The Fear of Burnout?

[craig94yj]

I have read several posts about the concern of burning out a pipe. I have a couple of questions to ask about this.
First would be; How often does this happen to all of you? I have acquired quite a bit of practical knowledge thanks to all of you here. If one were to take at least some of the suggestions given in this forum on how to pack and smoke a new pipe , then what are the odds that this situation will still occur and how does this happen if proper precautions are taken?
Second; I have to assume that the properties of briar are the reason that it is the wood of choice for pipe smoking, for it obviously contains the burning ember of tobacco which has to exceed 200 degrees Celsius without likely combustion of the pipe in your hand. So my other question is; can you not tell or taste the difference when the briar is burning? It seems to me that aside from being a human bellow, I would think you would have some idea that you are smoking more wood than tobacco. What are the warning signs to look for if this is more common than I think it should be? Thank you in advance for your imput.

 

[jgriff]

Depending on whether you have a bowl coating or not, you may not taste it the first few bowls when you char the bowl and start building a cake. After that it would be pretty obvious.
Overall, it's pretty rare except for extremely flawed briar or serious user error (i.e. using a torch lighter). I have heard the issue more commonly with corn cob pipes rather than briar but it's still pretty unusual then too. I suspect it was more common years ago when people smoked like freight trains and never let their pipes rest.
Honestly, I wouldn't worry about it too much assuming you take normal care .... and stay away from torch lighters. :roll: You'll know fairly quickly and easily....

 

[nsfisher]

Happened to me once in 19 yrs

 

[craig94yj]

nsfisher,
Was this something that was happening gradually and unnoticed, or was it something that was a one time unstoppable event?

 

[piperl12]

I have burned through two Brigham bowls in 25 years. Both rusticated bowls. Both smoking a burly tobacco. Don't know if there was a corrolation or not. They were very abused pipes. Left in the truck, smoked outside in the wind and cold. I would say it happened 4-5 years in. Patched them up and they still smoke great!

 

[papipeguy]

I burned out my first good pipe- a GBD pot- because I was stupid. I didn't have another pipe and I smoked the GBD constantly. It took about 5 years but I learned my lesson well. Jeez, I miss that pipe. I bought it at a little shop in Passaic, NJ in 1970 and it gave me a great deal of pleasure. I wish I had treated it better.

 

[mikeklumpp]

happened once since 1974 - seems like i remember smoking that particular pipe in the car with too much ventilation - it started charring then eventually you could taste the burn - it was a pipe with almost no grain or birdseye - very pulpy looking - it was this puppy looking area that burned - we used to teach all types of preventions when I ran a pipe shop in Louisiana - but i really feel it is rare for most smokers -

 

[papipeguy]

Wow, sam, that's brutal. Sorry for your loss.

 

[craig94yj]

Thank you gentlemen. I will definitely be vigilant with all my pipes. Three were my Grandfather's and I would hate to see something like this happen to one of them. I will also pay more attention where there is a draft. I appreciate this information.

 

[craig94yj]

After reading the thread that samcoffeeman suggested about Kevin's Jet, I would imagine over 50% of burnouts could be prevented, but nachman has an interesting hypothesis about the correlation between burnout and flaws in the briar. I would bet this is plausible to the "one time unstoppable event".

 

[petes03]

I've never had one burn out myself, but I do have one that I got in an estate lot that has a pretty big burnout. It's an Ehrlich straight billiard, which actually looks like it couldn't have been smoked more than 4 or 5 times. Whoever had it before me must have puffed until volcanic temperatures were achieved! I plan on eventually trying my hand at mudding this one as, other than the burnout, it's in good shape.

 

[puffy]

Burn out happens so rarely that it's not something that I'm much concerned with.It happened to me once many years ago.The bad part of it was that I really liked the pipe.

 

[cigrmaster]

I have never burned out a pipe and I am extremely careful when smoking outside. I believe one of the biggest causes of burnouts is high winds and people not paying attention. If you are smoking outside be careful when the wind is blowing, it can heat up your pipe very quickly and by the time you realize it you have burned out your pipe.

 

[metalheadycigarguy]

I believe that if you treat your pipes with care (as most of us do), properly maintain them and smoke them correctly you should not have any trouble. However, this may not always be the case but hopefully it doesn't happen.

 

[allan]

I smoke in the street all of the time and never thought about 'wind' being a dangerous factor.
Going to have to be careful and pay attention.
Thanks, Harris, for the warning.

 

[cigrmaster]

Allan, my pleasure. It is amazing how hot your pipe can get in as little as a ten mile an hour wind. There are tons of days here in Florida when the wind is up and I will leave my pipe inside when I go walking my dog. I always try to bring my pipe on my walks but I know it could lead to a burn out even if I am being very careful. I always walk with my pipe clenched and I never hold it so it could get wicked hot and I would not even know it which is why I leave it inside.

 

[jkenp]

Unless you are really trying, the likelihood of burning out a pipe is close to the odds of being struck by lightning. Build a nice cake and dump the pipe when you are done.
I'm not the coolest, patient smoker and haven't had it happen. Bought my first pipe in the 50's. Just enjoy; I sure have.

 

[nsfisher]

Was this something that was happening gradually and unnoticed, or was it something that was a one time unstoppable event?

Never noticed it until after the fact mate.

 

[piperl12]

I'm going to have to watch out for lightning lol. Seriously though it's like buying a new boat. Make sure you learn how to dock it on an old beat up boat. There is nothing like scratching the gel coat on a brand new boat cause you didn't know what you were doing. I learned my hard lessons on pipes that didn't really matter.

 

[craig94yj]

Getting struck by lightning or having a frozen block of 767 toilet waste fall from the sky on your head are extremely rare occasions, but lightning strikes happen enough to call these few incidents a statistic. I will be more vigilant when outside, or smoke my cheap meerschaum on the windy days. Thanks for sharing all the experiences.