resin.

 

[ParkitoATL]

I cannot explain exactly why it’s so, but a half century of pie smoking has convinced me that it’s best to take a used pipe down to bare wood, and it never hurts to use alcohol to clean it completely.

Then smoke about three bowls, allllll the way down to the last scrap, until there’s that tacky, resinous sort of a cake but not completely a cake.

Keep clean with twisted paper towels and Everclear, but leave that tacky resin.

I'm glad you shared that. I think I've been a little too fastidious with cleaning in my first couple of months as a pipe smoker. My thought was that off flavors were being caused by TAR so I was really aggressively cleaning with alcohol but it oddly seemed to get worse, probably because I wasn't allowing any cake to develop.

Now I realize I was tasting the bare wood when it got too hot. Fortunately, I know to set it down when the flavors go bad so I haven't torched any bowls.

 

[renfield]

I prefer a thin (dime sized) layer of cake. I ream as required to maintain that. Some of my pipes build cake really quickly, others, very slowly. It’s a mystery.

 

[EvertonFC]

I don't wipe the bowl out ever. She just keeps growing and growing.

So you never clean the bowl? You just tap it out and then refill it?

 

[didimauw]

So you never clean the bowl? You just tap it out and then refill it?

That was for my Grabow year thread. But yes in order to keep the cake that huge that's all I did. These days I just use a folded pipe cleaner inside the chamber, untill it's time to ream.

 

[EvertonFC]

That was for my Grabow year thread. But yes in order to keep the cake that huge that's all I did. These days I just use a folded pipe cleaner inside the chamber, untill it's time to ream.

Interesting. Thanks for the reply.