Smoke Them Down to the Bottom
- Thread starter Briar Lee
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I don't build cake, so I don't worry about this. Forcing wet dottle to combust just isn't my idea of an enjoyable smoke. Sometimes I smoke to the bottom, sometimes I don't, but I don't force it like I thought I had to when I started out.
The tobacco smokes down to ash with little or no dottle most times.
With those meer chips or Keystones in place, it ain't going to smoke to the bottom.
Does it make a difference to the pipe ? Not that I am aware of.
But I do get a better smoke out of each bowl.
Moral : "Do what you do. So long as your smoke is enjoyable and satisfying"
No right or wrong
I need to try meer chips, or stones.
They sell em’ for a reason, some folks think they improve the experience.
I’ve had wind caps, filters, stingers, metal radiator pipes, carburetors, and the only “gadget” I like is the EA Carey system.
All the old sources advised breaking in all the way down. Some advised half bowls to start. Years ago all sources advised a cake the thickness of a dime.
I think this was mostly to prevent burnout, which it would help.
Back in the old days, they also poured used motor oil into the ground. People thought they could own people. The world was flat to them, and people burned witches. Ideas change.
Now, I’m not telling you that anything is wrong with breaking in a pipe like you do. Nor, am I criticizing your cake. I’m just saying that I like the way my pipes smoke, in the state that I smoke them in. I’m not sure why you’d want me to do any different. Between my pipes caked to the draft hole and the ones with no cake at the bottom, I don’t find the break in nor lack of cake has any affect. But, maybe if you smoked them, you might. So, just don’t smoke my pipes, ha ha.
And, maybe find a less dogmatic way to convey your passion for how you enjoy your pipes… or dont. I kinda like busting balls with the dogmatic folks, ha ha
I know when to wear overalls shirtless and when to wear a silk tie and loafers. The trick is finding a redhead that likes both. I got lucky… the third time around.
More often than not, I smoke to the bottom or very close to it. But I don't push it. I think the bottom of the bowl is damaged by people trying too hard to light the last portion with the damage coming from the flame. If someone never smokes to the bottom, having bare wood at the bottom becomes irrelevant and would not affect the quality of the smoke.
Why don’t those folks ever smoke them all the way down,,,not even once?
It’s against the instruction papers!.
After some ruminating on this burning issue which cleaves the ties of friendship between us fellow brothers of the briar, I think I know why.
Breaking in a pipe sorta sucks, you know?
They used to have pre smoked Grabows, a lot of makers coat the bowl, and on any brand new pipe I still use a fingertip of honey. Yello Bole used to use a honey coating. Break in is not fun.
The worst part of break in is that last quarter inch. The pipe is hot, it might snap, crackle and pop, it’s sweating, and the smoker wants to end the ordeal, so he always avoids his responsibly to follow the printed manual!
Now, if he’d actually smoke it all the way down, a dozen times maybe, it breaks in and smokes much better for the life of the pipe, at least down at the bottom.
The makers advised it because it utilized more of the tobacco, and the last bit will have the most nicotine.
The more nicotine the devoted, addicted, experienced smoker gets the more he’ll like the pipe.
The only time I’ve had cake on my bottom was trying to light my wife’s birthday candles with my combusted flatulence. She pushed me out of anger and I fell right on to that cake! We were able to ream the cake off and get back to bare bottom and woody.
Goes without saying, but I’ll say it. This was weeeellllll past the break-in period.
Goes without saying, but I’ll say it. This was weeeellllll past the break-in period.
The parable of Humansville and aerosolized metal oxides. While charring the shit out of my pipe smoking dottle to the bitter end I looked up and said hey Paw there's a cross in the sky. God must be smiling down on us. Paw replied back.. No son that's just contrails and if you'd properly broken in that pipe there wouldn't be smoldering briar at the bottom. Ending TBD.Yesterday I taught my son again the “Parable of Georgia and the Boy in Bib Overalls” on Elmer’s 60. It’s one of his favorites.
ending
Ps. I like your stories.
The parable of Humansville and aerosolized metal oxides. While charring the shit out of my pipe smoking dottle to the bitter end I looked up and said hey Paw there's a cross in the sky. God must be smiling down on us. Paw replied back.. No son that's just contrails and if you'd properly broken in that pipe there wouldn't be smoldering briar at the bottom. Ending TBD.
We talked about all the contrails in the sky, as well.
We counted twelve contrails, on an early November Tuesday afternoon.
Conspiratorial minded people think those are chemical trails where “they” are poisoning us.
Instead they are temporary evidence of the greatest civilization that’s ever existed under the sun, greater by an order of magnitude than Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Ottomans, Spain, France, the British Empire, and the Soviet Union combined and squared.
Xxxxx
Commercial aviation drives 5% of U.S. GDP—the equivalent of $1.25 trillion in 2022. Every day, U.S. airlines operate more than 25,000 flights carrying 2.5 million passengers to/from nearly 80 countries and more than 59,000 tons of cargo to/from more than 220 countries.
