Pipes that are sour-resistant: a quality of briar to judge?

[Red Leader]

Do some pipes just never really need to be cleaned? And other need to be cleaned after every use to keep from going bitter/sour?



I was thinking about this the other day as I had a few different pipes in the rotation, one after the other, on the same day.

For sure, the quality of the briar comes into play regarding the quality of smoke. But something else came to mind.

I would hear of people who never clean their pipes, or smoke a pipe so often and unrelentingly that they would plum use it up, and move on to the next pipe. Never cleaned.

I recently ran out of pipe cleaners, so I've been giving double duty to several of my pipes without cleaning them much at all. From what I can tell, it seems that some pipes seem to taste better (or allow the tobacco to) for much longer, bowl after bowl, and other pipes tend to 'get sour' much quicker. Is this all in my mind? Is it a matter of break-in? Breaking in a pipe seems like such a voodoo topic, with as many opinions as people who have them.

I have a Nording pipe, actually my first pipe, purchased back in 2004 new. I've smoked it probably 25-50 times, and never really gotten away from having the pipe sour up most times on the 1/2 half of finishing smoking a bowl. Other pipes, it seems, I can grab and no matter what, know that I'm getting a great smoke.

Is 'taste resiliency' a thing you judge with a pipe? I tend to think that the longer a pipe can be used without *needing* to be cleaned, the better the quality of pipe. But I don't know if expectations are out of line on this, either. Has anyone else made any observations on this front? I have a few that I have to watch - if I don't clean them frequently, I can be assured of a nasty smoke half way through. Other pipes just seem to shrug off the notion and don't care one bit.

Thoughts?

 

[hoosierpipeguy]

Never experienced any pipe that didn't require cleaning. Even the highest quality briar doesn't have a built in cleansing system.

 

[bullet08]

No. Just clean those pipes.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Do some pipes just never really need to be cleaned?

No

For sure, the quality of the briar comes into play regarding the quality of smoke.

Not really, that's more up to the smoker. A pipe is just a straw.

I would hear of people who never clean their pipes, or smoke a pipe so often and unrelentingly that they would plum use it up, and move on to the next pipe. Never cleaned.

Mainly decades ago when one pipe at a time was all the smoker could afford.

Breaking in a pipe seems like such a voodoo topic, with as many opinions as people who have them.

Not really, just fill the pipe and smoke the new out.

Is 'taste resiliency' a thing you judge with a pipe?

No

I tend to think that the longer a pipe can be used without *needing* to be cleaned, the better the quality of pipe.

I smoke mine multiple times per day often for weeks at a time before switching to a new pipe but I disassemble and clean them after every smoke.

 

[HawkeyeLinus]

I tend to think that the longer a pipe can be used without *needing* to be cleaned, the better the quality of pipe.

Why would you think that?

 

[OzPiper]

All pipes need to be cleaned otherwise they will sour.
It's not the bowl but rather the airway and mortise that is the problem.

Pipe cleaners are the cheapest thing other than matches for a pipe smoker.
Use them with abandon.

 

[Chasing Embers]

Pipe cleaners are the cheapest thing other than matches for a pipe smoker.

Cotton swabs are as well.

 

[Briar Tuck]

All pipes need to be cleaned otherwise they will sour.
It's not the bowl but rather the airway and mortise that is the problem.

Having reconditioned several estate pipes now I definitely agree with that assessment. The shank seems to be where the worst of the nastiness collects. I had one estate pipe recently where the bowl itself was fairly clean and unremarkable, but the shank took dozens of cotton swabs and pipe cleaners to get all the built up tars removed. I couldn't believe how much was in there. Smoking that without cleaning it would have been unpleasant, no doubt.

 

[Searock Fan]

There's a simple test.... If you can't stick a toothpick in the bowl it's time to clean the pipe.

 

[didimauw]

I haven't had a pipe that didn't need cleaning. I have gone way past the point where they needed to be cleaned before. When I discovered the water flush was a game changer. I always use pipe cleaners after the water flush, but honestly if you run out of pipe cleaners, you could get away without for a short time.

 

[Coreios]

No, they need to be cleaned.

 

[Briar Lee]

Do some pipes just never really need to be cleaned? And other need to be cleaned after every use to keep from going bitter/sour?



I was thinking about this the other day as I had a few different pipes in the rotation, one after the other, on the same day.

For sure, the quality of the briar comes into play regarding the quality of smoke. But something else came to mind.

