Welcome back! Coffee pot is on the counter and I just opened a 3-year old tin of tobacco.
Hi Pappy. I’m new to pipe smoking and I keep hearing about needing to build cake in my pipe. How do I do that and how much cake do I need?
Good questions but let’s start with the easy one first. Cake is actually a carbon build-up in the bowl of a pipe. In theory, the cake does two things. 1. Protects the wood bowl from damage by the heat.; 2. Remove impurities from the burning tobacco and will deliver a sweeter, more mellow smoke. Both of those have some basis in fact.
Again, in theory, cake acts as an insulator and contributes to preventing hot spots which develops into burn-outs. But I’ve seen “properly” broken in pipes with thick cake burn out. What is often overlooked is pipes are wood which is an organic material that burns. Sometimes there are flaws in the wood that can’t be seen with the eye and those flaws can lead to a burnout.
In his book, The Perfect Smoke, Dr. Fred J. Hanna writes about his belief that building cake is only one factor in breaking in a pipe. He talks about having pipes with barely any cake smoking better than cake with a thicker build-up. What I took away from his book is that heat actually hardens the wood and that does more to prevent burnout than cake.
Think of it this way, prehistoric tribes used to fire harden hardwood poles to make spearheads. They did this by sticking the point into a fire and coals to remove the moisture from the wood and apply a light coat of carbon to it. They would then sharpen the tip with coarse stones. Basically, the heat changed the wood and made it harder with just a light coating of carbon.
Personally, I think too much is made of the process of building cake as the break-in process. I have friends who swear by the following process:
- Fill the bottom third of the pipe and smoke it. Repeat two or three times until cake coats the bottom and lower third of the bowl.
- Fill the bowl two-thirds of the way and smoke it down. Repeat a couple of times until cake starts to build.
- Fill the bowl full and smoke it.
I don’t have the patience for doing it that way. When I get a new, unsmoked pipe, I will load about a half bowl the first time but after that I just fill it and smoke it. I started smoking a pipe in 1972 and have not had one burn out on me yet.
Does Thick Cake make the pipe taste better?
The need for a thick cake as a means to make a pipe smoke more mellow or sweeter is a puzzle to me also. Think about it. Carbon is a common material used in filtration systems. When used in water systems, the carbon traps the impurities and remains in the carbon until you replace the filter. Ever hear of ghosting? That’s when the cake in your pipe absorbs so much of a particular tobacco that you taste it when smoking a different tobacco. Just that fact is enough to make me want to keep cake to a minimum and to wipe out the bowl after smoking.
In my opinion, this is why I don’t have to worry about dedication some pipes for English Blends and some for Virginias and some for aromatics. I don’t have enough cake in them to absorb too much of one flavor to the detriment of others. I also don’t find myself having to heavily ream a pipe and do a salt/alcohol treatment on my pipes.
One more thing. You only need to build up some cake in wood pipes like briar, cherry, pear, maple, etc. As I said earlier, some cake will help protect the bowl from burnouts. Building cake in meerschaum, clay or morta is not necessary or recommended. In fact, building too much cake in meerschaum or clay is reported to causing the pipes to crack. I personally think these three pipes also allow you to taste the tobacco you are smoking better because there isn’t any cake to absorb and hold previous flavors. The same holds true for properly made corncob pipes.
(© J. Gibson Creative Services Feb. 4, 2018)
Comments
Great post. Do you know why the solid majority of pipe smokers prefer briar? I don’t understand why so many people consider briar the best smoke. Briar ghosts, it needs more time to rest, it needs many smokes to be broken in, and it smokes hotter and wetter than cobs or meerschaum. It has a lot going against it, yet many people think it’s the best for some reason.
Author
The following in my opinion.
The solid majority of pipe smokers prefer briar because for over 200 years it has proven to be superior to other woods which have been used in the past – pear root, cherry, maple, etc. Does briar ghost? Yes, but so can Meerschaum and Cobs to a certain extent. Do briar need more time to rest? My grandfather smoked the briar pipe all day long without resting the pipe more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time. True, he had three pipes that he would rotate on a daily basis (smoke one all day long and smoke a different one all day the next day.) I remember him going through a 14 or 16 oz. tin of George Washington in a week. My aunt and uncle who he lived with for the last 10 years of his life, said he packed his pipe before getting out of bed and had his first smoke sitting on the toilet. He followed that with a pipe with his first cup of coffee, after breakfast, before lunch, after lunch, etc.
I have 6 Meerschaum’s and 5 cobs that I regularly smoke. The ghosting in a meer is almost non-existent depending on the tobacco and how well you wipe the bowl after smoking. Meerschaums are also less durable than briar. I have dropped a briar pipe on concrete, picked it up and smoked it. Don’t try that with meerschaum.
Corn Cobs will also ghost as it builds up cake. Corn cobs are also subject to burn-out more often than briar.
By the way, fruit woods – like cherry and pear root for example – smoke quite a bit hotter than briar and burn out faster.
Thanks for the reply. I guess my confusion is why briar is considered by most pipe smokers to be a superior smoke compared to meerschaum or cobs. Is it because briar is said to impart a flavor to the tobacco? And if so, I wonder if the taste is coming from the briar itself or if people are just getting that extra flavor from the cake they build up.
Author
There is the short, simply explanation. Personal choice of the pipe smoker.
Some just like the way the tobacco taste when smoked in a briar. Whether its the little amount of the briar they are tasting or the “ghost” from smoking the same blend in the same pipe over and over again, it adds a depth of flavor to the tobacco that is not there in a Meerschaum, Cob or even a clay pipe. Personally, I think clay pipes give you the truest tobacco flavor but I feel they get overlooked because of the negatives. Clays are extremely fragile and they get extremely hot when smoking.
Very nice article, thanks for sharing.
What kind of pipes you recommended for complete beginner.
Thanks in advance
Author
That’s a good question. I would hate to spend over a $100 dollars (US) on a pipe for a beginner just to have them smoke it once or twice and decide they don’t like pipe smoking. My first recommendation for pipe smokers in the U.S., is to find a Dr. Grabow. They are still sold in some drug stores for under $40. The fact that they have been around since the early 1940’s is an indication that they are still good smoking pipes. If your interested in getting a gift that’s would appear to be a better pipe, my recommendation would be to look for brands like Butz-Choquin, Chacom, Nording, Roma, Rossi, Ropp and Savinelli’s. That all produce good quality pipes that can be found for less than $80.
I have also given out Missouri Meerschaum corn cob pipes to people wanted to try. A Missouri Meerschaum Legend, for example, is usually found for under $8. While cheaper, a good corn cob can last for years. I currently have 5 of them that I like to use for sampling new tobacco.