Pipe Doesn't Break In

[Butter Side Down]

Anybody else ever had a pipe that was stubbornly resistant to break-in?

Anything you did that helped?

I've got one that's giving me fits. Everything has a slight bitter undertaste. I guess that's not unheard of for naked virgin briar, but it's going on a lot longer than it should. Also nothing I smoke in it has the range of flavor that I get in other pipes.

 

[sablebrush52]

Pipes are inanimate objects, so they have no wants. That said, it's possible that your pipe was made from a bad piece of briar, It's not common, though it does happen.
Some pipes just take longer to break in. The common practice used to be to use a good burley blend, like Carter Hall, to break in a pipe, but that's no longer the rule. Generally you just slow smoking full bowls until the walls get a covering of carbon and stop tasting of burned wood.
Make sure that the airway is clean and keep it clean throughout the process.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Just don't take it personally...

How many smokes, and of what? What's the brand and style?

 

[blackpowderpiper]

Yes. My solution was to smoke it 100 times. It eventually came around and is now a sweet smoking pipe.

 

[Doctor Chopper]

Take it as a challenge. Smoke it, cake it, punish it into submission. Master the pipe, don't you dare let it beat you!

 

[OfPipesandBlends]

I didn’t believe in this problem until I bought a lovat that always tastes bitter. I‘ve smoked it about 10-12 times and it still tastes like ashy dirt. I’m hoping it eventually “breaks in” but we’ll see.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Immediately after smoking flush the chamber and stem with very hot water. Do it a couple of times; it should help.

 

[didimauw]

Anybody else ever had a pipe that was stubbornly resistant to break-in?

Anything you did that helped?

I've got one that's giving me fits. Everything has a slight bitter undertaste. I guess that's not unheard of for naked virgin briar, but it's going on a lot longer than it should. Also nothing I smoke in it has the range of flavor that I get in other pipes.

Yes, a Brylon pipe. I ended up almost biting a hole through the stem, and still never broke that pipe in. Never built "any" cake, none, 0%. Completely smooth unsmoked chamber. Never again.

 

[jpmcwjr]

Same here with "The Pipe" It never developed. It was cold, as in no heart. I accidentally lost it, though I suspect my subconscious engineered it.

 

[captpat]

Break in, what is this that you speak of? Don't subscribe to the idea really, years ago I did the "break in" dance, you know smoke in thirds up from the bottom, never could tell a difference. Nowadays I just fill the bowl up and it'll build cake in its own time. As a personal preference, I don't like much cake, keeping it thin in all of my pipes.

 

[Merton]

I have always found that the break in period with uncoated bowls, especially Castello and Radice, to be incredibly enjoyable,. Sorry you are having this problem.

 

[AJL67]

Same here with "The Pipe" It never developed. It was cold, as in no heart. I accidentally lost it, though I suspect my subconscious engineered it.

Yes those boiler room furnaces can be tricky and many items lost there!

 

[tklee]

Pipes are like girl friends. You need to talk to her, caress her, hug her, kiss her, listen to her (attentively)..... then slowly, she'll open up everything for you

 

[Butter Side Down]

I didn’t believe in this problem until I bought a lovat that always tastes bitter. I‘ve smoked it about 10-12 times and it still tastes like ashy dirt. I’m hoping it eventually “breaks in” but we’ll see.

Yeah, this sounds like the exact same phenomenon I'm getting.

Since it sounds like persistence is key here, I think I'm going to try only smoking Dark Birdseye in the pipe for a while. The shag cut makes the bowls go pretty fast (maybe 20 minutes where a normal VA takes an hour). That might help. Maybe it'll be easier to work up the enthusiasm to wrestle the pipe into submission if I know I'm only going to have to spend 15-20 minutes at a time rather than an hour.

 

[verporchting]

I had an Algerian briar that I really liked the shape and texture of, from a brand I liked but … it was absolutely flat in taste. Regardless of what tobacco blend or cut, packing method, etc. The pipe was just blah. Not bitter or foul just like smoking hot air. I built cake, reamed it out several times, tried to convince myself it would break in eventually. Nothing worked. It’s gone now and I only miss the visual aspect because it really was a neat looking pipe but life’s too short. Wish I’d sent that one packing years before I finally did. Lesson learned.

 

[Peterson314]

I didn’t believe in this problem until I bought a lovat that always tastes bitter. I‘ve smoked it about 10-12 times and it still tastes like ashy dirt. I’m hoping it eventually “breaks in” but we’ll see.

After 20 years of no problems, I had this happen in a Comoy. I cleaned it with water, then Everclear, then I let a cotton ball soaked with alcohol sit in the bowl overnight. I had high expectations because the cotton ball looked like it got some nastiness, but it was still sour.

I finally got rid of the funk thanks to Greg Pease. I filled the bowl with activated charcoal, put my oven on 185, and let the briar sit in it for 6 hours. I did this while my wife was out of the house because I thought it might reek up the place, but it didn't smell at all. It's now a very nice pipe.

Sourness could come from the briar itself if the cutter didn't boil the new briar. In that case, heat cycles are the only option for saving the pipe. I'd accelerate using the oven.

 

[kcghost]

For some reason I have never had any problem with breaking in a pipe.

 

[bullet08]

Try kicking it? Seems to work with most electronic devices.

 

[Butter Side Down]

The common practice used to be to use a good burley blend, like Carter Hall

Thanks, for mentioning this, sablebrush52. Don't have any Carter Hall though. Dark birdseye is about the only thing I have that more or less fits the "good burley blend" description so I decided to give that a try.

Just had the first smoke with that in the pipe and it was definitely a more pleasant experience. There's a little bit of a bitterness from the dark-fired naturally, and it's got a good strong flavor on it's own, so it did wonders to mask the bitter background note I have been getting from the pipe. Smoking it is definitely tolerable, so I'm going to stick with that for a few weeks and see how it goes.

If it hasn't fixed it, I may try the Pease activated charcoal bake Peterson314 recommended, but I'm hoping it won't come to that.

 

[denholrl]

Anybody else ever had a pipe that was stubbornly resistant to break-in?

Anything you did that helped?

I've got one that's giving me fits. Everything has a slight bitter undertaste. I guess that's not unheard of for naked virgin briar, but it's going on a lot longer than it should. Also nothing I smoke in it has the range of flavor that I get in other pipes.

I think your stubborn pipe needed more curing to completely remove the bitterness. Don't give up on it. I had a Mark Tinsky and a Mastro that each took over a year to break in. It was worth the time and effort as they both turned out to be excellent smokers.