"To Ream or Not to Ream..."

[ajh93]

I've read that a pipe's cake should be relatively even,so as to be effective at protecting the wooden chamber and absorb excess moisture.Well I haven't smoked this pipe in a while,and looking back at when I tried my hand at giving it a good once-over (with 80 or 90 proof vodka since I had no Everclear or sweetener on hand),I may have been a bit overzealous in cleaning the tobacco chamber.Now what little cake I had built up is now rough and uneven,and at the very bottom of the bowl I can make out what I believe to be briar,which means I took off the black layer of stuff that was there when the pipe was new.
Should ream out what's left and begin anew,or leave it and carefully build it again from the bottom up?Or is it fine and I'm freaking out like a noob?And I try to smoke as cool as I can to begin with,but should I be worried about burnout/absorbing moisture due to the exposed briar?Also any advice regarding cleaning the chamber more carefully is appreciated.

 

[misterlowercase]

Image bomb is currently unavailable.

 

[misterlowercase]

If it's bare wood,

just smoke it slowly and see how it goes,

if the uneven cake disturbs you,

I suggest sanding down with sandpaper...
...sandpaper works well!

 

[ajh93]

Technical difficulties,please hold...

 

[misterlowercase]

Looks like a sweet pipe!
British?
I'd just gently scrape the build-up, or rub it down with the Czech tool spoon round part, or gently sand it...
...as for the bottom, that's no problem really --- is the airhole drilled high? Where it comes into the bowl, if the airway is drilled slightly higher than the bowl bottom, then it's nearly impossible to build cake in the bottom, if that's the case, then pipe mud will fix it...

 

[ajh93]

It's an Italian Everyman basket pipe,no telling by whom,but people on this forum have offered some guesses.The draft hole does not let out directly into the bottom of the chamber,no.I wondered why I could never smoke the bowl to the bottom,suppose that settles that.I'll read up on the pipe mud,thanks for the suggestion!

 

[mso489]

I'd go with the sandpaper idea, gently. Don't go down to wood, nor anywhere near, just even up the carbon.

If you clean out pipes after you smoke them, and this one doesn't look as well maintained as it might, you

may never have to ream. If you do ever get to that place, you might want to do the first reaming under the

supervision of a pipe repairman, if you can. You can easily wreck a pipe with overzealous reaming.

 

[ajh93]

"...this one doesn't look as well maintained as it might..."
It was my first;I smoked this pipe quite often (and hot) before I read about how it's not good for the pipe,that's why I stopped with it for an extended period.I'll bring it back,with time.And alas,there's no pipemen in my neck of the woods,only a cigar/hooka shop that happens to have a few pipes and aromatic tobacco.They have $50 pipe lighters but not reamers,can you believe it?I'll have to try my luck with another tobacco store a town over.
I think I'll be safer with the dull Czech tool than sand paper.

 

[rcstan]

+1 dull Czech tool. After which, wet finger with water and gently get some of the soot out, then dry out with a rag. I would not advise to use alcohol liberally especially in the bowl ( stem and airway are okay ).
I found it helpful to have a 12 ga bore brush handy and sort of scrape at the inside of the bowl with it at the end of the day, it keeps the cake even. Now keep in mind, I keep my cake to a bare minimum, even less than rothnh, but that's personal preference.

 

[wilson]

+1 for a dull pipe knife to even it out a bit. I'd not worry about making it perfectly smooth. Then, smoke slowly and more cake will form. Don't fret. It's gonna be ok. Fire, briar and tobacco -- it's a natural process and a beautiful thing.

 

[bryanf]

If you like a thick cake, as I do, just leave it alone and smoke it. As you smoke, it will smooth itself out. I guarantee it if you smoke virginia's. At most, I'd twist a paper towel down the bowl to remove any soft crumbly cake which it looks like you have. To be honest, that only looks like about 10 bowls of burley tobacco's worth of cake and for me is nowhere near thick enough to give the cooling property I like in a pipe.
On a side note, I reamed my main pipe today. I could not get the head of a roofing nail down it, and the cake was about a 1/4 inch thick. I didn't realize it was that thick until I reamed it. Before reaming, it had gotten to the point where I couldn't get a 5 minute smoke out of it and had difficulty getting much tobacco in there. Now, I can get a good 30 minutes, so I'm happy. I have only had the pipe since June and smoked only virginia's in it. Pretty crazy how fast the cake built up in that peterson system which makes for a very dry smoke. I'm thinking about buying a real pipe knife so I can just maintain my desired thickness rather than wait until the bowl is almost closed because it was a pain in the butt getting all that cake out. I pretty much removed it all because it was easier than trying to shape it at that point.

 

[werdna]

I don't care for a thick layer of cake, so I wipe my bowl after each smoke with a wadded paper towel. That keeps the cake build up thin and even. For the occasional lump of carbon, a fat round nail head is dull enough to smooth things out, if you don't have a pipe tool. Go gently and vertically in the bowl, just clearing the lumps.