Shiny or not?
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I have seen many posts where everyone overwhelmingly suggests removing any lacquered surfaces. But, many sandblasted and rusticated surfaces have lacquer.
But, I think that to suggest removing any surface because of an overwhelming over-generalization may be wrong.
Does it smoke too hot? Do you just not like the shiny surface?
If so, do what you must. If not, then why bother?
I have a couple of bulldogs with a shiny Lacquered surface. Neither smoke hot, and I really like the way they've held up over the years.
But, I think that to suggest removing any surface because of an overwhelming over-generalization may be wrong.
Does it smoke too hot? Do you just not like the shiny surface?
If so, do what you must. If not, then why bother?
I have a couple of bulldogs with a shiny Lacquered surface. Neither smoke hot, and I really like the way they've held up over the years.
Eight or so years ago, I had a Ben Wade blast, a straight billiard panel, a love-at-first sight purchase. But it was so heavily lacquered it didn't show any wear or patina, and eventually looked rather plastic to me. It had many virtues, but I finally traded it away. On the other hand, I have several pipes with "solid" lacquer finishes that I accept and enjoy. These are smooth pipes. They don't feel like they would breath as well as unfinished or matte finished pipes, but they smoke well. I know how you feel; some high gloss finishes just feel synthetic. I'd smoke it for a while to see if it earns its way into your esteem, and maybe eventually sand it down. What you find underneath may be beautiful, or you may wish you'd left it alone, but that's the gamble.
Well, I really don't like apps to begin with. I don't understand why if there's a website and a mobile website why I need the app for said websites in order to get the best experience. And there was a time, in the late 90s and early 2000s, that ibfealt if something could be done on on a computer, this was before smart phones, it should be done that way. Why waste paper and ink when I can do it electronically and have it forever more or less. However now I've do e a 180 and feel if it can be done without a computer or smart phone then why not go old school. And I realise that this is somewhat of a trend but I'm not trying to fit a description, just doing what feels right.
Also pipe smoking goes very well I think with nice paper and fountain pens. Pens and pipes make a nice duo.
Now if in had to use a smart phone for my notes I would just use a note pad app. And as was said there's established review sites that meet most smokers needs.
I suggest that if you want to make a successful app do the same thing but for cigars. You'd have a bigger pool of people that are also more pro tech.
Also pipe smoking goes very well I think with nice paper and fountain pens. Pens and pipes make a nice duo.
Now if in had to use a smart phone for my notes I would just use a note pad app. And as was said there's established review sites that meet most smokers needs.
I suggest that if you want to make a successful app do the same thing but for cigars. You'd have a bigger pool of people that are also more pro tech.
Pipes don't breathe. They're dead. If you don't like the lacquered finish then remove it. It's your pipe. I have a Nording with that bright lacquered finish and it smokes just fine, always cool.
Am I the only one that sees dead pipes breathing? By breath I think what is meant is like diffusion or osmosis, that which colors a meerschaum happens with briar but to a much lesser degree. The heat issue it is my belief that the laquer is a bit of an insulater and interfere with the briar ability to conduct heat to the air. It already is not a very good conductor so the laquer I believe farther impedes it but it also depends what type of laquer. Maybe Japanese laquer which is made from plant material is not so stifling. And mb there's water and oil based laquers, that part I'm not sure of. Maybe there's a laquer officianado lurking, I'm a fan of matte finished things mostly.
I prefer no varnish or heavy shellac, but also believe it makes no difference to the smokability of a pipe, as Jesse notes.
Meerschaum is a very different material.
Meerschaum is a very different material.
Eggroll, we've had the experts come on here and using science that would make for a great PBS morning show, prove undeniably, with no statistics, reliability, nor validity that briar does not breath at all. They cut a pipe in half. Just one. Which proved that someone was willing to prove this point so much that they were willing to sacrifice one pipe. It's true. :
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I was just going by what others that seem to know what they're talking about said in the forums previously.
My point though was that breathing was not the issue for a shiny pipe smoking hot but is in fact the extra layer of insulation.
I had a hot smoking lacquered pipe that had been bubbling up so I sanded it and it smoked cooler now. So it seems that's the only possible explanation. And dont tell me it's placebo effect cuz it not.
My point though was that breathing was not the issue for a shiny pipe smoking hot but is in fact the extra layer of insulation.
I had a hot smoking lacquered pipe that had been bubbling up so I sanded it and it smoked cooler now. So it seems that's the only possible explanation. And dont tell me it's placebo effect cuz it not.
In the 2018 Pipe Carving and Finishing class held at the Chicagoland Pipe and Tobacciana Show, Jeff Gracik emphatically stated that the finish has no impact on how the pipe smokes. He pointed to examples of well used pipes that had been sliced in half and showed only minuscule penetration of tars in the briar.
I agree with Sablebrush. If you don’t like the finish, remove it and finish it as you like. When I refinish a pipe, I generate apply a well diluted layer of shellac over the stain, buff, then wax.
I agree with Sablebrush. If you don’t like the finish, remove it and finish it as you like. When I refinish a pipe, I generate apply a well diluted layer of shellac over the stain, buff, then wax.
Tend to agree that the finish is not really going to affect how a pipe smokes..... but.... there is positive outward vapor pressure when you smoke a pipe. The briar contains moisture unless your ambient humidity is zero. It's not, therefore the briar contains moisture.