Xxxxx
A new jet costs from 100 to 400 million dollars, they fly near the speed of sound six miles high, and a half mile South of Bug Tussle where Georgia used to dream of a better way of life, there may be a dozen above us at any given time.
All our generation has to do is keep it up.
——-
I gave you a land on which you had not labored and cities that you had not built, and you dwell in them. You eat the fruit of vineyards and olive orchards that you did not plant.
—-
@Briar Lee
You seem to do fine without them
Tobacco is very expensive in Oz.
The cost of the meer chips or Keystones is readily recouped by eliminating dottle
And the smokes are much more satisfying by not having to relight a soggy mass of tobacco.
Apart from absorbing moisture, I think they create an “airwell” below the tobacco which helps keep the ember going and reduce the need for relights
The technology to spray aerosolized metal oxides from a plane to combat climate change was patented in 1991. Wether or not that technology is being used today is up for debate.
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People will smoke it to the point where they enjoy it most. Nobody should care about some stupid standards that have little to no foundation for logic or reality. I think all that bullshit may be what has held back pipe smoking. I smoke a pipe for one reason, that's my satisfaction. And since I buy the tobacco and pipes, I'll smoke them any way I wish.Why don’t those folks ever smoke them all the way down,,,not even once?
It’s against the instruction papers!.
After some ruminating on this burning issue which cleaves the ties of friendship between us fellow brothers of the briar, I think I know why.
Breaking in a pipe sorta sucks, you know?
They used to have pre smoked Grabows, a lot of makers coat the bowl, and on any brand new pipe I still use a fingertip of honey. Yello Bole used to use a honey coating. Break in is not fun.
The worst part of break in is that last quarter inch. The pipe is hot, it might snap, crackle and pop, it’s sweating, and the smoker wants to end the ordeal, so he always avoids his responsibly to follow the printed manual!
Now, if he’d actually smoke it all the way down, a dozen times maybe, it breaks in and smokes much better for the life of the pipe, at least down at the bottom.
The makers advised it because it utilized more of the tobacco, and the last bit will have the most nicotine.
The more nicotine the devoted, addicted, experienced smoker gets the more he’ll like the pipe.
Sir, I believe you are almost incapable of taking offense to just about anything! It's helping keep these threads stable. .
I would have loved to meet them.
I like a dime worth, just in the form of two nickels.
I love cake in my pipes. More than I see anyone else does on the forum at least so I'm clearly a minority. But I don't smoke my pipes all the way down to the bottom. Or I should say I don't force it. But they still build cake through the smoke at the draft hole. After a couple good reamings, everything starts to cake evenly.
P.S. This post was done on my phone in the dark late at night, took forever and was really hard to do.
Your welcome
The majority of used pipes, that I win on eBay are in two conditions,,,smoked less than a dozen times and not broken in,,,or caked about the thickness of a dime or more. Now again remember I’m buying almost all expensive when new late forties Marxman and Lee pipes, the folks who could spend three fifty, or five or ten or fifteen dollars when pipes were fifty cents, a dollar, and two dollars.
The cheap pipes were likely smoked up and thrown away before the Korean War.
I’ve cleaned up and smoked caked pipes and I’m convinced cake does two things:
It insulates any bowl from heat.
It traps nastiness and musty smells and bad odors. It needs to go.
So yes, cake would be an insulator for very thin walls.
I recommend you put your own cake in there, unless you are lucky enough to buy one caked but not sour.
“To each his own”. Usually I smoke till I need a relight. Tamp everything down, ash and all. Smoke again, then repeat until it tastes rather bad and I’m done. Cake will naturally form higher in the bowl. My key is not throwing out old ash. It lights better and stays lit. That’s my own.
Someone’s been taking the recent trends of Diversity, Equality, and Inclusiveness training seriously…
On the topic at hand, as a new pipester I’ve been trying to take all the “dos and don’ts” of the pipe world knowing there’s a balance to be had between lore, old wives tales, anecdotal and experiential wisdom, and flat regurgitation of practices.
That said, I’m leaning more towards @LeafErikson’s reference to fighting dottle being akin to smoking to the filter.
As a practice, I’m trying to smoke a quarter bowl or two in freshly reamed or new pipes to lightly season the heel, then not fight trying to smoke dottle that clearly wants to be cast upon the ground.
I'm putting this on hold temporarily. Need to digest the whole thing and take temperatures.
Will reopen in 24 hours or less.
Will reopen in 24 hours or less.
Okay I've now read the whole bloody thread, and see no reason to reopen it.
I smoke to the bottom whenever I can, as the heat dries the heel better than weeks of rest in a semi-humid environment.
If anyone really wants to add to the existing disagreements, please PM me.
I smoke to the bottom whenever I can, as the heat dries the heel better than weeks of rest in a semi-humid environment.
If anyone really wants to add to the existing disagreements, please PM me.
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