Only filling the bowl 1/4

[Lianza]

Hello pipe smokers!

My wife smokes cigarettes (I’m trying to convert her, haha) and I like to smoke my pipe when she steps out for a smoke.

It takes under 10 minutes for her cigarette, so I will generally pack a tiny bowl about 1/4 the bowls size (most my pipes are KS). Just a quick little smoke.

I was wondering if doing this can damage the pipe or briar long-term?
Should I smoke a full bowl in between the small ones? Is it bad to only have less than half the bowl burning most the time?

Thanks in advance,
Lianza

 

[Chasing Embers]

I was wondering if doing this can damage the pipe or briar long-term?

Not one bit.

My wife smokes pipes and has her own cellar. Get yours a tin of Haunted Bookshop or Doblone d'Oro and you may have a chance of converting her.

 

[STP]

… or you could pack a full bowl and only smoke it for 10 minutes, then come back to it later. Either way, it’s not going to damage the pipe or briar?

 

[Aomalley27]

Or you could buy a smaller pipe. I’ve bowl sizes that range from 2hr smoke, down to a tiny Pete, that’ll last me 8 minutes

 

[Aomalley27]

This little guy lasts me 8 minutes.

 

[Aomalley27]

I get about 1 1/2 hr smoke out of this guy

 

[Briar Lee]

Hello pipe smokers!

My wife smokes cigarettes (I’m trying to convert her, haha) and I like to smoke my pipe when she steps out for a smoke.

It takes under 10 minutes for her cigarette, so I will generally pack a tiny bowl about 1/4 the bowls size (most my pipes are KS). Just a quick little smoke.

I was wondering if doing this can damage the pipe or briar long-term?
Should I smoke a full bowl in between the small ones? Is it bad to only have less than half the bowl burning most the time?

Thanks in advance,
Lianza

I think your wife is doing you a great and good favor, smoking only the last quarter of the bowl.

I’ve lost all count of used briar pipes I’ve bought from eBay, and the majority have never been smoked all the way to the bottom.

I try then to break those pipes in, by smoking them down all the way. For oil cured Lee pipes this is not unpleasant, but for most briars it is a chore, as most briar (that’s not been oil cured) tastes bitter until it’s broken in.

The very worst she can do, is build up a cake in the bottom you can ream out any time you like.

I can’t prove it, but I believe a briar pipe will smoke better, even the first three quarters of the bowl, if the entire chamber has been cured by the heat of the burning tobacco all the way to the very bottom of the bowl.

This is not so much from the forming of any carbon cake, but instead the heat curing out the bitter tannins and sap inside the briar.

As an argument, we’ve all tasted the “ghost” of previous tobaccos smoked in our pipes, haven’t we?

Won’t then an unsmoked final quarter of a bowl impart bitter “new briar” flavor to the smoke until you cure the briar entirely?

 

[mortonbriar]

View attachment 113543
This little guy lasts me 8 minutes.

Hey what is the model number on that tiny thing? So cute! Its like the 'little rascal' of the pipe rack.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

I'd suggest you to consider having a Dunhill group 1 size small Chambered pipe and some strong shag like cut tobacco

 

[JKoD]

Hello pipe smokers!

My wife smokes cigarettes (I’m trying to convert her, haha) and I like to smoke my pipe when she steps out for a smoke.

It takes under 10 minutes for her cigarette, so I will generally pack a tiny bowl about 1/4 the bowls size (most my pipes are KS). Just a quick little smoke.

I was wondering if doing this can damage the pipe or briar long-term?
Should I smoke a full bowl in between the small ones? Is it bad to only have less than half the bowl burning most the time?

Thanks in advance,
Lianza

Honestly, convincing your wife to stop smoking cigarettes is far more important than what a 1/4 pipe will do to your pipe. You can replace a pipe - you can’t replace your wife.

The day you don’t want is the incidental find of lung masses. It’s hard. It’s incredibly hard…. It won’t happen to you until it does. Arguing over her quitting today is far easier than what follows. The waiting…the news…the devastation. Don’t. Smoke. Cigarettes.

 

[Aomalley27]

Hey what is the model number on that tiny thing? So cute! Its like the 'little rascal' of the pipe rack.

No numeric delegation. It’s called a Belgique. It’s like a shorter 124.

 

[Steddy]

Hey what is the model number on that tiny thing? So cute! Its like the 'little rascal' of the pipe rack.

Peterson Belgique. I’ve got one and love it for a quick smoke. Good recommendation on smoking a strong shag cut out of it, Kendal dark does the trick quick.