So for example, when you drill a "dry" block, you see lots of moisture pour out of it, from the heat of the process... I've posted this pic before:
You can see a dark "wet" ring at the top of the bowl here as the moisture boils out. This is a dry block, old, and in a low humidity environment. Still contains moisture.
My contention is that when you smoke a pipe and heat it up, moisture in the block will try to migrate out. This is in fact what blisters the finish (when they do bubble up). Does it change how a pipe smokes? I dunno. Doubt it, really. But I'll say that a pipe "breathes" in this fashion - a transference of moisture dependent on humidity and temperature.
So for example, when you drill a "dry" block, you see lots of moisture pour out of it, from the heat of the process... I've posted this pic before:
You can see a dark "wet" ring at the top of the bowl here as the moisture boils out. This is a dry block, old, and in a low humidity environment. Still contains moisture.
My contention is that when you smoke a pipe and heat it up, moisture in the block will try to migrate out. This is in fact what blisters the finish (when they do bubble up). Does it change how a pipe smokes? I dunno. Doubt it, really. But I'll say that a pipe "breathes" in this fashion - a transference of moisture dependent on humidity and temperature.
Cosmic yes I thought somehow you were being both sarcastic and for real about it.
Anyway like I said the penetration or lack thereof is not the issue for hot smoking shiny pipes.. it doesn't affect how it smokes air flow wise it affects how hot it gets and how long it takes to cool. Maybe it's caused by moisture migrating maybe not idk but it is the issue at hand..
Anyway like I said the penetration or lack thereof is not the issue for hot smoking shiny pipes.. it doesn't affect how it smokes air flow wise it affects how hot it gets and how long it takes to cool. Maybe it's caused by moisture migrating maybe not idk but it is the issue at hand..
No, you're not. Lot's of people believe in myths. My crystal pyramid told me so.
BTW, this bisection has been done on dozens of pipes, not just one. I've seen 8 myself.
So what does this prove? It disproves that the notion that briar is highly permeable, such that it will color from the inside out from use, or that it will clog up solidly with time, or any of a number of irrational notions that people in the hobby like to believe. Oils may color meerschaum over time, but briar is not meerschaum, and there is no correlation. The darkening that occurs with briars is mostly grime. Grime from your smoke embedding itself into the wax, grime from your oily filthy bacteria covered fingers, grime from the filthy air that you breathe. And a little bit of it is darkening from the wood being heated.
It also proves that smoking too hot will damage your pipe structurally since many of these older bowls show fissuring along the lower half of the chamber walls caused by smoking too hot and trying to burn every last shred of tobacco because, another stupid belief, you're supposed to smoke every last shred or you haven't done it correctly.
Briar doesn't breathe. It's dead, dead, dead.
BTW, this is the impersonal "you", not the personal "you".
Yeh, I am not sure I understand the whole concept of the briar breathing anyways. So, lets say that air passing through the briar was a "thing." It might not mean that cake passes through the briar. And, if air does pass through it, wouldn't the cake stop it? And, even if air passed through the briar, would it be enough to even effect the combustion? And, don't get me started on why that would make it smoke any cooler.
I have seen two pipes since hanging out at The Briary that had black gunk passing through the birdseye on the outside of the briar. It would ooze as the pipe was smoked like a slow pimple giving away to a slow pressure. It was gross. One was an Eltang, and the other was a Savinelli. One owner was grossed out, and the other took it as a sign that the briar was breathing.
I'm not sure that anything proves or disproves anything, but I am not sure as to why a pipe that would allow air to pass through the walls would be a good thing. It wouldn't necessarily mean that it would smoke cooler. In fact, with air passing through the briar, it would make the outside of the pipe hotter, I'd think.
I have seen two pipes since hanging out at The Briary that had black gunk passing through the birdseye on the outside of the briar. It would ooze as the pipe was smoked like a slow pimple giving away to a slow pressure. It was gross. One was an Eltang, and the other was a Savinelli. One owner was grossed out, and the other took it as a sign that the briar was breathing.
I'm not sure that anything proves or disproves anything, but I am not sure as to why a pipe that would allow air to pass through the walls would be a good thing. It wouldn't necessarily mean that it would smoke cooler. In fact, with air passing through the briar, it would make the outside of the pipe hotter, I'd think.
I think the supposition is that the heat the gets to the outside of the bowl doesn't diffuse as well from the surface if it has a heavy lacquer on it. Like wearing a sweater, perhaps. Not really anything to do with it "breathing."
I don't know if there's anything to that, since I don't smoke hot enough to worry about it.
I don't know if there's anything to that, since I don't smoke hot enough to worry about it.
I never said it was highly permeable, I said more like it's highly impermeable. So of course I realise that briar and meerschaum are two totaly different materials, I was contrasting them more than comparing them. So if woods dead and not permeable then how do balsa (again ik it's not briar but it is wood) filters absorb moisture?
Okay, okay, none of these pipes breathes. There is some effect in handling a glossy pipe versus one without any finish and perhaps some matte finishes. Is it that the lacquer holds heat a little longer? Or transmits what heat there is more readily to your fingers and hand? Or is all this a psychology of smooth surfaces for some reason feeling warmer? Or maybe smooth and glossy finishes mirror back the heat of your hand more. Even if it has darkened and gotten shiny over the years, an "unfinished" pipe feels closer to room temp than most glossy. Placebo effect, I guess. I have a vivid imagination. I don't think I'll get out a thermometer to run the experiment.
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