So. This is with regard to building cake in a pipe. Ie wanting cake. So the question is. Does it have any effect on cake buildup if you tamp down the ashes as you smoke the bowl. Reason I ask this is because when I do tamp down the ashes it seems to…concentrate the heat a bit more and doesn’t build up the cake as much at the bottom half of the bowl resulting in an almost conical cake formation with the bottom of the bowl having almost none and the top half having quite a thick layer. Would it build better if I just let the bowl burn naturally without tamping down the ashes much, if at all? Thoughts?
To tamp or not to tamp…
- Thread starter Bob the bear
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I'll wait for the experts, but I'd say it has no effect. If I had to guess, the real cake comes from the smoke. Not the tobacco. I say this due to the cake always forming first on the side of the bowl closest to my face. The way my straight pipes hang on an angle, the smoke hits that side first.
I use 2 fingers to create smoke. Works every time.
Would seem to make sense that the cake comes from the smoke. It does seem to form more on the face side of my pipes as well
I think tamping and cake building are somewhat different and mostly independent activities. Tamping is tending the ember, moving the unburnt tobacco from around the edges of the chamber into the ember itself where it can burn. I think cake is burnt tobacco that bakes on the sides of the chamber walls and builds up.
I'm one of the stalwart minority who scoops out the chamber and wipes it out with an abrasive paper towel, thus not building cake. This still maintains a thin carbon layer that protects the chamber but does not reduce the diameter of the chamber and never requires reaming.
I understand that many, maybe most, enjoy building cake, and that's fine. This other way works for me.
I'm one of the stalwart minority who scoops out the chamber and wipes it out with an abrasive paper towel, thus not building cake. This still maintains a thin carbon layer that protects the chamber but does not reduce the diameter of the chamber and never requires reaming.
I understand that many, maybe most, enjoy building cake, and that's fine. This other way works for me.
We should change the name from Cake to Carbon.
When I think of Cake, I think ‘Thick’, when I think Carbon, I think ‘Thin’.
SO, the point is, you don’t need any thick cake build up in a chamber, you only want 1 mm of a carbon build up, and I personally probably only have 1/2mm in my pipes.
I think you are looking at this the wrong way.
Pack your pipes, smoke them, when it starts to become a white ash you can see, and it’s taking more time than usual to light the tabac, if you use a Czech tool, use the pick, and carefully scrape off the white ash, but leave a tiny bit, don’t expose black/charred looking tabac, because it will taste bad when you light again.
Then use the weight of the tamper to even out the tabac, don’t press down, after scraping away the ash to make for an easy/even light.
Just as you are done smoking, dump out what remains in the chamber, and run a pipe cleaner through it.
Next, take a paper towel or napkin, and wipe the chamber out, put your finger in either one, down inside the chamber and spin it around, pull the napkin/towel out, pick a clean side, stick it back in, and spin again, until napkin/towel is clean.
I also personally stick my finger inside the chamber when warm, because the carbon will be more pliable, if there are lumpy spots, you can rub them down, or take out, making for a nice smooth even layer, also removing any lint from the napkin/towel, if there is any inside.
When you are done, on a pipe that has already been smoked quite a few times, you should now only see a light, paper thin sticky black carbon build up, and that is all you need the entire way through, but it doesn’t need to be all the way to the bottom. The bottom 1/8th of the chamber can just be dark, you don’t want to char the airway with the flame, smoking all the way to the bottom, no need to smoke it completely to the bottom, so you don’t ruin a nice pipe.
Enjoy!
P.S. Just think about this process for now, as I’ve pointed out.
When I think of Cake, I think ‘Thick’, when I think Carbon, I think ‘Thin’.
SO, the point is, you don’t need any thick cake build up in a chamber, you only want 1 mm of a carbon build up, and I personally probably only have 1/2mm in my pipes.
I think you are looking at this the wrong way.
Pack your pipes, smoke them, when it starts to become a white ash you can see, and it’s taking more time than usual to light the tabac, if you use a Czech tool, use the pick, and carefully scrape off the white ash, but leave a tiny bit, don’t expose black/charred looking tabac, because it will taste bad when you light again.
