I "broke in" a brand new Pete yesterday with three full bowls of Haunted Bookshop. 
The Importance of Breaking in All the Way Down
- Thread starter Briar Lee
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I really enjoy Haunted Bookshop, but three full bowls and whiskey to boot would leave me woozy and wanky.I "broke in" a brand new Pete yesterday with three full bowls of Haunted Bookshop.
I have have smoked pipes for over 40 years. Many of those years included times when the only way to enjoy a smoke was in a car with the driver side window opened. This routine was responsible for ruining 3-4 really nice pipes. A burn rut would begin in the chambers closest to the window- the left side. Never ever the opposite side. I chalk this up the thermodynamics. Heat travels toward cool. I know what will follow will be a slew of posts stating this never happened to them and they smoke like this all the time. Fine, but I discussed this with people in the industry and they assured me that it does happen and to stop it. And so I have. My point is that a carbonized shield is a good thing. All the pipes that experienced this phenomena had NOT been properly broken in. Since ceasing this bad smoking habit, I’ve not suffered any burns in the chamber. I might add, I keep only a hairs bit of carbon build up in my pipes, smoke slowly, and keep out of the wind when I can. This is hard to do considering where I live.
Step right up folks... another installment in the BL saga... Baffle you with bullshit... Dazzle you with deception... Then sit back and enjoy what I hath wrought...
Oh yeah, IBTL... Please
Oh yeah, IBTL... Please
Thermodynamics don't lie - ever!
Hopefully with @sablebrush52 recognizing this heated exchange regarding heat was getting a little too hot, we can get back to civil conversation regarding what I find to be a rather interesting topic. I am enjoying the different viewpoints and anecdotal experiential observations.
I had the same thing happen to a beautiful full sandblast basket pipe, driving my bright red 1979 Ford F-100 that came with no air conditioning.
I didn’t burn it through, but hollowed out one side of the bottom of the bowl.
Over time I was able to cake the bowl enough it was hard to notice.
The worst thing I did about it was to have air conditioning added to my truck.
I doubt there are shops that install aftermarket air today.
Let them do it in Detroit, or don’t.
"Bending Strength" = Tensile Strength, totally irrelevant to this conversation, either Sable is confused or stubbornly trying to mislead everyone.
On the subject of heat curing.
Heat curing only takes place above 150C/300f, which is not part of any normal Briar curing process.
Briar cutters all boil out the sap from the Briar, limiting temperature to the temperature of water at 100C/212F, you're not getting any effect of heat curing in the normal treatment of pipe stummels.
ONLY Oil Cured pipes will have undergone the kind of change achieved by breaking in your pipe (though this also presumes temperatures above 150C/300f which are not actually guaranteed, but I assume people oil curing will use high temperatures to help mobilize the oil inside the wood).
The chemical change in wood as a result smoking a normal air cured pipe is factual and undisputable.
At this point the principles of heat curing have been factually verified with scientific sources, it's up to Sable to document that normal briar curing includes process sufficient to heat cure a pipe.
I'm pretty sure we can prove the opposite just by looking at the color of any given stummen though.
I'm pretty sure we can prove the opposite just by looking at the color of any given stummen though.
This does seem to explain why an oil cured Lee doesn’t really need a break in period.
Not only would the oil remove tannins and other bad tasting compounds from deep inside the wood, the heat would be considerably higher than soaking or boiling in water.
There was a period Dunhill oil cured pipes, but the practice was discontinued.
Before the war Kaywoodie and other makers advertised their briar was aged. The aging was simply allowing briar to air dry for several years.This likely had a similar benefit as boiling briar in oil, without the expense, risk of fire, and oil disposal problems, and avoided a second drying out after oil cure.
Lee had been in the pipe trade for about two decades. He no doubt knew of oil curing. When he won the bid for his first huge lot of briar from the government purchasing agency, he wouldn’t have had years to let it age.
Ashton still oil cures their briar, and there are other artisan makers that oil cure.
The heat from the customer smoking a dozen bowls to the bottom seems to accomplish the same thing, with no expense to the pipe maker.
And unless the customer has been spoiled by oil cured pipes he expects his first dozen bowls to taste bad.
Perhaps a more objective read on briar curing...
Briar Curing | Smokingpipes.com
And FWIW, I have never come across any documentation anywhere that Pipes by Lee were oil cured, or had hand cut stems.
The most likely story is that Stewart-Allen, a distributor out of New York, contracted the pipes to be made by New Jersey Pipe Company, who did a large business making pipes for order by retailers, shops, and some contract work for other pipe factories.
The pipes were exclusively hyped by Stewart-Allen in magazine adds of the day and sold by mail order only. Most likely bought by non pipe smokers as gifts to acquaintances who were pipe smokers.
They are OK pipes, but not "all that".
This has been pointed out to you before, but you still promote this fallacy...
Mr. Lee - right.
And there actually was a guy named "Pink Floyd" who started the band, he left when Syd came along, but the name stuck.
Briar Curing | Smokingpipes.com
And FWIW, I have never come across any documentation anywhere that Pipes by Lee were oil cured, or had hand cut stems.
The most likely story is that Stewart-Allen, a distributor out of New York, contracted the pipes to be made by New Jersey Pipe Company, who did a large business making pipes for order by retailers, shops, and some contract work for other pipe factories.
The pipes were exclusively hyped by Stewart-Allen in magazine adds of the day and sold by mail order only. Most likely bought by non pipe smokers as gifts to acquaintances who were pipe smokers.
They are OK pipes, but not "all that".
