Building Cake

[Anonymous]

Figured I'd share this with y'all maybe get a discussion going. I had a new smoker checking out my pipes. He was impressed, and wanted to know how I build cake in my pipes.

So i had to stop and think. Basically, when I get a new pipe, I just smoke the new out of it. He asked if I was worried about burning out a new pipe from consecutive smokes. I told him (hopefully I am right) that for new pipes, I don't worry about resting them too much.

So, I showed him my Rad Davis that I got a few days ago. It has cake build up on the bottom of the bowl and bare wood near the rim. I told him that I've been smoking it for a few days. And that I will probably give it a few days rest soon.

Am I correct here? Do y'all smoke your new pipes alot when you first get them before you start giving them the appropriate rest?

I almost hate to give advice because I am no expert, just a pipe enthusiast.

 

[Midnight Blues]

I tend to build cake about the same way. I smoke a new pipe filled to the top right from the first bowl and smoke carefully and completely to the bottom. At the end of the smoke I like to cover the top of the bowl and shake the ash to evenly distribute it on the chamber walls. I don't continually smoke a new pipe to break her in, It gets put into the rotation along with my other pipes.

 

[puros_bran]

TO, I'm 100% in your camp...

I smoke 'em til the new wears off.. then they go in rotation, well I really don't have a rotation but ya know what I mean.
By the time your new pipe quits being your favorite pipe because its new it will more than likely be broke in.

 

[pipetongue1]

Aftrnoon All, This is a very important subject, in the smoking of pipes, and one of which gathers so much, Hub-bub! I do not get or allow but the thinest of cakes on ANY of my pipes, and this comes about, by having a large rotation, pipes that have been assigned certain type of bacy, the amount of times I have smoked a certain pipe, and my cleaning of these pipes, On the whole a thick cake is bad for the pipe, and in turn surrenders "tastability" of the tabac, Ken :tongue:
pacem en Puffing! :tongue:

 

[Mikem]

Pretty much all of the above. I'm not a firm believer in the 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 and then full bowl camp on a new pipe. I load it up and smoke it. Sometimes three or four bowls in the day on the same pipe. (Knock on wood) I have only had one pipe (a commision) that had a blow out/hot spot and that happened on the second bowl because it was a bad piece of briar. All of my pipes have a pretty even (although thin) cake.

 

[Anonymous]

The 1/4, 1/3, etc works well, but sometimes I'm just to lazy to keep filling my pipe... Really this is only important IF you don't smoke all the way to the bottom.

 

[DoverPipes]

Fill it, Burn it, Dump it, and REPEAT!
That's the way I do it........

 

[Sasquatch]

Can you be a little more concise with your posts, please, Dover? :cheers:

 

[DoverPipes]

Can you be a little more concise with your posts, please, Dover? :cheers:

Brevity! That's what I strive for......

 

[MisterE]

Hey all. I have done both. Just start smoking a new pipe like normal (full bowls), and the 1/4, 1/2, etc. method. Both are viable. I just got a couple of Petersons this summer and they´re taking a while to get the "new" out. They already have a great cake forming on them, but still I perceive a hint of "new" in them (2 months now). With these I just started smoking them as if they were a broken-in pipe. Doesn´t to seem to make much difference (IMHO) as long as you´re conciencious enough to smoke them to the bottom and not overheat in the beginning.

 

[Eulenburg]

Basically, when I get a new pipe, I just smoke the new out of it...Do y'all smoke your new pipes alot when you first get them, before you start giving them the appropriate rest?

I do exactly what you do. I smoke a new pipe about 10 times before cleaning it and resting it. After that I treat it as cured and ready for regular rotation.

 

[rrb]

I tend to take a lot of time building a cake. So I smoke them and rest them for about a day.

The analogy I make is quite simple:
If you heat wood too much it will turn into coal, thus if you smoke it you'll smoke some bit of it, but if you give a little warm it will tend to get the wood harder and harder, which is I think is the purpose of the whole thing.
So I believe the right way is to let it rest sometime before heating it again.

As for the cake itself, I don't really care about the thickness of it as long as it doesn't affect smoking. But I have seen one or two pipes that cracked from having a cake too thick. And let me tell you it was not a nice thing to see!!

But, what matters is that whatever works is fine.

 

[Joseph76]

what works for me as well, is smoking a burley to break in the pipe... they tend to build cake faster for me and as always easier to burn to the bottom.

 

[Justpipes]

I normally only fill a pipe approximately 3/4's of the way most of the time anyway so I usually just use my normal smoking routine when breaking in a pipe.

 

[Amenhotep04]

Does anyone do the clover honey in the bowl to help build the cake? One of my students gave me something that her grandfather wrote where he swears by this.

:farao:

 

[bergxu]

I tried the honey thing in my Kaywoodie. Didn't notice anything much different from just smoking out of a "naked" new bowl. Bascially I mixed a little bit of honey with some nice, fine ash and coated the inside of the bowl with it. I like honey so I figured maybe it'd "sweeten" the pipe some, but I didn't really notice anything of the sort :no: