It has to be reamed from time to time; otherwise the thick cake will one day expand from heat while smoking to crack the bowl.
Oversmoking a Pipe
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Good to know, I don't think I've heard that the cake itself could destroy a bowl before.
Maybe that's part of where Bulldog shape gets it's name. Stubborn pipes.
Maybe that's part of where Bulldog shape gets it's name. Stubborn pipes.
I'll smoke the same pipe multiple times per day, I know there are plenty of people who say you shouldn't, but in my experience they're wrong. I run a couple of cleaners through it after smoking and make sure it is completely cool before using it again, but those are the only 'precautions' I take.
After every smoke I wipe the bowl with a paper towel before it cools. I have been doing this for maybe 20 years. I don't like cake, all I want is a very thin layer. Half a dime thickness?, a quarter of a dime thickness? I ream about once every ten years and I suspect that's because I get lazy wiping the bowl.
When I first picked up a pipe in '92/'93 I only had 1 cob and smoked the hell out of it with RYO tobaccos for about a year--it was fine
When I seriously got into pipe smoking about 15 years ago, I had 2 briars and a rarely smoked meer. I smoked those briars 3-4 times a day - rested for a day while I smoked the other - then rinse and repeat. One of them did start smoking sour after a few months of this treatment, but all after following an old pipe shop guy's advice and scraping, cleaning with alcohol and resting it for a week---it was back in business smoking as sweet as ever. I take much better care of my pipes now, with a much larger rotation, but I also try to remember that during the times I'm less fussy, the pipe will be fine
My experience only, but I think sometimes we make life to difficult on ourselves - the pipe will be fine
When I seriously got into pipe smoking about 15 years ago, I had 2 briars and a rarely smoked meer. I smoked those briars 3-4 times a day - rested for a day while I smoked the other - then rinse and repeat. One of them did start smoking sour after a few months of this treatment, but all after following an old pipe shop guy's advice and scraping, cleaning with alcohol and resting it for a week---it was back in business smoking as sweet as ever. I take much better care of my pipes now, with a much larger rotation, but I also try to remember that during the times I'm less fussy, the pipe will be fine
My experience only, but I think sometimes we make life to difficult on ourselves - the pipe will be fine
My grandfather owned one pipe, he cleaned it with his pocket knife.
He also rolled his own using Prince Albert, the only tobacco he ever bought for either.
That pipe lasted him as long as I knew him. I was about 30 when he passed.
If anyone had told him he needed more pipes so he could "rest" them between smokes, he would
have thought you crazy. Of course the idea of collecting pipes would have seemed unimaginable
to him.
I am not sold on this resting notion myself and don't practice it. But I don't get a chance to
smoke enough that it would matter. When a pipe makes my fancy it may be the only one I use for
a month or more, until another catches my eye. Most of the time I return to one of my past favorites.
So I guess I do rotate but on a much longer time frame.
Hobby folks and addicts have different objectives. I am not the latter so...
He also rolled his own using Prince Albert, the only tobacco he ever bought for either.
That pipe lasted him as long as I knew him. I was about 30 when he passed.
If anyone had told him he needed more pipes so he could "rest" them between smokes, he would
have thought you crazy. Of course the idea of collecting pipes would have seemed unimaginable
to him.
I am not sold on this resting notion myself and don't practice it. But I don't get a chance to
smoke enough that it would matter. When a pipe makes my fancy it may be the only one I use for
a month or more, until another catches my eye. Most of the time I return to one of my past favorites.
So I guess I do rotate but on a much longer time frame.
Hobby folks and addicts have different objectives. I am not the latter so...
I have a single pipe at the office, an old small no-name basket billiard with a bunch of fills. I stuff in a coin of DNR in the morning and throughout the day I step outside and light it up for few puffs every few hours. Empty it before I leave, it's fine by the next morning. If a piece of crap pipe like that can take it, a decent one should be able to. That said I have so many pipes at home I rarely smoke the same one more than once a week or longer. Except for the meers of course, those are good to go more or less continuously.
And back in the day, a lot of codgers I knew only owned one pipe and smoked it incessantly. But they smoked 79 and PA and CH and the like, so I doubt they would've known if the pipe was foul.
And back in the day, a lot of codgers I knew only owned one pipe and smoked it incessantly. But they smoked 79 and PA and CH and the like, so I doubt they would've known if the pipe was foul.
How someone could be literally smoking briarwood in place of tobacco leaf and not notice is beyond me.
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