This has been pointed out to you before, but you still promote this fallacy...
Mr. Lee - right.
And there actually was a guy named "Pink Floyd" who started the band, he left when Syd came along, but the name stuck.
why let the facts get in the way of a good story. Trust me I see that in people from places where you have to make your own entertainment. Heck one of my hobbies is seeing how wild of a tale I can spin and have people believe it, only difference I always end it with and I made that up or these bits of it.
good example mountain laurel pipes supposedly handle like a briar, they look kind of dull and boring though.
Lee never advertised his pipes as oil cured. But what little I’ve found written about them claim they were.
I readily acknowledge that a pre war high grade Kaywoodie is the pinnacle of factory American pipes, especially the pre war Flame Grains.
That’s not true after the war. Kaywoodie began a long slide downwards to the seventies era polyethylene dipped and cast stem nose burners such as the Magnum. I keep a Magnum as proof there really were horrendously bad Kaywoodies.
Lee pipes were a luxury mail order item. It’s amazing so many exist, as proof they sold quite a few.
I own one very early Two Star medium Bulldog Lee with very flashy flame grain, out of dozens and dozens of rather ordinary grained Lee pipes.
My clients, especially ladies, make over the gold stars on the stems of my Lee pipes I have in racks around my office. So much so I suspect Lee sold most of his production to peopld buying a pipe smoker a gift.
I’ve smoked for so many years I can smoke any briar pipe down to the bottom and then flick the last little ember into an ash tray. If I load any other brand of new briar besides a Lee there’s going to be maybe a dozen bowls where the bottom of the pipe is hot, there’s an acrid briar taste, and then they smoke well.
My Five Star Lee Bullmoose cost $85, delivered. It was brand new, unsmoked, in a Five Star box with a Five Star silk sleeve.
It doesn’t have particularly showy grain, but it is a very tightly grained and wonderfully polished pipe.
I fired it up immediately, after I’d removed the stinger and placed it in the box.
I’ve been the first user of about ten or so other unsmoked Lee pipes.
Briar quality matters. Lee had a master selecting the briar used to grade his pipes.
I can’t say my Five Star is the best smoker I own because I don’t keep any pipe that’s not an excellent smoker.
But it’s the coolest smoking pipe I own.
It’s almost like it’s made of asbestos, and was a cool smoker from the first bowl.
Lee was a raconteur and puffed his product.
But he sold goods worth the price charged.
what ever anyone says you're able to stick to your point and justify your argument. I don't know if anyone told you this but lawyering might be a good field for you to get into. I hear that's part of the job.
Side note on lawyers I hear there is a big problem with drinking in the field. Yet no one has ever thought maybe calling the big scary exam the bar might not help....
Glad you're here we can always use some more color (eccentrics) in any online community
@anotherbob Normally, I wouldn't respond because your point is solid and there really is nothing to add; except, it ain't Hillbilly. Midwestern rural folks, especially those from the hills such as my father, don't spin stories full of hyperbole primarily just to entertain - although they do like to entertain with their stories - they tell the stories the way they do because the figurative language of the hyperbole reveals a "truth" that simple factual phrases and words alone can not do by themselves. Hillbilly story telling uses hyperbole to also convey emotions, wonderment, fascination, awe, etc.
For instance, I can tell you that my Dunhill 1963 is a well made pipe that is finely fitted between the stem and the briar. I can tell you that the vulcanite is high quality and that the button is well made.
Yawn. Time for a nap.
But, if a Hillbilly tells the story, he will first open up about how his Aunt Jessica helped build the homestead with nothing but coke bottles and mountain mud mixed with the finest sand from one of the cleanest creeks that flow into the Kings River out of the Boston Mountains in Arkansas. From there, he'll tell you how she once went to town, and took some of Jed's home made and sold it to an unsuspecting Easterner for $75.00 when everyone knows he could have got it for $5.00. She took that money and bought Jed a wedding present, a genuine 1963 Dunhill pipe. Not just any pipe, but one where they aged the briar on the factory rooftop of the factory for well over a 100 years and had it turned by craftsman who had been with the Dunhill factory since its inception. The briar was most likely in the top one percent of one percent in terms of quality and it took well over a week for that pipe to be made. After Old Jed died, that pipe found its way into my hands and I am here to tell you, I ain't selling it ever.
Now I admit I didn't do a very good job of the story telling, but you can see the point. Which is, for me, Dunhill's are special and for reasons that intrinsically resonate with not just me, but others. They are luxury items and like the legend says, a very special pipe amongst pipes.
Actually, a hillbilly would have made this story much better and more illuminating as to the quality of Dunhill's. I apologize to Hillbillies everywhere.
trust me I know how to tell a tall tale. I am only part hillbilly. I am weird in the wrong ways and read too many books about strange things. But roots is roots and terroir effects people not just wine.
Growing up with my dad as a father figure was a strange way to grow up. It got to the point that after awhile, I couldn't differentiate the stories from the legends, even though I lived through many of them myself. However, some of them were based in fact more than I would have like to have believed. We use to joke about his dad being an enforcer for the mob on the waterfront. When the truth came out years later, we were horrified to learn that the truth of that statement just barely scratched the surface of what was true. My dad is a master storyteller. Even when we go fishing together on his boat down at Table Rock Lake where he lives, I am amazed at how his fishing stories about what I just witnessed get bigger and bigger. But what am I to believe - the truth or my lying eyes, LOL.
eyes do love to lie don't they. Especially when you drink that 75 dollar hooch.
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