Then use the weight of the tamper to even out the tabac, don’t press down, after scraping away the ash to make for an easy/even light.
Just as you are done smoking, dump out what remains in the chamber, and run a pipe cleaner through it.
Next, take a paper towel or napkin, and wipe the chamber out, put your finger in either one, down inside the chamber and spin it around, pull the napkin/towel out, pick a clean side, stick it back in, and spin again, until napkin/towel is clean.
I also personally stick my finger inside the chamber when warm, because the carbon will be more pliable, if there are lumpy spots, you can rub them down, or take out, making for a nice smooth even layer, also removing any lint from the napkin/towel, if there is any inside.
When you are done, on a pipe that has already been smoked quite a few times, you should now only see a light, paper thin sticky black carbon build up, and that is all you need the entire way through, but it doesn’t need to be all the way to the bottom. The bottom 1/8th of the chamber can just be dark, you don’t want to char the airway with the flame, smoking all the way to the bottom, no need to smoke it completely to the bottom, so you don’t ruin a nice pipe.
Enjoy!
P.S. Just think about this process for now, as I’ve pointed out.
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I made a mistake and was going to say like this instead;
I think you are looking at this the wrong way.
You only tamp, a thin layer of ash as it forms to pack it down at the very beginning when you first light the tabac, the ‘Char Light’, but only use the weight of the tamper.
Afterwards, follow as I mention below is all.
—————-
Pack your pipes, smoke them...
P.S. If you follow the outline I mentioned above, you’re not tamping ash, but only a very thin amount, after you scrape away, so you can relight over.
I think you are looking at this the wrong way.
You only tamp, a thin layer of ash as it forms to pack it down at the very beginning when you first light the tabac, the ‘Char Light’, but only use the weight of the tamper.
Afterwards, follow as I mention below is all.
—————-
Pack your pipes, smoke them...
P.S. If you follow the outline I mentioned above, you’re not tamping ash, but only a very thin amount, after you scrape away, so you can relight over.
With apologies to Mr. Will...
"To tamp, or not to tamp, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the bowl to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous relights,
Or to take arms against a sea of matches
And by tamping end them. To die -- to go out,
No more; and by die to say suck air
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That poorly packed tobacco is heir to; 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be avoided. To go out, to (bleep);
To (bleep), perchance to scream -- ay, we need to rub..."
"To tamp, or not to tamp, that is the question;
Whether 'tis nobler in the bowl to suffer
The slings and arrows of outrageous relights,
Or to take arms against a sea of matches
And by tamping end them. To die -- to go out,
No more; and by die to say suck air
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That poorly packed tobacco is heir to; 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be avoided. To go out, to (bleep);
To (bleep), perchance to scream -- ay, we need to rub..."
Thanking you kindly ?We should change the name from Cake to Carbon.
When I think of Cake, I think ‘Thick’, when I think Carbon, I think ‘Thin’.
SO, the point is, you don’t need any thick cake build up in a chamber, you only want 1 mm of a carbon build up, and I personally probably only have 1/2mm in my pipes.
I think you are looking at this the wrong way.
Pack your pipes, smoke them, when it starts to become a white ash you can see, and it’s taking more time than usual to light the tabac, if you use a Czech tool, use the pick, and carefully scrape off the white ash, but leave a tiny bit, don’t expose black/charred looking tabac, because it will taste bad when you light again.
Then use the weight of the tamper to even out the tabac, don’t press down, after scraping away the ash to make for an easy/even light.
Just as you are done smoking, dump out what remains in the chamber, and run a pipe cleaner through it.
Next, take a paper towel or napkin, and wipe the chamber out, put your finger in either one, down inside the chamber and spin it around, pull the napkin/towel out, pick a clean side, stick it back in, and spin again, until napkin/towel is clean.
I also personally stick my finger inside the chamber when warm, because the carbon will be more pliable, if there are lumpy spots, you can rub them down, or take out, making for a nice smooth even layer, also removing any lint from the napkin/towel, if there is any inside.
When you are done, on a pipe that has already been smoked quite a few times, you should now only see a light, paper thin sticky black carbon build up, and that is all you need the entire way through, but it doesn’t need to be all the way to the bottom. The bottom 1/8th of the chamber can just be dark, you don’t want to char the airway with the flame, smoking all the way to the bottom, no need to smoke it completely to the bottom, so you don’t ruin a nice pipe.
