Why Do New Pipes Smoke Hot?

[Briar Lee]

Yesterday at the Missouri Meerschaum factory in Washington I selected and paid $100 plus taxes to the dad blasted gubbermints for this Kaywoodie Birkshire grade billiard that was made by our fellow forum member from briar that’s been aging in a trailer for about sixty years.



The vast majority of pipes I buy have been smoked at least a few times, but this one is new.

This pipe has no fills, instead hand tooling presumably remedies any sand pits. Kaywoodie did not intend a huge trailer of briar to age for six decades, but we are the gainers for it, that it has.

The first bowl was delicious and mild, yet at the bottom the pipe sweated just a bit of whatever is inside the briar that needs be heat cured and driven out, and there was a pleasant briar taste. No snapping, crackeling or popping like the young briar used in my latest Nordings.



Kaywoodie lives.

We should all be grateful and help, with our dollars.

Greywoodie, Your Kaywoodie Provider

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[anotherbob]

because they're super excited to get smoked. Kind of like your first kiss versus the latest one. The more recent one might be better but you probably got flushed skin and thought oh my gosh this is happening. Same for a pipe obviously.

 

[Briar Lee]

My Kaywoodie Birkshire yesterday was, to be charitable, esthetically challenged.

To sell pipes at a retail of $100 on a display rack in the lobby of the Missouri Meerschaum factory in Washington Missouri requires some finishing shortcuts.

There was a brown coat of shellac or something on the pipe that just peeled right off with 4/0 steel wool and Murphy’s Oil Soap. Under that, a little reddish stain (to mimic Algerian briar). Everclear and elbow grease took most of the red stain off.

Butcher’s block food grade mineral oil put the luster on it.



Tomorrow is Friday and likely the first time this year the local hillbilly jam session will play in the park, and my biopsy results for my old man colonoscopy just came back that it’s going to be a few more years yet before my own funeral.



Blood pressure 118/78, oxygen 97%, and nothing wrong with me but 67 years and a spare tire.

I might wear this hundred dollar grade pipe clean out, you know?

Sing one, Pretty Miss Norma Jean!

Enjoy life.

It’s too short to worry about collecting pipes for others to smoke after we are gone, you know?

 

[LeafErikson]

It's probably just the inferior Algerian briar.

Not enough sap!

 

[Briar Lee]

Google AI is the worthy supplement to the full set of World Book Encyclopedias every well raised Ozark American receives the fall BEFORE they start kindergarten.

AI Google-
——-
Briar, the wood used for making pipes, requires a curing process to remove sap and resins before it can be used. The initial curing process typically takes about 18 months at the sawmill, where the briar is boiled and then slowly dried to avoid cracking. Some pipe makers then further cure the briar, with some letting it sit for years in a controlled environment.

Elaboration:

• Initial Curing (Sawmill):
  Briar is boiled in water to remove sap and resins. This is followed by a slow drying period, usually around 18 months, to prevent cracking.
• Further Curing (Pipe Makers):
  Some pipe makers store briar for additional air curing, sometimes for years. Smokingpipes.comnotes that different factories have different storage times, with some leaving briar for years. Castello is known to let their briar sit for five years or even longer, while other artisan carvers may let their briar sit for at least a couple of years.
• Curing Methods:
  Some pipe makers have their own techniques, often kept confidential, to further refine the briar's properties. Most Smokingpipes.com notes that J.T. Cooke's pipes weight 7-10% less after curing, indicating that the majority of resins are gone by the time the pipe is ready.

—-

I yearn for a simpler time, when if children did not look up facts and find the best answer their mother would slap them until they decided to live right.

The sap, or resins, inside the briar make it unsmokable until the curing process removes most of the sap.

Then the block must dry out, and thd longer the briar is aged the better. Nobody has ever said, oh that briar has spent sixty summers and sixty winters aging in a trailer, it’s spoiled now.

Even a new Kaywoodie needs a brief break in period to force the remaining sap out of the briar.

This one is still hot on one side.



Tomorrow I’m getting in a Bertram , which if it was a cigar would be a Pre Castro Cuban Havana.

If not smoked all the way down to the draft hole, even a Bertram will get a little hot until the heat forces out the last dying quiver of the sap.

 

[TheIronMonkey]

My Kaywoodie Birkshire yesterday was, to be charitable, esthetically challenged.

To sell pipes at a retail of $100 on a display rack in the lobby of the Missouri Meerschaum factory in Washington Missouri requires some finishing shortcuts.

There was a brown coat of shellac or something on the pipe that just peeled right off with 4/0 steel wool and Murphy’s Oil Soap. Under that, a little reddish stain (to mimic Algerian briar). Everclear and elbow grease took most of the red stain off.

Butcher’s block food grade mineral oil put the luster on it.

View attachment 387995View attachment 387996

Tomorrow is Friday and likely the first time this year the local hillbilly jam session will play in the park, and my biopsy results for my old man colonoscopy just came back that it’s going to be a few more years yet before my own funeral.

View attachment 388000
View attachment 388001
Blood pressure 118/78, oxygen 97%, and nothing wrong with me but 67 years and a spare tire.

I might wear this hundred dollar grade pipe clean out, you know?

Sing one, Pretty Miss Norma Jean!

Enjoy life.

It’s too short to worry about collecting pipes for others to smoke after we are gone, you know?

I’m genuinely curious why you choose to remove the original finish off of your pipes.

 

[Briar Lee]

I’m genuinely curious why you choose to remove the original finish off of your pipes.

Tomorrow I’m getting in a Bertram which came unstained, unvarnished and unpainted and made of carefully selected and graded Pre 54 oil cured Algerian briar.

Stain, varnish and paint are applied to pipes because it’s cheaper. The best pipes had none.

Look how much prettier my Kaywoodie is now. It’s going to get a lot better.