I would hear of people who never clean their pipes, or smoke a pipe so often and unrelentingly that they would plum use it up, and move on to the next pipe. Never cleaned.

I recently ran out of pipe cleaners, so I've been giving double duty to several of my pipes without cleaning them much at all. From what I can tell, it seems that some pipes seem to taste better (or allow the tobacco to) for much longer, bowl after bowl, and other pipes tend to 'get sour' much quicker. Is this all in my mind? Is it a matter of break-in? Breaking in a pipe seems like such a voodoo topic, with as many opinions as people who have them.

I have a Nording pipe, actually my first pipe, purchased back in 2004 new. I've smoked it probably 25-50 times, and never really gotten away from having the pipe sour up most times on the 1/2 half of finishing smoking a bowl. Other pipes, it seems, I can grab and no matter what, know that I'm getting a great smoke.

Is 'taste resiliency' a thing you judge with a pipe? I tend to think that the longer a pipe can be used without *needing* to be cleaned, the better the quality of pipe. But I don't know if expectations are out of line on this, either. Has anyone else made any observations on this front? I have a few that I have to watch - if I don't clean them frequently, I can be assured of a nasty smoke half way through. Other pipes just seem to shrug off the notion and don't care one bit.

Thoughts?

My thoughts are your Nording was made from “young” briar and never has been fully cured. As much as I love large Danish freehands, I’ve lived to learn breaking in a Danish pipe is likely going to be a chore.

The smoking quality of a pipe, I believe depends mostly on how well cured the briar was (tannins in raw briar must be exorcised), and then the briar should be very tightly grained, and the pipe should be well constructed.

I’m smoking a very well used bent pipe only marked DH2 that has intensely close grained briar, and I removed a cake about the thickness of a dime from it.

It’s a delicious smoker,,,,except for the last little bit down by the air hole, where the sour taste of briar sneaks in.

I’ll smoke this pipe down to the very bottom so many times, I can no longer taste sour briar.

It may take a dozen or two or four dozen smokes,,,but likely only about a dozen.

It’s not cake that breaks in a briar, it’s heat. Of that, I’m completely convinced.

 

[Red Leader]

I appreciate everyone's thoughts. And just to clarify, I don't believe that pipes shouldn't be cleaned or anything like that, I just noticed that some pipes seemed to sour/get bitter a little more quickly than others. I have pipes that I've cleaned around the same time and then had smoked about equally, and some just hold on to that cleanly taste longer than others. Just seeing what others' experiences are as well.

Like @OzPiper and @Briar Tuck have mentioned I have noticed too that the airway being mucked up directly correlates to the taste, I would 3rd that statement.

@Briar Lee I do also appreciate your thoughts about the curing of the briar. I probably does have something to do with that as well, since my Nording has always had that taste and hasn't yet lost it, so I know that it is not just a cleanliness thing. My hope is that w/ enough time and bowls I can get through that initial burn in / curing, if such a pre/post state does exist.

 

[Grangerous]

In my experience, and I do water rinse my briars. I’ve found that I can get far more sweet smokes out of any cob than any briar. — I don’t know why that is, but I’ll venture to guess that the draw is quite open on cobs. They are also resilient to frequent smoking. Honestly, it may be a superior smoking material, even though most won’t want to hear such “heresy.”

I can get lazy, waiting to water rinse a half dozen briars a once. The best smokes always result with fresh and clean pipes. I also rinse my cobs. Water does them no harm. Clean is clean.

 

[PipeIT]

The size of the pipe, and how you smoke them will determine how bad they need to be cleaned, not the quality of the briar.

Pipes will sour differently based on sizes and shapes, and also how you smoke them.

Some pipes needed to be smoked differently...

If it’s a small pipe as an example, and you smoke it hot and fast, it’s going to build more moisture and goop in it, then if you smoked a bigger pipe slower and cooler.

If you own nice pipes, you always want to clean them after smoking, and possibly running a cleaner or two through them while smoking.

Even though the Nording probably had a coating in the chamber, 20-50 times isn’t a lot of break in time. Coated chambers still need to develop at least a 1mm carbon layer, and I do mean thin, not a thick cake.

Dry your tobacco drier then you usually dry it, then sip it very slowly in the Nording, don’t worry about keeping it lit. Let the tobacco go out, and then let the pipe cool all the way down, and the relight and smoke it again. Smoke it this way, until you see a thin black sticky layer of carbon, again, about 1mm. Let us know then, how it smokes.