Enjoy!
P.S. Just think about this process for now, as I’ve pointed out.
I like this forum because I start considering new ideas every day.
For fifty years I’ve assumed that carbon buildup on the bowl of a pipe is caused by the burning tobacco.
But haven’t we all seen pipes with lava all over the top? That seems to have been caused by smoke. The owner didn’t smoke tobacco on the rim.
But if it’s smoke that carbons up pipes why don’t you find carbon inside the shank and stem? Instead you find brown goo,
How to explain this, might be that only very hot smoke causes carbon build up.
The burning cherry of a pipe is almost a thousand degrees. Yet it must cool quickly as it goes through the air hole.
But the carbon buildup can’t be caused all by smoke, or else you’d not see pipes with bare briar in the bottom and a cake stating a quarter inch above.
I’ll have to sit here and think about this one.
SITTING AND THINKING
Charlie Rich
But if it’s only smoke, then tamp away.
For fifty years I’ve assumed that carbon buildup on the bowl of a pipe is caused by the burning tobacco.
But haven’t we all seen pipes with lava all over the top? That seems to have been caused by smoke. The owner didn’t smoke tobacco on the rim.
But if it’s smoke that carbons up pipes why don’t you find carbon inside the shank and stem? Instead you find brown goo,
How to explain this, might be that only very hot smoke causes carbon build up.
The burning cherry of a pipe is almost a thousand degrees. Yet it must cool quickly as it goes through the air hole.
But the carbon buildup can’t be caused all by smoke, or else you’d not see pipes with bare briar in the bottom and a cake stating a quarter inch above.
I’ll have to sit here and think about this one.
SITTING AND THINKING
Charlie Rich
But if it’s only smoke, then tamp away.
You are describing an "inverted" cake. Ream the top of the bowl a bit to even things out and concentrate on smoking to the bottom of the bowl to ensure you build a cake all the way to the heel.
Why do people think cake can protect pipe bowl? I've seen many pipe with thick cake still burnout in the estate pipe market.
I own two pipes for 8 eight years, and smoke them once a week. I would scrape off the cake with a dull swiss knife when it builds up. The bowls are still smooth as new.
I own two pipes for 8 eight years, and smoke them once a week. I would scrape off the cake with a dull swiss knife when it builds up. The bowls are still smooth as new.
Tobacco is nothing more than extremely tasty green leaves that have been mostly dried out.
The tree in your yard has green leaves now, but this fall they’ll turn brown and fall off.
If you want to rake and burn those leaves, better stand by with a rake while the leaf pile burns.
You can try burning leaves up in a trash barrel but you’ll only try that once. They’ll soon quit burning and only smolder.
To burn yard tree leaves, you must keep stirring them until the huge lead pile turns into a tiny heap of ash.
How are tobacco leaves different?
We smolder them in little briar vessels.
And we must keep tamping them or they go out.
Stirring the tobacco is different than tamping.
If concerned about not having cake in the heel, load a 1/4 bowl and smoke several of those.
No need for towels or fingers as a water flush will take care of the cake, remove ash from the chamber and airway and leave the pipe sweeter.
If concerned about not having cake in the heel, load a 1/4 bowl and smoke several of those.
No need for towels or fingers as a water flush will take care of the cake, remove ash from the chamber and airway and leave the pipe sweeter.
When I mentioned before about smoking 1/8th down, so as to not char the airway, even at 1/8th if not careful, this is pushing it.
Make sure you have a small layer of ash when you’re at the bottom, the ash helps to add another layer for the flame to travel through. If you scrapped away the ash at the very bottom with only 1/8th of tabac and lit it, without ash, there’s a better chance that flame reaches the airway.
Keep a little ash towards the bottom, or light very carefully, or stop smoking around 1/4th the way down instead.
Make sure you have a small layer of ash when you’re at the bottom, the ash helps to add another layer for the flame to travel through. If you scrapped away the ash at the very bottom with only 1/8th of tabac and lit it, without ash, there’s a better chance that flame reaches the airway.
