Rest/rotation help needed

[Balrog314]

Hello BoB! Your expertise is required, help!

A bit of context: During the day I may smoke or not, depending on work and stuff, but the post-supper pipe is a must. I have realized all I wanna smoke those evenings is a peterson standard system 314, of which I own two. I’ve been rotating them, so each pipe is smoked once and gets a 48 hour rest.

Question 1: Is that enough?
Question 2: Should I fancy a second bowl one given night, what should I do? Smoke twice the same pipe or once each?

I should add that a fairly thorough cleaning is a mandatory part of my smoking routine, and that I let them rest without the stem as I was recommended.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Blackhorse]

Not sure there’s any rules here, maybe just common sense. If it was me, paying close attention to how your briars are reacting, I’d go with one bowl each day. I’d also strongly consider finding one or more additional pipes in your preferred design.

 

[Singed]

It's a good start. I always see 24hrs rest recommended, but I always base rest on how the pipe looks and smells when I go to use it. If the bowl still looks visibly wet or smells tarry I leave it for another pipe. The other factor I employ is how much I smoked it in a day, 2-4 bowls? Then I try to let it rest longer. This is why I started using cobs at work, they handle abuse very well, they smoke well, and they're disposable. My favourites for work are bent 5th Avenue Legends, from Missouri Meerschaum. I run at least three at a time on the work site. My briars I treat with more respect.

 

[D.L.Ruth]

I've smoked one pipe multiple times a day with no ill effect but I don't do it normally, I do try to let them dry for a day or two between smokes. Cobs for sure can be smoked and repacked all day.

 

[AlphaWarrior]

Hello BoB! Your expertise is required, help!

A bit of context: During the day I may smoke or not, depending on work and stuff, but the post-supper pipe is a must. I have realized all I wanna smoke those evenings is a peterson standard system 314, of which I own two. I’ve been rotating them, so each pipe is smoked once and gets a 48 hour rest.

Question 1: Is that enough?
Question 2: Should I fancy a second bowl one given night, what should I do? Smoke twice the same pipe or once each?

I should add that a fairly thorough cleaning is a mandatory part of my smoking routine, and that I let them rest without the stem as I was recommended.

I would just smoke them as you like, clean the system well and let dry between smokes.

Nice thing about Petes is you can break them down easily after use.

Smoke them cool to avoid burnouts; you will be good.

The upside to having a 2 pipe rotation is that your pipes will provide a better experience faster than a 30 pipe rotation because of more bowls through the pipes.

Briar Blues has a good video about why he narrowed his rotation for just this reason.

 

[Timbo]

When I'm at work, I usually smoke my Peterson system pipes hard, as in several bowls back to back hard.

You will need to give the pipe a clean after each bowl, especially the sump and stem, but Pete's can take a pounding.

 

[Zeno Marx]

You're overthinking it, and your experience is suffering for it. When I managed a shop, I had guys who only had a single pipe and would smoke 1LB/week, one pipe full after another. Another guy who was a traveling salesman in the region, and he would bring 2-4 pipes with him each day, or for 2-day runs, and he smoked from the minute he hit the car until he went to bed at night. The latter smoked nicer pipes, but neither of them had issues from oversmoking a pipe.

To be honest, I really don't know what the concern is. The briar gets soggy? A wet smoke? I know "you're not supposed to...", but ask anyone who hasn't caught wind of this rule if this has ever been a problem for them. I don't think you're going to find a lot of confirmations. I believe this is just another hobby rule created out of gear fascination and wives' tale because men love to bvllsh1t.

This might be of interest. A user on another board ran a pipe through a full cycle in a dishwasher. They were experimenting with how deeply water would penetrate briar, because everyone kept telling them how washing a pipe with soap and running water would ruin briar. After the dishwasher cycle, they bandsawed it in half, and they found that after two hours in the dishwasher, water had only penetrated 1mm into the wood. Briar is tough stuff. Unless you're a really wet, soppy smoker who puffs like crazy, I doubt you're creating more extreme conditions than a dishwasher. Two bowls in the same pipe in a single night? That ain't nothin'.

 

[Idlefellow]

I don't baby my pipes. I typically have one along while hunting or fishing and I often will knock it out and refill it immediately if the situation warrants. Two-three bowls at a setting sometimes. I haven't noticed any ill effects. But each person should do what they gotta do.

 

[Gusto]

I have to say from experience that the relative humidity on board a ship is quite a bit more than in the desert where I live now. I only had a few pipes while cruising the South China Sea and visiting the Philippines, and those pipes have survived and are still useful half a century later. It looks like the relative humidity in Girona varies from say 60% to 76%? So 48 hours rest may be more than adequate. But are your rivers well behaved? Personally I would always consider another pipe kept high and dry in case of flooding. But that is just my opinion, I have a few favorite tobaccos and many favorite pipes.

 

[Balrog314]

Wow thanks a lot for all your inputs, they are being really helpful!

As you know, nowadays the problem is not the lack of information, but the overdose of it… I have found so much info on the matter that I didn’t know what to think.

I have decided to buy a third standard 314, partly for that rest/rotation thing, but also because I’ll have them in smooth, rusticated and sandblasted finish and I quite like that. And one day the ebony maybe? And then the spigot range… Help me Lord!

No but seriously I’ll also take the advice of not worrying too much about it, and just enjoy and get to know my briars.

Thanks again to all of you, I am glad to have joined this community.