You May Say I’m a Reamer, Am I the Only One?
- Thread starter dctune
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My pipes do not build much cake - I'm not entirely sure why not. I smoke most genres. Could it be because I have over thirty pipes in regular rotation?
When little annoying lumps of cake do develop, I use the reamer in the pic [Won these pipe tools and reamer on ebay for $9.50usd]
Not sure what brand it is but it does the job.
It's not easy to see in the sellers pic but each 'blade' has a sharp outward curving edge.
When little annoying lumps of cake do develop, I use the reamer in the pic [Won these pipe tools and reamer on ebay for $9.50usd]
Not sure what brand it is but it does the job.
It's not easy to see in the sellers pic but each 'blade' has a sharp outward curving edge.
If you wipe the chamber out after every smoke they won't. I've got one of my first pipes from the early '90s that's never needed reaming.
The reader in your photo came with a pipe kit I bought (and highly recommend for about $25 - the bag, pouch, and tools were worth the price of admission and another $10 gets you a decent looking pear wood pipe).
I used the reader on occassion and it is fool proof if used slow. Every day maintenance is a paper towel and pipe cleaner.
A thin layer of cake I've found improves performance and is all I need. Too much can damage a pipe, I was told.
I don't smoke as much these days and am pretty reliable at running a "U" shaped pipe cleaner 'round the bowl so reaming isn't the issue for me that it used to be.
I did ream a thickly caked Peterson 606 with a Czech tool once, and so badly gouged the bowl it threatened to burn out. I made a repair with pipe mortar and so far it's held up.
I don't smoke as much these days and am pretty reliable at running a "U" shaped pipe cleaner 'round the bowl so reaming isn't the issue for me that it used to be.
I did ream a thickly caked Peterson 606 with a Czech tool once, and so badly gouged the bowl it threatened to burn out. I made a repair with pipe mortar and so far it's held up.
Everybody has to ream eventually. Except @didimauw His preferred cake thickness is chamber diameter minus 5mm.
Either that or a porn flick cover.
I'll do it when it looks like it needs it. Which is probably a little after it should have been done.
I have a couple of different reamers, but I only use them on pipe restorations. For the most part, my post smoking routine prevents excessive cake buildup. If it starts getting a little thicker than I like, I gently remove it with an old timer pocket knife that has a nice round nose, short blade that is easy to control. A little 220 sandpaper works too.
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My wife says the noise is like a teachers nails on the chalkboard. To me it's like angel music ?
But on a new pipe I just bend a bristled pipe cleaner and scrub down the sides. Never gotten any on pipes I've bought new. Estates are a different monster.
Yep it is oddly satisfying. I used a cordless mini dremel on low speed to remove the excess cake or return back to original bowl on estate pipes
Now that I have a couple of briar pipes, I use the hot water technique, and the paper napkin, as soon as I finish smoking. Smoking and cleaning. I have been correcting some habits, techniques, or whatever you want to call it. Thanks to this forum, I am still learning to be a decent smoker.
When I first started pipe smoking I used the pipe cleaner in bowl method. As I started buying estate pipes I wound up acquiring every tool mentioned here. I have found the pipnet to be the easiest and most effective to get down to briar. Now, I just use a Czech tool spoon lightly after smoking. I do like a thin cake.
My first foray into ebay when I started building a rotation of pipes, I bought two estates that turned out to be crap.
What a waste of money.
From that point on the only estates I've bought were lightly used and professionally cleaned.
Ironically I won them for far cheaper than the two crappy pipes.
Although I don't build cake per se, all of my briars have a rather hard very thin layer of, well although I guess that technically speaking it's cake, it's not friable like cake.
It's most probably a baked mixture of oils from tobacco and carbon.
It protects the briar so for that reason I'd not ever take it back to bare.
I went to seminary and finished around 60 graduate hours there. My wife has a PhD. And I’m still learning from you fine gentleman. I literally just learned the word “friable” from this post. Had never seen it before, and I’ve read A LOT. i appreciate you making me smarter.
And I’m totally gonna spend this whole week looking for opportunities to use friable, and then acting a little smug when my IRL friends don’t know what it means. Just a little smug though. ?
I water flush about once a month, but I’ve seen some on here note that they do every night. I’ve also learned there’s some strong & opposing opinions on this practice. Lol.