Keep a little ash towards the bottom, or light very carefully, or stop smoking around 1/4th the way down instead.
Cake is pointless, and a reamer is a lazy man’s tool who doesn’t clean his pipe, wiping the chamber out after smoking.
You want a paper thin, 1mm or less of carbon. To me, cake is when it’s extremely thick, and you don’t need thick.
When I say ‘Carbon’, when you look inside a new, or fairly new pipe, it only appears as that new black sticky carbon on the chamber wall, this is all you need throughout the chamber. And when you have a paper thin layer of this carbon inside the chamber, that’s as good as it’s going to get for breaking in and smoking.
And for the non-lazy, the only time you need a reamer is for an estate, from that lazy owner who never wiped his chambers out.
Seriously, I’m not making this stuff up, wipe your chambers out with a paper towel, or napkin, when done smoking, and you’ll never need a reamer, and have a great smoking pipe too.
The day should already be upon us, when asked about reamers, the reply; What’s a reamer? LOL ?
P.S. Really think about this, we smoke Briar pipes, to smoke off the quality of what briar gives us. Now you build a thick layer between the tabac and wood, well, you’re not smoking off the quality of the wood, but through the layer of cake to the wood, and this is not what you want, and somehow, this had been an extreme misconception in the world of pipe smoking, that these great thick cake layers make for a great smoking pipe, they don’t.
You want a paper thin, 1mm or less of carbon. To me, cake is when it’s extremely thick, and you don’t need thick.
When I say ‘Carbon’, when you look inside a new, or fairly new pipe, it only appears as that new black sticky carbon on the chamber wall, this is all you need throughout the chamber. And when you have a paper thin layer of this carbon inside the chamber, that’s as good as it’s going to get for breaking in and smoking.
And for the non-lazy, the only time you need a reamer is for an estate, from that lazy owner who never wiped his chambers out.
Seriously, I’m not making this stuff up, wipe your chambers out with a paper towel, or napkin, when done smoking, and you’ll never need a reamer, and have a great smoking pipe too.
The day should already be upon us, when asked about reamers, the reply; What’s a reamer? LOL ?
P.S. Really think about this, we smoke Briar pipes, to smoke off the quality of what briar gives us. Now you build a thick layer between the tabac and wood, well, you’re not smoking off the quality of the wood, but through the layer of cake to the wood, and this is not what you want, and somehow, this had been an extreme misconception in the world of pipe smoking, that these great thick cake layers make for a great smoking pipe, they don’t.
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Yup, I'm lazy but that has nothing to do with creating a proper cake in the bowl.Cake is pointless, and a reamer is a lazy man’s tool who doesn’t clean his pipe, wiping the chamber out after smoking.
You want a paper thin, 1mm or less of carbon. To me, cake is when it’s extremely thick, and you don’t need thick.
When I say ‘Carbon’, when you look inside a new, or fairly new pipe, it only appears as that new black sticky carbon on the chamber wall, this is all you need throughout the chamber. And when you have a paper thin layer of this carbon inside the chamber, that’s as good as it’s going to get for breaking in and smoking.
And for the non-lazy, the only time you need a reamer is for an estate, from that lazy owner who never wiped his chambers out.
Seriously, I’m not making this stuff up, wipe your chambers out with a paper towel, or napkin, when done smoking, and you’ll never need a reamer, and have a great smoking pipe too.
The day should already be upon us, when asked about reamers, the reply; What’s a reamer? LOL ?
P.S. Really think about this, we smoke Briar pipes, to smoke off the quality of what briar gives us. Now you build a thick layer between the tabac and wood, well, you’re not smoking off the quality of the wood, but through the layer of cake to the wood, and this is not what you want, and somehow, this had been an extreme misconception in the world of pipe smoking, that these great thick cake layers make for a great smoking pipe, they don’t.
We may argue about what constitutes a correct thickness of that cake, but whether you call it a "carbon layer" or cake it's still about breaking in the pipe. I prefer a cake about the thickness of a dime. This is protective of the briar and works for me in yielding the best smoking characteristics.
I try not to be dogmatic about anything related to pipe smoking. I've been smoking my pipes for 56 years and I'm still willing to learn.