Resting Period

[mrhowrd]

A customer of mine just sent me 7oz of his private blend he makes for his shop every year. This tobacco smells so delicious I want to light a bowl right now but it was intended to be smoked with my father tomorrow morning (over Thanksgiving). I believe I read that your pipe needs to rest a day between uses so to not burn it out, what exactly does a day mean? I've come to the conclusion a day could mean 24 hours or a day of rest could literally mean that if you smoke your pipe on Monday, it should rest all of Tuesday, and not be smoked until Wednesday.
Although I believe I will be smoking a pipe for many years to come, I only have one pipe at the moment and would like to wait until after the holidays before investing in more pipes.
Any clarification would be greatly appreciated!
Thank you in advance.

 

[corvo450]

Great question. I'm wondering this myself as I am a newb to pipes also.

 

[billypm]

No need to sweat it so much. A briar pipe may be smoked multiple times in a row without any lasting ill effects. When breaking in a pipe I might smoke it 3 or 4 times each day for 3 or 4 days. After which I will let it rest and dry out for a good long while. A briar that is smoked hard for weeks on end will run a very real risk of souring, but I don't believe a 2nd or even a 3rd bowl in one day, every once in a while, will do any damage in the least.
I'm positive there are those who will disagree, but those are my 2cents. Worth almost that much...

 

[mrhowrd]

Thank you for the info! I guess it's about time to fire up a bowl!
Cheers

 

[dryseason91]

Light up now, have another bowl tomorrow, maybe let it sit for a day, and it should be fine.

 

[sfsteves]

smoke it today, but after the pipe cools, clean it well ... it should be in fine shape for a smoke tomorrow ...

 

[cmdrmcbragg]

I let my pipes rest just because I can. You're not going to do any damage if you light it up a few times during the day or even the next day. Some pipe makers utilize a machine that will smoke a pipe continuously to build up a cake and break it in for the customer. I have a couple pipes that I use frequently and I might smoke one of them throughout the entire day and maybe even the next. But I do give them a day or days off just to be nice.

 

[pstlpkr]

I have to second billypm's statement.

His is almost exactly my opinion on the resting of your pipes.

However; I'm notorious for smoking the same pipe for a week...

The pipe will let you know when it's time to rest..

As for me... tomorrow sometime after dinner...

 

[craig94yj]

I clean my briar pipes right after smoking them. It has become a ritual. I will pack a bowl in another pipe so it is ready to go and then clean the one I just smoked while smoking the next. I let it cool before I clean the just smoked one, but I don't wait too long. You can always get yourself a cheap MM corn cob from the pharmacy to smoke in between your briar bowls. I have no problem running a cleaner through a corn cob and re-packing it again right away. If you are using a slow enough cadence your pipe won't get to hot anyway, so I wouldn't worry about burn out.

 

[craig94yj]

PS. Corn cobs are great for sampling new tobaccos.

 

[wilson]

The primary point of resting a pipe, as far as I know, is to let it dry out -- not to prevent the pipe from burning out. I usually let a pipe rest a day (or more) between smokes. But, on occasion, I've had a couple of bowls in a row from the same pipe with no harm done. Go ahead and have a smoke. Your pipe won't explode or disintegrate. The pipe police have bigger things to worry about.
However, since you have but one pipe, you should go out and get a few cobs so you have something to smoke when you give your briar a break.

 

[juddeern]

well if you want some hard numbers that no one will agree with... how about... 12 hours per smoke... so if I per say smoke 3 slowly puffed bowls in a row I would let my pipe rest for 36 hours before lighting it up again.
I pulled this number out of my arse and feel free to ignore but it's a conservative estimate on how long and how much drying out and saturation from smoking is involved.
Generally speaking a Day is I smoked on monday I'll let my pipe rest on Tuesday and smoke it again on Wed generally speaking but as with all things some one may disagree.
Now I want to point one tiny fact out though my pipes are constantly going out and it may be 30 minutes to an hour before I relight them mostly because I haven't realized they went out as the act of the pipe clenched in my teeth is almost as good as smoking them.

 

[mso489]

A few MM cob pipes will give you all the rotation you need for your briar pipe. As is often mentioned, you can get

a bag of ten smokeable cob seconds for thirty bucks. Most pipers like to rest a pipe a day before smoking it again.

It dries it out after a good cleaning. (Scoop it out, blow it out, wipe out the bowl, and run a pipe cleaner through it.

Polish it a little.) Clean the cob pipes too. My dad used to chain smoke his pipes, only using one at a time. They

lasted more than year and only dried over night. Granger was his only tobacco. But I do like to give my pipes a

nice rest, a few days or a week if possible. I have accumulated enough to make that easily possible.

 

[kashmir]

I usually will smoke a given pipe two or three times in a row, passing a dry cleaner between each smoke. At the end of the final smoke, when I'm ready to switch pipes, I'll take a clean pipe cleaner, dip one end into a small bottle of isopropanol or rubbing alcohol. I then pass this through the stem. Take it out, and dip the other end in alcohol. Pass it through again. Then I'll fold same pipe cleaner in two and swab the bowl. Lastly I may pass an additional dry pipe cleaner through, before racking. The use of alcohol expiditrs the pipes drying process significantly. Also, using this method of "clean as you go", you'll never be faced with a major cleaning chore. My pipes are always clean using this method.
In other words, how long you choose to rest a pipe is a FUNCTION of how clean it is when the rack it.
The cleaner the pipe the shorter the rest.
The use of alcohol expedites the pipe's drying process.

 

[joeval]

Although I own two pipes, I only really smoke one. I tend to smoke a bowl in the evening, and let it rest until the next evening. Occasionally, it'll get a longer rest if I don't fancy a smoke one day.
Bar that, I always run a cleaner through it and run a paper towel round the bowl to clean it after I've finished.

 

[ravkesef]

Believe me-- there is nothing second rate about a Missouri Meerschaum corn cob pipe. They are inexpensive, but provide a first rate smoke. Do yourself a favor and pick up one or two at the drugstore so that you'll be able to rotate your pipes. You won't look like a hillbilly--I have two doctorates and I smoke my pipes (including my corncobs) publicly and proudly.

 

[warren]

I might put 4 or five smokes through a briar when out all day shooting or working around the grounds. That pipe will rest until the next Sunday, although I'm sure it would survive nicely if I only gave it a day of rest. Sunday evenings is when I clean all of the pipes smoked during the week. That's for the briars. The briars do get a ream after each bowl.
The meers get treated quite badly as they are tougher than the briars when it comes to over use. I'll smoke one, two or three bowls in the evening, possibly two or three evenings in a row with the same pipe. They get a ream and a wipe after every bowl. It's hard to over smoke a meer with minimal cleaning.

 

[kashmir]

I should add to my post above, about the routine use of alcohol, as a means of expediting the drying process, the following: Ever Clear, a high proof grain alcohol, is what I usually use. It's ethanol. I like this one thr best. However, isopropanol or rubbing alcohol is an equal substitute, even though its not ethanol and is not potable, many pipers use this type. Either alcohol evaporates very quickly and promotes drying, thereby shortening the resting time for a pipe.

 

[simnettpratt]

Not sure I'd call Everclear potable, at least not after that one time back in college

 

[kashmir]

LOL sim. Just don't use Methanol. That one's a poison!