Tobacco for Breaking in a New Pipe- Suggestions!

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didimauw

Moderator
Staff member
Jul 28, 2013
10,193
33,257
Burlington WI
This question gets asked (and answered in varying ways) quite often. A quick Google search would have shown you the results.
But if he started the thread, without asking the question, it would just be an empty thread.... With no question.

😂 THEN WHAT WOULD WE TALK ABOUT IN HERE????

Back to the OP:

I think burley blends break pipes in fast. I also only smoke burleys blends. This pipe had no coating in the chamber, and it was completely caked in about 20 pipes.

This is at about 40 bowls.

1000003990.jpg
Mmmmmmmm cake.......
 

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
12,083
17,553
SE PA USA
But if he started the thread, without asking the question, it would just be an empty thread.... With no question.

😂 THEN WHAT WOULD WE TALK ABOUT IN HERE????

Back to the OP:

I think burley blends break pipes in fast. I also only smoke burleys blends. This pipe had no coating in the chamber, and it was completely caked in about 20 pipes.

This is at about 40 bowls.

View attachment 321037
Mmmmmmmm cake.......

Let them eat cake.
 
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Skippy B. Coyote

Can't Leave
Jun 19, 2023
361
4,426
St. Paul, MN
I'm also in the "smoke what you like" camp, though I will say that Carter Hall burns quick, cool, and leaves a particularly thick and neutral tasting cake so I think it makes a great blend for breaking in new pipes or de-ghosting an estate pipe.

For green tasting cobs or any pipe that has an unpleasant tasting coating in the bowl I like using strongly flavored but not overly wet aromatics like Cult Blood Red Moon to break them in. Something heavily flavored enough to mostly cover up the acrid unpleasant green wood taste from the stem on the cob or coating in the bowl so I don't spend the first 3 to 5 smokes out of the pipe going, "Yuck!"
 

jpmcwjr

Moderator
Staff member
May 12, 2015
25,241
28,330
Carmel Valley, CA
I'm also in the "smoke what you like" camp, though I will say that Carter Hall burns quick, cool, and leaves a particularly thick and neutral tasting cake so I think it makes a great blend for breaking in new pipes or de-ghosting an estate pipe.

For green tasting cobs or any pipe that has an unpleasant tasting coating in the bowl I like using strongly flavored but not overly wet aromatics like Cult Blood Red Moon to break them in. Something heavily flavored enough to mostly cover up the acrid unpleasant green wood taste from the stem on the cob or coating in the bowl so I don't spend the first 3 to 5 smokes out of the pipe going, "Yuck!"
Well, you could hire a chap or chapette who's down on his luck to break them in for you....
 
I'm reminded of the "pipe smoking machine" once used to break in Dr. Grabow pipes with Edgeworth. (Please see linked article below.) One might suggest using a similar burley blend -- something easy to keep lit and unlikely to ghost. I am partial to Mac Baren's HH Burley Flake or one of C&D's burleys that doesn't have perique or latakia in it. (C&D's perique can ghost a pipe a bit with stinky cheese odor.)

 
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