Ruminations Regarding the Proper Cake

[Briar Lee]

Harry Hosterman and every pamphlet enclosed with every new briar pipe I bought about fifty years ago advised to build a cake the “thickness of a dime” and for years I tried to do that.

For the last thirty or so years I don’t allow cake to build in a pipe and I scrape every used pipe I get down to bare briar.

This is all the carbon I want in a pipe.



It’s a black, oily, tarry residue, not a proper carbon cake.

For me the pipe tastes better with only a black film of tars.

I’m certain a prescribed cake the thickness of a dime protects the bowl from burnout if outside in the wind.

But there is nothing new, under the sun.

Back in the day other pipe smokers besides me had to prefer a whisker thin layer of carbon instead of a thicker cake.

Why was the cake the thickness of a dime so popular years ago?

And I do want just a tiny layer of carbon on the bowl.


What does that thin film of carbon do to increase the enjoyment of a pipe?

If a tiny bit of carbon is good, more cake should be better,,,,but it’s not better for me.

Some things about pipes are mysterious, you know?

 

[El Capitán]

It's a balancing game and a personal preference. Too much cake leaves the smoke with a bitter taste.

 

[didimauw]

When I smoked Carter Hall, I let my cake go wild. Now that I smoke good tobaccos, I keep the cake down...sorta....

 

[Briar Lee]

One thing about cake I know for certain.

Cake traps skunky odors and bad tastes, and you want allllll of it gone from a used pipe.


So then, you start over.

And if a little film of cake is good, why not a thicker cake being better?

I think there’s a point where the cake keeps the ember from reacting with the briar.

We want the briar hot, just not too hot. A tiny bit of carbon protects the briar.

 

[burleybreath]

I get rid of cake when it impedes popping the dottle out when finishing a bowl. Obviously I'm not too fastidious about it, but there was a Frenchman who wrote a book about pipe smoking who would agree with you. Think his name was Georges Herment or something. He used to pry chunks of cake out with a penknife while the bowl was still warm. All that was left was your "black film of tars." He called that the "cake proper," if memory serves. Said it was all you need. This works, but in order to do this you first have to let the cake build up quite a bit. Kind of a paradox thing, in other words. I never really was concerned too much about it, as I like a funky, but not sour, pipe.

[Hark! I sense, as though by ESP, comments about twisted paper towels hovering in the wings.]

 

[burleybreath]

Well, bless my hide, I found the book. 1963. It's been awhile.

Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/pipe-diverting-appurtenances-philosophical-discussion/dp/B0007FM59M/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Georges+Herment&qid=1701061390&sr=8-1

 

[yanoJL]

...

Why was the cake the thickness of a dime so popular years ago?

I have a theory.
Once upon a time, pipes were popular; a regular feature often seen as a companion to men across various demographic groups and social classes. And pipe makers were selling their wares as fast as they could make them. Additionally, for a few of those years, during world wars, material shortages meant demand was hard to meet with the available supply. And we see evidence of this when "American briar" (Manzanita wood) and other hard woods find their way into pipe making shops and become more common.
So, with briar scarce and demand high, I think it's possible that some pipe makers may have rushed the process, skipping aging, boiling, drying, curing of briar in order to satisfy demand. Additionally, inferior burl that otherwise might have been skipped over due to lower quality, would have been used out of necessity.
And these pipes, required some cake to protect the inadequate wood, and potentially mask unpleasant tastes from under-cured or inferior briar.

I think of it like a screen saver on a computer. When CRT monitors were a thing, screen savers were needed to prevent an image from being permanently "burned" into the monitor's screen. Well, monitor technology has changed. And we no longer screen savers. And we might not need dime-thick cake anymore now that quality, properly cured briar is available in sufficient quantities to meet demand.

 

[Briar Lee]

Well, bless my hide, I found the book. 1963. It's been awhile.

Amazon.com - https://www.amazon.com/pipe-diverting-appurtenances-philosophical-discussion/dp/B0007FM59M/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Georges+Herment&qid=1701061390&sr=8-1

One of my other passions (obsessions) is old American market shotguns.

For nearly forty years I’ve kept at first $200 and later $300 tucked away and walked into gun shops and looked for bargains until the Covid sort of shut down the fun of it all.

I discovered something.

If I bought say a beautiful Belgian Browning Round Knob Auto Five Light Twelve with a 30” full choke barrel it wasn’t a good, all around usable gun until I had a gunsmith ream out the choke to what I called an improved cylinder plus, about 12-3 thousands of choke.

Then I discovered a man who’d spent his entire life since he came home from being the point man in an SOG platoon in Southeast Asia and graduated from the Rolla School of Mines building double barrel muzzle loading shotguns from scratch. That, is a gunsmith.

When I told him my discovery, he said his Daddy who was a Campbellite minister and a gunsmith started reaming out chokes to a tight improved cylinder in the late thirties and all his custom 12 gauge muzzle loaders came with that choke in both barrels if the costumer didn’t order otherwise after a warning not to do that.

Put a son of a Yankee cavalryman in a shop long enough and he’ll figure out the best way.

Things aren’t useful unless they are well regulated and maintained.

A shotgun needs a tight improved cylinder.

A pipe needs a thin film of resin.

 

[captpat]

Cake, like many things in life, is best in moderation.

 

[RustiePyles CPG]

My personal preference is a clean, dry, and well maintained cake about 1mm thick. To me they smoke cooler and dryer that way. I do not allow cake to form in my meerschaums though.

 

[Sigmund]

I used to obsess on it and I decided not to worry. First I have too many pipes and none get smoked hard. I typically sip and now use good tobacco. I keep the cake probably under 1mm. If you smoke hard and hot then its probably more critical. I let it build slow. Id rather have a solid carbon cake vs one with bits and pieces of unburnt tobacco. So I wipe out the pipe after a smoke with a piece of cloth or paper towel. I think reaming poses larger risks than doing it this way. Im pretty confident that my pipes will out live me.

If I had a work pipe for they yard and such Id probably let it build a little more but I dont smoke when I work very often.

 

[ThermionicScott]

A dime is pretty thin (not much more than 1mm), and everyone used to have one in their pocket. I suspect that back in the day, talking about dimes was more practical than trying to recommend a measurement to 3 decimal places.

 

[tobakenist]

I have a old Peterson pamphlet that says to build the cake to the thickness of a Farthing (I'm UK), I have never done this either, always scrape out my ash and the sides, I don't think I have .5mm of cake in any of my pipes, I don't see how a really thick cake gives you a better or dryer smoke or protects your pipe more than a thin cake, if you build up a really thick cake it wouldn't matter what your pipe was made from.

 

[K.E. Powell]

I find the risk/reward ratio does not favor building a cake, at least in my humble opinion. Assuming the cake itself is cultivated and maintained it can probably help insulate the pipe. I can even buy into the argument that it can be useful in "seasoning" a pipe similarly to how a iron skillet is seasoned; for those who devote pipes to single genres or even individual blends, such a method may prove useful. But if you build the cake unevenly or too thick, you at least have to confront the fact considerable time is wasted and you will have to start anew. And if you ream the pipe poorly, you risk permanently damaging it.

All that for what? Maybe a cooler and dryer smoke? I cannot help but feel there are other means of reaching that goal that are easier and less risky. That "black film of tars" is sufficient for me. I also will state that most tools work best when they are clean, and I believe that does include pipes. I'm not saying a pipe building cake is always dirty, but it can be somewhat harder to keep such a pipe clean without additional effort. Building cake is a lot of extra work for very little reward.

 

[HRPufnstuf]

I'm curious, along lines of building cake, which tobaccos give better results. I would guess darker tobaccos and aros create more residue, is this the case? Does the same idea also apply to colouring meers?

I change tobaccos in my pipes constantly and have really only developed a focussed interest in colouring recently.

 

[Ben.R.C]

I find the risk/reward ratio does not favor building a cake, at least in my humble opinion. Assuming the cake itself is cultivated and maintained it can probably help insulate the pipe. I can even buy into the argument that it can be useful in "seasoning" a pipe similarly to how a iron skillet is seasoned; for those who devote pipes to single genres or even individual blends, such a method may prove useful. But if you build the cake unevenly or too thick, you at least have to confront the fact considerable time is wasted and you will have to start anew. And if you ream the pipe poorly, you risk permanently damaging it.

All that for what? Maybe a cooler and dryer smoke? I cannot help but feel there are other means of reaching that goal that are easier and less risky. That "black film of tars" is sufficient for me. I also will state that most tools work best when they are clean, and I believe that does include pipes. I'm not saying a pipe building cake is always dirty, but it can be somewhat harder to keep such a pipe clean without additional effort. Building cake is a lot of extra work for very little reward.

The main reason I want to have a little cake is to protect the pipe, I’ve been told by carvers I respect that it’s worth it to have a thin one just for protection.

 

[sablebrush52]

As far as cake is concerned, my preference is for carrot cake, or German chocolate.

 

[ThermionicScott]

I'm curious, along lines of building cake, which tobaccos give better results. I would guess darker tobaccos and aros create more residue, is this the case?

I've been really impressed with Orlik Golden Sliced for building a cake. Perhaps it has extra added sugar, or that bergamot/licorice(?) topping is conducive to building a cake, but I've found myself needing a reamer really quickly when I've been smoking that.

Burley is often recommended for breaking in pipes, and it no doubt burns cooler than Virginias, but it doesn't seem to build a cake very quickly in my experience.

 

[Briar Lee]

Assume that inside the walls of the briar are unseen goodie mojos and evil, bad, shitty tasting mojos and there is this struggle over the soul, of your pipe.

The bad mojos are tannins. They hate heat, and run away from it.

The good mojos are why we all smoke briar instead of tulip wood. They just are there, goodie mojos, and they help us enjoy our tobacco.

Now for the doubters and agnostics about good and bad mojos in briar, go smoke a brand new cheap pipe.

The bad mojos attack your tobacco, don’t they?

But after maybe a half dozen smokes the bad mojos get driven away and the good mojos help your tobacco taste better.

But if you build a big, thick cake, the goodie mojos can’t help it any more.

And the cooler walls mean the bad mojos are not being driven to the surface, where they make a reddish stain on a good pipe, like this.

 

[TN Jed]

German chocolate

I second German Chocolate. My favorite of all cakes.